Then came the May numbers showing nearly 600,000 jobs added and the unemployment rate dropping to 5.8 percent. Nevertheless, the White House press corps is still parroting the now-moot argument that people would rather stay home than work.
In the White House briefing room on Friday, reporters peppered Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council: Does President Biden still think the “more lackluster numbers," as one questioner put it, are not related to unemployment benefits? Deese must have felt like he was in a time warp.
He politely responded that “we’re seeing really robust job growth. And we’re seeing, in fact, historic job growth in the context of historic economic growth.” He added, “We find ourselves, the American economy now, the economy is growing faster than any other major economy. Jobs are growing faster than any other major economies.”
In other words, jobs are growing strongly now, when those same unemployment benefits are available.
As for those grandstanding Republican governors cutting off enhanced benefits, Deese noted that the enhanced benefits are due to run out anyway. He explained that “none of the states have actually eliminated any benefits yet. Some states will initiate that process over the course of the next several weeks. But in many cases what we’re talking about is states making changes to benefits for four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks before the expiration that will happen under current law.”
Benefits have not changed, but we have gained a whole lot of jobs, so the GOP talking point would be, um, dead wrong, huh? Not to be dissuaded, another reporter asked, “I just want to clarify really quickly because you didn’t say yes or no. Does the president still feel that these enhanced jobless benefits are not discouraging people from finding jobs?”
Deese managed to keep a straight face. “The president identified and recognized before coming into office that there would be no economic recovery if there wasn’t a viable vaccination strategy,” he explained. “We’re seeing the progress in the vaccination strategy help to drive economic gains [and help] to make it possible for more people to feel comfortable and capable to go back to work. And we anticipate that as we continue to succeed on that front, we continue to make investments in things like school opening and child care, and otherwise, we’re going to be able to sustain this progress going forward.”
In short, the president’s theory that knocking out the pandemic, giving people money to tide them over (and juice consumer spending), and getting schools and daycare and in-class schools up and running would allow people to survive the worst of the economic downturn — and return to the workplace. That is exactly what has happened. The notion that a few hundred bucks would discourage people from working was wrong in May — and it is still wrong.
What is harder to understand is why the press corps keeps advancing a GOP talking point that has been proven false. One suspects this is, once more, the fixation on false balance. For too many reporters that means repeating baseless claims (e.g., Biden’s softer tone created the migrant surge) and ignoring the evidence when the claim is discredited. Maybe carrying the GOP’s water into the White House briefing room isn’t the most enlightening form of journalism.
Jennifer Rubin is getting her own weekly live chat, where she’ll answer questions and respond to comments from readers on the news of the week every Friday at noon. Submit yours to her first chat, launching on June 11, here.
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The press won’t let go of a Republican talking point - The Washington Post
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