Once again as expected Katie Porter did not disappoint. She used her whiteboard to explain Biden’s economy more so than most.
Katie Porter does it again
I must admit it; I get very excited whenever Congresswoman Katie Porter takes out her whiteboard. I know that it is learning time. This woman knows how to get around the minutia, as she informs. We need more politicians that can present the true Progressive policy narrative as she does.
Porter first painted the picture of how things were, concisely.
“I think it’s important to remember where we were one year ago when president Biden was sworn in,” Katie Porter said. Families were struggling to put food on the table. We were still continuing to have a lot of job losses. You know many schools were closed.”
She then told the pointed out where we are today, a much-improved situation all around.
“We are in a much much better situation today,” Porter continued. “In fact, where our economy is today is quite remarkable. And we now have, in fact, the fastest growing economy in this country that we’ve had in decades. So the American Rescue Plan which Congress passed into law very quickly upon President Biden’s election actually has resulted in really fast economic growth. So the United States today is experiencing about 5.5% growth in GDP now. When you compare this to other nations the G-7, the 7 most advanced economies in the world, our global competitors, none of them are even yet having positive GDP growth, a measure of our economy. We’re seeing the same story with unemployment. Unemployment today is down to 3.9% unemployment.”
Katie then talked in terms that the average American can understand. How did Biden help you?
“We’ve hit this 3.9 percent unemployment number two years faster than if we had not elected President Biden and we had not passed the American Rescue Plan,” Katie Porter said. “And most directly, most immediately for families, they have more money to spend each month. The average American family has 354 more dollars each month accounting for inflation. So even taking it taking into account the global disruption in the supply chain, the fact that some big corporations are price gouging consumers, even adjusting for inflation the average American has an extra 354 dollars a month and I’ll tell you that money makes a real difference to American family.”
After giving a lot more numbers that all can understand, Porter described the cost of inaction.
“I want to talk about what the costs are of not acting,” Porter said. “What the cost is of having Joe Manchin or others block action in the Senate. For example, if we do not pass legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, we are losing eight billion dollars a year. This is what it costs taxpayers because Medicare cannot negotiate drug prices. We have to pass this legislation to get this done. This is a problem even in the strongest economy because essentially we allow drug companies to hold American taxpayers hostage. Similarly on climate, if we do not pass meaningful legislation to address climate change we are spending right now 145 billion dollars a year. Cleaning up and dealing with the consequences of climate-related disasters, wildfires floods, 145 billion dollars. This price tag, the price tag of not acting makes the cost of passing this legislation look cheap. And this one is my favorite. One trillion dollars. This is the cost of not fully funding the IRS. This is the lost money”
Please watch Katie Porter’s full whiteboard performance. Please share it.