Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is placing the blame for the worst economic decline in roughly 70 years squarely on President Donald Trump.
On Thursday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shrank 9.5%, the largest decline since the government began publishing reports on the economic data, in the April-June quarter.
After the report was published, Biden released a statement where he blamed the economic decline on Trump.
“The last three months were the worst period for economic growth our nation has experienced in the 70 years since we started measuring it — a drop of nearly 33 percent,” Biden said in a tweet with a link to his statement.
“Let’s be clear: This is no act of God, it’s a failure of presidential leadership,” he added.
The last three months were the worst period for economic growth our nation has experienced in the 70 years since we started measuring it — a drop of nearly 33 percent.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 30, 2020
Let's be clear: This is no act of God, it's a failure of presidential leadership. https://t.co/pPZXkHtJcR
In his statement, Biden argued that the economic downturn, could have been avoided if Trump had taken “immediate and decisive action” at he beginning of the outbreak.
He also argued that the coronavirus death toll, which just passed another grim milestone of 150,000 deaths, could have been lower.
Biden also took aim at Congressional Republicans for “refusing to give working families the help they need today.”
“And now, Trump is failing to effectively manage our recovery — and Republicans in Congress are refusing to give working families the help they need today. We won’t get our small businesses and our workers back to full strength on denials and magical thinking — it’s going to take concerned, thoughtful, and sustained leadership. Only paying attention to the stock market and ignoring science won’t deliver progress. Giving big businesses even bigger deductions for three-martini lunches won’t help working families keep their health care, put food on the table, or pay their rent.”
Finally, Biden called for substantial economic relief for Americans and state and local governments. “We need to extend meaningful and substantial relief for workers now and ensure our states and local governments are not starved into laying off teachers, first responders, and health workers.”
“We need a massive public health response to save lives and get our economy back up to speed so we can get to work and build back better than before,” he added.
Biden’s comments come as Congressional leaders are working to hammer out a deal on a new coronavirus spending bill.
However, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin signaled that Republicans and Democrats are “very far apart” from a deal on a spending bill.
Biden has previously suggested that the economy will be “at-risk” as long as Trump is president, as IJR reported.
“Until this president faces what’s going on in this country, the economy will remain at risk,” Biden said during an event on July 2.
Those comments came after jobs report for June found that the economy added roughly five million jobs. Biden said he was “thankful” for the “positive news.”
But, he said, “Make no mistake: we’re still in a deep, deep job hole because Donald Trump has so badly bungled the response to the coronavirus.”