July 27, 2023 03:10 PM UTC

"Bidenomics" Keeps On Defying GOP Doom, Gloom

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• by: Colorado Pols

ABC News joined every business outlet in the land, even most of the Fox News family of partisan political news spin doctors, in reporting today on unassailably strong economic numbers for the first half of 2023:

U.S. economic growth accelerated over three months ending in June, blowing past economist expectations and tamping down concerns about a possible recession.

The U.S. gross domestic product grew by a 2.4% annualized rate to finish the first half of 2023, according to government data released Thursday.

The results mark an advance from the 2% annualized GDP growth recorded over the previous quarter. That growth showed a cooling from the 2.6% growth displayed in the quarter before that.

The finding of 2.4% annualized growth over the three months ending in June demonstrates that economic growth has accelerated over that period, dispelling concern among some about a fast-approaching recession.

It’s one thing of course to weaponize bad economic news for political advantage, which both sides are prone to when in the minority punching upward. But since the economy rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic, Republicans have insisted counterfactually that the economy was either headed inevitably for or already in the depths of a recession. During the 2022 U.S. Senate race in Colorado, GOP nominee Joe O’Dea railed on the campaign trail against “raising taxes in a recession,” just as the brief downturn at the beginning of 2022 was turning back toward strong growth that summer and undercutting O’Dea’s gloomy appeals to economic angst.

With nothing but growth from then until the present day, it would be beneficial for the country’s collective mental health if all sides could just be happy about the good economic news. If we can’t do that in July of an off-year, when can we? All that’s necessary is to tune out Donald Trump screeching that Bidenomics “have brought America to its knees.”

Because they haven’t.

The gap between vibes and reality may never have been greater, but Joe Biden’s economy keeps delivering.