Biden Bits: “Merry Christmas”…

December 25, 2023 12:00 pm EST Tiff Biden Tweets (Open Thread) Comments Off on Biden Bits: “Merry Christmas”…
Biden Tweets Christmas Logo. Image by Lenny Ghoul.

It’s Christmas…

via GIPHY


President Biden’s public schedule for 12/25/2023:

Pool Call TimeNo Pool Call Time
Camp David Closed Press
10:00 AM
Presidential Daily Brief		The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing
Camp David Closed Press

Inflation Tweet

From Friday…

BEA.gov said on Friday…

Personal income increased $81.6 billion (0.4 percent at a monthly rate) in November, according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (tables 2 and 3). Disposable personal income (DPI), personal income less personal current taxes, increased $71.9 billion (0.4 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $46.7 billion (0.2 percent).

The PCE price index decreased 0.1 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.1 percent (table 5). Real DPI increased 0.4 percent in November and real PCE increased 0.3 percent; goods increased 0.5 percent and services increased 0.2 percent (tables 3 and 4).

The increase in current-dollar personal income in November primarily reflected increases in compensation and personal income receipts on assets that were partly offset by a decrease in personal current transfer receipts (table 2).

The $46.7 billion increase in current-dollar PCE in November reflected an increase of $58.8 billion in spending for services and a decrease of $12.1 billion in spending for goods (table 2). Within services, the largest contributors to the increase were housing and utilities (led by housing) and food services and accommodations (led by purchased meals and beverages). Within goods, the leading contributor to the decrease was gasoline and other energy goods (led by motor vehicle fuels, lubricants, and fluids). Detailed information on monthly PCE spending can be found on Table 2.4.5U.

Personal outlays, the sum of PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments, increased $47.8 billion in November (table 2). Personal saving was $839.8 billion in November and the personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 4.1 percent (table 1).

Prices

From the preceding month, the PCE price index for November decreased 0.1 percent (table 5). Prices for goods decreased 0.7 percent and prices for services increased 0.2 percent. Food prices decreased 0.1 percent and energy prices decreased 2.7 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.1 percent. Detailed monthly PCE price indexes can be found on Table 2.4.4U.

From the same month one year ago, the PCE price index for November increased 2.6 percent (table 7). Prices for services increased 4.1 percent and prices for goods decreased 0.3 percent. Food prices increased 1.8 percent and energy prices decreased 6.0 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 3.2 percent from one year ago.

Real PCE

The 0.3 percent increase in real PCE in November reflected an increase of 0.5 percent in spending on goods and an increase of 0.2 percent in spending on services (table 4). Within goods, the leading contributors to the increase were recreational goods and vehicles (led by information processing equipment), clothing and footwear, as well as furnishings and durable household equipment. Within services, the leading contributor to the increase was food services and accommodations (led by purchased meals and beverages). Detailed information on monthly real PCE spending can be found on Table 2.4.6U.

Updates to Personal Income and Outlays

Estimates have been updated for July through October. Revised and previously published changes from the preceding month for current-dollar personal income, and for current-dollar and chained (2017) dollar DPI and PCE, are provided below for September and October.

BEA.gov. 12/22/2023.

I omitted all the data tables.

President Biden’s full statement:

Today marks a significant milestone with inflation over the last six months at the pre-pandemic level of 2 percent. Americans have seen their income grow by 3.7 percent over the last year, after adjusting for inflation. As we head into the holidays, prices are down from a year ago on important items including a gallon of gas, a gallon of milk, toys, appliances, electronics, car rentals, and airline fares.
 
A year ago, most forecasters predicted it would require a spike in joblessness and a slowdown to get inflation down. I never believed that. I never gave up on the hard work, grit, and resilience of millions of Americans. And today, six-month inflation has come down to the pre-pandemic level, the unemployment rate has stayed below 4 percent for 22 months in a row, and wages, wealth, and the share of working-age Americans with jobs are higher now than they were before the pandemic began. This reflects the hard work we did together to fix our supply chains and the surge of Americans into the workforce. It’s remarkable progress.
 
But make no mistake: while my economic plan is getting us back on track, our work is far from finished. Prices are still too high for too many Americans, and I know the strain that can put on hardworking families. That’s why I’m laser focused on lowering costs—from bringing down the price of insulin, prescription drugs, and energy, to addressing hidden junk fees companies use to rip you off, to calling on large corporations to pass savings on to consumers as their costs moderate.
 
As Americans gather to celebrate the holidays, we can be grateful for good jobs, rising wages, a growing economy, lower costs, and a new year of progress ahead of us. We can be grateful for the time we will spend with family and friends. And we can be grateful that we live in the greatest nation on earth.

White House.gov. 12/22/2023.

Tis the Season Tweets

From Friday…

The video clip is 8 seconds long. It has holiday music–and shows some Christmas decorations.

The YouTube is 8 minutes and 47 seconds long. The first 6 minutes and 13 seconds is the First Lady reading ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas aka “A Visit from St. Nicholas”. The rest of the video is President Biden thanking the staff of the children’s hospital and inviting the children to the White House next year. Their full remarks have not been posted.

From Saturday…

via GIPHY


“Bidenomics”/Look How Far We’ve Come Tweets

From Saturday…

The video clip is 1 minute and 28 seconds long. It was filmed during President Biden’s trip to Wisconsin on 12/20/2023. It’s Christmas so I’m gonna skip transcribing the video…

Hard to believe we are heading into 2024…


Christmas Eve Tweets

From Sunday…

The link takes you to a video…

The video froze my computer…

I found it on YouTube…

That did not freeze my computer…

The video clip is 3 minutes and 13 seconds long. The President and First Lady take turns reading ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas aka “A Visit from St. Nicholas”.


Merry Christmas Tweet

From Monday…

I hope everyone has a wonderful day. My world is just a bit brighter with all you in it…

via GIPHY


This is an Open Thread.


About the opinions in this article…

Any opinions expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this website or of the other authors/contributors who write for it.

About Tiff 2558 Articles
Member of the Free Press who is politically homeless and a political junkie.