As MAGAs pitch hissy fit over Taylor Swift and immigration
Axios reports this morning that our Biden-led, post-pandemic U.S. recovery is outpacing other G7 economies:
The United States economy grew faster than any other large advanced economy last year — by a wide margin — and is on track to do so again in 2024.
Why it matters: America’s outperformance is rooted in its distinctive structural strengths, policy choices, and some luck. It reflects a fundamental resilience in the world’s largest economy that is easy to overlook amid the nation’s problems.
By the numbers: U.S. GDP looks to have grown 2.5% in 2023, according to the IMF’s hot-off-the-presses World Economic Outlook, the highest among the G7 economies (Japan was second at 1.9%).
- IMF economists forecast similarly best-in-class growth this year, with 2.1% U.S. growth (second place: Canada at 1.4%).
The largest federal investments in infrastructure and manufacturing in decades, championed by the Biden administration, contributed significantly.
Growth in the U.S labor force also helped, Axios adds, “both due to more Americans choosing to enter the workforce and a surge in immigration.” Read that again.
Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics (no, not that one) tells Axios:
- “The enormous labor market churn of COVID in 2020-21 had the unintended benefit of moving millions of lower income workers to better jobs, more income security, and/or running their own businesses,” Posen tells Axios.
- “We are reaping the benefits of it now in labor force participation, wage growth, and improved productivity,” which was “very different from Europe and Japan where most workers remained tied to their pre-COVID jobs.”
Meantime, House Republicans refuse to do productive legislative work for which you and I are paying them.
The GOP-led House Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday passed two articles of impeachment against Alejandro N. Mayorkas, Biden’s homeland security secretary, the New York Times reports, despite lack of evidence “of a crime or acts of corruption.” Republicans on the panel argue “that the Biden administration border policies he implemented ran afoul of the law. Legal scholars, including prominent conservatives, have argued that the effort is a perversion of the constitutional power of impeachment, and Democrats remained solidly opposed (New York Times):
In an 18-to-15 party-line vote, the panel endorsed a resolution charging Mr. Mayorkas with refusing to uphold the law and breaching the public trust by failing to choke off a surge of migrants across the United States border with Mexico.
That, as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) refuses to take up any remedy for border security. Rep. Robert Menendez (D) of New Jersey let loose on his GOP colleagues.
Clowns to the left of him, jokers to the right.
The GOP has no king but orange Jesus, and no policies to run on in 2024 except immigration and being against wholesome, Disney-esque romance.