1

I was listening to the debate and they mentioned auto jobs and I was curious what the actual data looked like. The graph comes from the BLS so should be pretty accurate.

We see jobs decreasing before and certainly during the 2008 recession. Then, the jobs slowly build up until 2019 when they level off before the Covid drop.

So under Obama we saw steady growth that Trump continued at about the same rate but once 2019 hit it leveled off. By that measure, it certainly doesn’t look like Trump has outperformed Obama. Slight underperforming by comparison.

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2

Looks like somewhere in 2019 things started dropping slightly and leveled off right before COVID. It has come back, but seems to early to see what kind of new trend is forming.

3

The graph for US manufacturing, same BLS source, follows the same pattern so Trump continued the similar rise started by Obama and then leveled off in 2019. Hard to claim Trump is better than Obama in manufacturing job growth.

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4

Wasn’t the auto bailout when they handed out $13.4 billion to the auto industries signed by Bush Jr and went in effect in 2009?

5

I think you have it correct. I approved of that bailout and the end results were quite positive.

6

Part of the story.

Effects of the 2008–2010 automotive industry crisis on the United States - Wikipedia.

Also, every major Republican pundit including our illustrious, dapper and handsome host were vociferously against the auto bailout that ended up saving millions of jobs and the government making some money back on. It was a rousing success and went 100% against Republican orthodoxy.

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7

Well, that was centuries ago when deficits and debt mattered.

8

I just had a flashback of Biden’s quote around 2012 as to why Obama deserves re-election - Because Bin Laden is dead and GM is alive

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