AP FACT CHECK: Biden puffs up claims of virus, job gains
President Joe Biden leaves after a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a self-appraisal that didn’t always fit with the facts, President Joe Biden on Wednesday made the dubious assertion that he’s outperformed all expectations on the pandemic in his first year and inflated his contribution to COVID-era economic growth.
A look at some of Biden’s comments in a news conference that stretched for nearly two hours:
PANDEMIC
BIDEN on COVID-19: “I didn’t overpromise. I have probably outperformed what anybody thought would happen.”
THE FACTS: That’s a stretch. The month before the election, he vowed: “I’m going to shut down the virus, not the country.” The pandemic is obviously far from being shut down — instead it’s been surging. The world may be headed to a future in which the virus becomes a manageable risk, not one in which it vanishes.
It is not true that he has outperformed everyone’s expectations on the coronavirus. Vaccine supplies have been a success; COVID-19 tests have been a widely acknowledged failure that the administration is trying to fix by making the tests free and sending them to homes. Biden conceded Wednesday that more tests should have been available sooner.
Biden himself set higher expectations than have been met when he held a July 4 event headlined a celebration of “Independence Day and Independence from COVID-19.” His remarks acknowledged the rising delta variant while stating “we’re closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus.”
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BIDEN: “We just made surprise medical bills illegal in this country.”
THE FACTS: He ignores the fact that President Donald Trump signed that consumer protection into law before leaving office in December 2020. The achievement is Trump’s.
The act prevents patients from being hit with “surprise” medical bills if they seek emergency care from a health provider that is not in their insurance plan’s network. It also protects patients from unanticipated charges if an out-of-network medical provider works on a patient at an in-network hospital. It requires hospitals, doctors and insurers to sort out those charges in a resolution process.
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Biden’s administration developed rules implementing the law over the past year, before it took effect Jan. 1.
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ECONOMY
BIDEN: “We created 6 million new jobs, more jobs in one year than any time before.”
THE FACTS: He’s taking too much credit. As Trump did before him, Biden makes some grandiose economic claims that gloss over one central reason for historic growth — the U.S. population is far larger than in past decades (and continued to grow last year, despite COVID-19 deaths).
The economy added 6.4 million jobs in 2021, the most on government records dating back to 1939, but part of that is just a natural rebound from what had been the steepest job loss on record in 2020, when 9.4 million jobs were cut.
And since the late 1970s, the U.S. population has grown by more than 100 million people, so any hiring surge under Biden will be larger in raw numbers than that achieved by his predecessors. On a percentage basis, the number of jobs in the U.S. grew 4.5% in 2021. That is still a sizeable increase — the biggest since 1978 — but not a record-breaker.
Many economists do credit Biden’s $1.9 trillion financial rescue package, approved in March, for accelerating growth and hiring, but some also blame it for fueling a surge in demand that overwhelmed supply chains and pushed inflation up to four-decade highs.
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Associated Press writers Hope Yen and Calvin Woodward in Washington and David Klepper in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — A look at the veracity of claims by political figures.
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7 Risk-Off Stocks to Buy as Inflation Remains at Record Levels
Inflation has gone from a transitory problem that would take care of itself to an existential threat that is moving the Federal Reserve to take swift, aggressive action. In January 2022, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed inflation in the United States was at its highest level since 1982.
And the market is reacting predictably with what appears to be a shift from risk-on to risk-off assets. This is having a negative effect on many stocks, particularly in the tech sector, that are no longer justifying their extended valuations.
But investors are also seeing a drop in cryptocurrency prices and other speculative assets. This may be a short-term phenomenon, but if you’re an investor looking at how to make money in 2022; it’s time to get a little defensive. But playing defense doesn’t mean accepting mediocre growth. It simply means moving into stocks and sectors that are likely to benefit from high inflation and rising interest rates.
That’s the focus of this special presentation. We invite you to consider these seven risk-off stocks that look like strong candidates to increase in value even as inflation remains high.
View the “7 Risk-Off Stocks to Buy as Inflation Remains at Record Levels”.
