Biden is fact-checked by Twitter for wrongly boasting that real wages are higher than before the pandemic because of ‘Bidenomics’ – when they are LOWER

As team Biden tries to capitalize on improving economic numbers and lean towards “Bidenomics,” Elon Musk’s Twitter added a fact-check to the president’s Sunday tweet about improving real wages.

It accused President Joe Biden of making a “factual error” in his claim that real wages were now higher than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data signaled by Twitter users showed that real wages – adjusted for inflation – were higher than today at the end of March 2020.

Republicans seized on the numbers to insist that Biden is out of touch with the economic realities facing ordinary Americans, though the president’s allies said the correct comparison came a month earlier when real wages were indeed lower.

The dispute came days after the release of the June consumer price index, which showed inflation had fallen to three percent.

His claim that real wages (i.e. wages adjusted for inflation) are better now than they were at the start of the pandemic was contradicted by Twitter, which said it contained a “factual error.”

“Right now, real wages for the average American worker are higher than they were before the pandemic, with lower-paid workers making the biggest gains,” said a message posted on Biden’s Twitter account on Sunday afternoon. “That’s Bidenomics.”

After months of economic gloom, with rising inflation and crippling gas prices, officials believe they now have a good story to tell.

But Twitter users quickly disagreed.

“Since Biden took office, prices are up 16.6% and real wages are down 3%,” posted Tommy Pigott of the Republican National Committee’s rapid response unit.

“That’s the reality of Bidenomics.”

Twitter’s Community Notes quickly added context saying, “The tweet’s claim about real wages contains a factual error.”

On 3/15/20, when the US COVID lockdowns began, real wages adjusted for inflation (AFI) were $11.15. As of 7/16/23, real wages are AFI $11.05.

“Real wages AFI remain lower (not higher) than before the pandemic.”

It included links to a Centers for Disease Control timeline that showed states began enacting closures in the middle of the month, and that in late March and data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that showed real wages at the end of the month on the figure of $11.15.

Biden recently touted his policies as ‘Bidenomics’, taking credit for falling inflation

The latest Wall Street Journal survey of economists found their average probability prediction of a recession in the next 12 months dropped from 61 percent to 54 percent

But the same chart also showed wages at $11.03 at the end of February, after the first cases were detected in the US.

A White House official told DailyMail.com that the National Bureau of Economic Research indicated the month marked a business cycle spike.

“So it’s the right starting point for pre-pandemic comparisons,” the official said.

After spending two years on the defensive, Biden has argued in recent weeks that his policies have preserved a healthy job market and kept the economy on track.

“Today’s report provides new and encouraging evidence that inflation is falling while our economy remains strong,” he said last week when releasing encouraging inflation data.

“Our progress in creating jobs and reducing costs for families is no coincidence, and I will continue to fight every day to lower costs for families.”

More than half of voters say they are worse off since he came to power – some 43 percent say they are much worse off and another 9 percent consider themselves ‘a little worse off’

But Republicans see weakness in trying to oust him from the White House.

A recent poll for DailyMail.com found that voters believe they are worse off since he took office.

Overall, some 43 percent of Americans say they’re “a lot worse off” since Biden took office, and another 9 percent call themselves “a little worse off.”

Still, Biden is leaning towards the issue and has put the economy at the center of recent campaign appearances.

That has sometimes given him trouble with fact-checkers. In June, he claimed to have cut the deficit by $1.7 trillion,

In June, Biden claimed he had cut the deficit by $1.7 trillion, which the Washington Post deemed “highly misleading” because the deficit would have fallen sharply anyway if pandemic spending ended.