White House OMB director repeats 'misleading' claim that Biden created 15 million new jobs
White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shalanda Young repeated a common refrain from the Biden administration that multiple fact-checkers have labeled misleading or lacking context.
Young said during Thursday's hearing on the administration's $7.3 trillion budget that President Biden added 15 million jobs and that unemployment has been at a 50-year historic low for the last two years.
"I get why people don’t want to give the president credit for 15 million jobs added, for unemployment being at a 50-year historic low. … I get the grandstanding," Young said during questioning by Rep. Bob Good, R-Va. "But if you want to do something about the border ... there was a bill right in front of Congress."
"But we choose to come in rooms like this to talk about the budget in question," she continued.
Though around 15 million jobs have been created since Biden took office, according to several fact-checking media outlets, taking credit for that record is not so clear-cut.
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Snopes reported on Thursday that Biden's claim is a "mixture" of true and false.
According to the fact-checking outlet, early data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found the number of employed individuals increased from around 142.9 million in January 2021, when Biden assumed office, to approximately 157.8 million in February 2024, marking a significant surge of 14.9 million jobs.
However, the outlet said this apparent growth can be "misleading" without considering the broader context. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic's onset in the U.S., employment figures stood at 152.3 million in February 2020. In the subsequent two months, however, this number plummeted by 21.9 million to 130.4 million.
According to Factcheck.org, while the Biden administration did add just under 15 million new jobs, this figure also falls short of claiming the highest job growth rate achieved by any president during that time frame.
And a Washington Post analysis of Biden's State of the Union speech this month noted that he was comparing the job numbers from the first three years of his term with the complete four-year terms of past presidents. The outlet also reported the comparison is "misleading" due to its lack of context. The Post analysis asserted that uncertainties remain about what might unfold in the final year of his term that could influence the final number of jobs — just like the COVID-19 pandemic erased former President Trump's jobs gains.
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Biden’s $7.3 trillion budget plan, which he unveiled this month, includes proposals to hike taxes on corporations and high-income households. It lays out roughly $5 trillion in tax increases overall, which the White House said would be split evenly between corporations and the top 2% of earners.
It also aims to push forward his progressive policies, like dedicating $8 billion over 10 years to the American Climate Corps and $3 billion for the Green Climate Fund, which aims to help developing countries fight climate change.
The budget proposal also includes $1.8 billion to boost development programs in the STEM fields that have an emphasis on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.
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Congressional leaders are beginning to discuss the road map to funding fiscal 2025 even as negotiations continue on how to fund the rest of fiscal 2024, which began on Oct. 1, 2023.
Fox News' Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.