Thread by @TheValuesVoter

I wanted to take an empirical look at various aspects of the state of the country at this point in Biden's term and compare it to both this same point in Trump's term and where the country was when Trump left and Biden took over.

Here's what I came up with. References included.

During Biden's term so far, America has had two straight quarters of greater than 6% GDP growth, the latest being at 6.6%. At this point four years ago, the GDP growth was 2.3%.

The US has seen 4.454 million jobs added to US payrolls since 02/2021. Four years ago it was 1.312M.

The most recent unemployment rate is higher (5.2%) than it was four years ago (4.4%). We did have a recession last year and this was not the situation in 2017.

More Americans think it's a good time to find a good job than was the case four years ago.

The Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate, which is the percentage of the population of working age who are in the work force, is a little less today than it was four years ago (61.7% versus 62.9%).

The National Debt has grown by a greater % now than at this point in 2017.

For most of Biden's term in office, the growth in the Dow has outpaced the growth at the same point during Trump's term four years ago. Recent concerns about the Delta virus caused a decline in the market and now the Dow growth is a little less than it was at this point in 2017.

Biden's current Gallup approval rating is the lowest of his term so far but it's still higher than Trump's was at this same point four years ago.

The price of gas has risen a good bit. Milk has risen only a little bit. Bread has risen by a relatively small amount.

Now when you take a look at what Biden inherited when he came to office in January 2021 and what Trump inherited when he came to office in January 2017, there are some notable differences.

Biden inherited from Trump nearly $8 trillion in additional national debt than Trump inherited from Obama.

The Federal Budget Deficit that Biden inherited from Trump is nearly five times the Deficit that Trump inherited from Obama.

Trump inherited more than 6 years of continual job growth. Biden inherited none as the most recent job report that had been released as of the date he took office had a loss of 306,000 jobs.

Trump inherited a Bull Market that had been running for 7 years and 11 months. Biden inherited a Bull Market that had been in place for less than 1 year.

And when Trump took office, the last recession officially ended 7 1/2 years beforehand. When Biden took office, the last recession ended just over half a year beforehand.

In the time since the Inauguration, GDP growth has risen from 4.5% to 6.6%.

The unemployment rate has fallen from 6.7% to 5.2%.

In January, not many Americans thought it was a good time to try to find a good job (27%). By August, the most recent poll, 72% thought it was.

The Dow has grown by low double digits in the months since Inauguration.

However, the number of people who have been caught at the Southwest Border (US/Mexico) has risen considerably.

The Inauguration occurred 9 days after the statistical peak of COVID deaths in the United States (7 day rolling average). A lot of people died in the beginning of the year. And as the more contagious Delta virus began to dominate in July, the deaths have increased again.

The number of people who are dying from COVID is significant again. However, unlike in earlier parts of the pandemic, the people who are dying are almost exclusively (percentage-wise) unvaccinated. And a significant percentage of Americans have chosen to remain unvaccinated.

The percentage of Americans who have been partially and fully vaccinated has increased significantly. However, daily vaccinations peaked in mid-April. As I have pointed out before, there is a significant difference in the COVID death rates between states.

Gas prices have risen significantly over the course of the year. Milk has risen very modestly. The price of bread has actually fallen.

So this is the data that I could collect that laid out where we are, where we were four years ago and where we were in January in these areas.

The economic indicators for jobs and the market are positive. A lot of people feel good about their prospect of getting a good job. The economy is growing. And millions of people who were not working in January have jobs now.

The cost of some items, especially gas, has gone up.

The numbers of people attempting to cross the US/Mexico border has gone up. If you look at the official numbers, you will see that an uptick in border encounters began last October. But it has definitely increased since January.

From January through May of this year, the border traffic mirrored a similar surge in 2019 during Trump's third year in office. But after May, 2019, the numbers came down. In 2021, they have stayed rather high.

If you compare the situation that Biden inherited in 2021 with that which Trump inherited in 2017, the contrast could not be greater. Trump inherited a long-stable economy, a much lower National Debt and Deficit and did not inherit a pandemic that was killing thousands a day.

This is as much of an apples-to-apples comparison as I was able to put together so far to compare where we are with where we were, what Biden and Trump dealt with when taking office and what's changed since January, all in numbers that you can confirm for yourselves.