Speaking at a campaign event for Pennsylvania senate candidate John Fetterman on Saturday (November 5), former President Barack Obama praised President Joe Biden for keeping unemployment low and fixing the economy, despite inflation being 8.2 percent.
Speaking at the event held in Philadelphia, Obama said, “Think about what Joe Biden has already got accomplished.”
The former President noted: “Despite the historic pandemic, he not only repaired the economy and kept unemployment low, which, by the way, you should not take for granted, because a lot of folks thought with a historic pandemic like that and the shutdown, that we would potentially go into a Great Depression, and we did not.”
Obama explained that Biden had “lowered health care and prescription drug costs” and touted the infrastructure bill the President had signed, saying it would “put more folks here in Pennsylvania and around the country to work and make our economy stronger.”
Obama then promised that if voters “help Democrats keep the House and get a few more seats in the Senate,” Biden would be able to “make more progress on the issues you care about.”
The unemployment rate increased to 3.7 percent from 3.5 percent in September, despite the economy adding roughly 260,000 non-farm jobs, which is more than pundits expected.
Yet, the economy hasn’t fared nearly as well under Biden. Since taking office in January 2021, the Consumer Price Index, which measures groceries, rents, and gasoline stood at 1.4 percent on an annualized basis; it currently stands at 8.2 percent — a 6.8 percentage point increase.
