15,000 or hundreds of millions of jobs … say what?

This is one of the most difficult pieces I have ever had to write, mostly because Joe Biden’s debate performance Thursday night was so completely incoherent that the only thing I took away after watching it live was that he is not fit to be anywhere near the presidency.

But as the economy is the most important issue to Americans today and will be a big factor on the ballot in November, I have gone back to try to recap some of the malarkey that did come out of Biden’s mouth … at least when he wasn’t staring into the air.

Biden’s rambling and incoherent effort was a reminder that he isn’t fit to run a homeowners' association, much less a global superpower.

Jobs. There were a ton of strange numbers that Biden touted. First, he came out saying he created “15,000 jobs.” While he probably meant 15 million, that would have been a giant stretch of the truth. As Donald Trump noted in his rebuttals, jobs that were reclaimed because of the pandemic shutdowns ending hardly count as “job creation.” If a house burns down and one is rebuilt in its place, a new home hasn’t been created.

Moreover, under Biden, the economy has recently been losing full-time jobs and gaining part-time jobs. Native-born Americans have not seen much in terms of job gains, with most gains going to immigrants — and there is no clear breakdown of how those jobs split between legal and illegal immigrants.

Biden later in the debate claimed to create “thousands of millions” of jobs. One thousand times one million would be a billion, so he was claiming to create billions of jobs, which is fairly demonstrative of the type of fantasy land in which Biden currently lives.

Taxes. Another favorite line of the night was when Biden claimed we had “a thousand trillionaires” in America — perhaps his projection of the rampant inflation experienced under his administration?

Of course, Biden also mentioned that Trump had provided and would provide more tax cuts for Americans. I am not sure he realized that Americans want to keep their own money.

What Biden got wrong was that the previous tax cuts benefitted most Americans and also bolstered government revenue (which is probably why he never sought to overturn them).

Then Biden highlighted that he planned to raise taxes. Given the economic pain Americans are feeling, more taxes are the last thing most people want to hear.

Inflation. Biden first claimed there was no inflation when he came into office. There was, in fact, a low rate of inflation when he came into office, and that’s a good thing. In fact, it’s much better than the stated 20% inflation under his tenure, which we all know likely had a real impact of at least double that on Americans.

Biden claims that low inflation was because the economy was in shambles. With the exception of the COVID mandates, an unusual outlier “emergency” event that would not be counted by any real statistician, Americans and the economy did well overall under Trump’s tenure. Under Biden, inflation reached levels higher than we’ve seen in four decades.

The one number Biden didn’t address is Democrat California Governor Gavin Newsom’s hugely increased odds of winning the Democratic Party’s nomination on PredictIt as the debate went on, meaning that individuals are putting money on Biden dropping out — or being removed from the race.

There was no way Biden could legitimately defend his economic record. Now, his rambling and incoherent attempts may make people temporarily forget about the pain in their wallets and only remind them that the man isn’t fit to run a homeowners' association, much less a global superpower.