Maddow Blog | Biden-era economic growth leaves Republicans literally speechless

Over the last couple of years, a reliable pattern has taken shape. On the first Friday of the month, new job numbers are released, and lately, the data has looked great. Despite the importance of the issue, Republican leaders inevitably respond to the developments by pretending not to notice them.

But as it turns out, it’s not just low unemployment that leaves GOP leaders literally speechless.

Americans learned this week that economic growth in the final three months of 2023 easily outpaced modest expectations, and GDP growth across the entire year was quite good — despite overwhelming chatter a year ago about a looming recession.

The New York Times’ Paul Krugman, taking stock of the data, concluded that President Joe Biden “couldn’t have asked for better numbers.” Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG, told the Times the economic news was “stunning and spectacular.”

Naturally, I was curious how Republicans would respond to the news. A few options came to mind.

Maybe leading GOP officials would make the case that the robust economic recovery is nice, but President Joe Biden doesn’t deserve any credit. Perhaps they’d argue that it’s too soon to applaud good news since there’s still plenty of economic work to do. Maybe they’d argue that the United States economy is a massive beast, and it’s unrealistic to think a White House agenda is uniquely responsible for year-to-year shifts.

But as it turns out, Republicans went with the same approach they use in response to robust job growth: They simply ignored the good news, as if it didn’t happen.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell didn’t bother to issue any kind of statement. Nothing from House Speaker Mike Johnson, either. The Republican National Committee didn’t say anything, and similarly, Donald Trump and Nikki Haley ignored the economic progress.

There’s no great mystery here. Party leaders have almost certainly concluded that if they were to comment on the good news, more Americans might hear about it — and that’s the last thing the GOP wants. There’s political utility in simply looking the other way.

But the Republicans’ silence doesn’t change the fact that the latest economic data is worth celebrating, even if some political partisans hope the public doesn’t notice.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com