After amazing job numbers were released this morning, President Joe Biden seemed understandably eager to take a victory lap. The White House issued this written statement after the public saw the heartening data:
“Today, the unemployment rate matches the lowest it’s been in more than 50 years: 3.5%. More people are working than at any point in American history. That’s millions of families with the dignity and peace of mind that a paycheck provides. And, it’s the result of my economic plan to build the economy from the bottom up and middle out. I ran for president to rebuild the middle class — there’s more work to do, but today’s jobs report shows we are making significant progress for working families.”
If it seems like this is the capstone on a pretty great week for the Democratic president, it’s not your imagination. Consider the developments from the last several days:
- Congress sent the CHIPS and Science Act to the White House for Biden’s signature.
- Biden ordered a strike that killed al Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri.
- The White House celebrated a big victory for reproductive rights in Kansas.
- Congress sent the PACT Act to the White House for Biden’s signature.
- The Biden administration announced that U.S. uninsured rate has fallen to an all-time low.
- Democrats secured the votes needed to approve an ambitious Inflation Reduction Act.
- The Labor Department released data showing blockbuster job growth.
- Gas prices fell steadily for the seventh consecutive week.
Not bad for a seven-day stretch.
To be sure, Biden isn’t winning any popularity contests right now. It’s tough for any White House to be too pleased when the president’s approval rating is below 40 percent.
What’s more, whether these successes are reaching the public — in early August, which is a tough time to get people’s attention — is unclear. But as a substantive matter, there’s no denying the fact that Biden and his allies have put together a string of important wins after much of the political world assumed that the president and his party were stuck in the mud.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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