Are You Better Off Now Than Four Years Ago?

Former President Donald J. Trump lately has started his mass rallies just right.

“I would like to begin by asking you a very simple question,” Trump said Sunday in Macon, Georgia. “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

The crowd screamed in unison: “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

For nearly every American and by almost any measure, things have deteriorated dramatically since Trump built a peaceful, prosperous, and safe nation — at least until COVID wrecked everything. Through a mix of incompetence and malice, Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden reversed countless reforms that Trump implemented. The result? A widespread shambles that is grimly impressive in its scope.

Contrasting data from Jan. 20, 2021 — Trump’s final day in office — to today reveals a nation in decline. America’s next move is the biggest mystery that voters will solve on Tuesday.

Kamala legitimately can boast about the financial markets. On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had risen 34.8 percent above its Jan. 20, 2021 close. The S&P 500 had climbed 48.7 percent, and the Nasdaq Stock Market had advanced 35.5 percent. Not a bad benchmark for a far-left Democrat whose alleged private-sector experience (McDonald’s) cannot be confirmed.

But how does Kamala’s market growth differ from Trump’s? While the Dow advanced 42.9 percent during Trump’s first three years and 10 months, it increased just 34.8 percent during the same timeframe under Kamala. Essentially, these assets grew 18.9 percent less swiftly under Kamala than during the Trump administration.

The S&P 500 was 10.9 percent more sluggish under Kamala, and the Nasdaq crawled forward 68.9 percent more glacially than under Trump. If you like cruising Interstate highways at 20.2 miles per hour rather than the 65 miles per hour speed limit, Kamala has an electric vehicle for you.

Inflation is America’s universal headache. When Trump departed in January 2021, year-over-year prices grew painlessly at 1.4 percent. Under Kamala, that number is now 2.4 percent. That’s 71.4 percent more inflation than Trump bequeathed. Thanks largely to Kamala’s tie-breaking Senate votes for trillions in government largesse, inflation zoomed to 9.1 percent in June 2022 before drifting back to Earth after the Federal Reserve pumped the monetary brakes.

During Trump’s first 45 months as president, inflation totaled 7.1 percent, or 1.9 percent average annual growth in the Consumer Price Index. Kamala’s equivalent data is far worse: 20.1 percent and 5.4 percent.

This inflation disease explains why Americans feel so light in their wallets. Real (inflation-adjusted) median household income inched up 1.3 percent between 2021 and 2023 — from $79,560 to $80,610. However, real average hourly earnings slipped from $11.39 to $11.23 under Kamala — 1.4 percent lower. Meanwhile, real average weekly earnings slid from $398.71 to $385.09 — down 3.4 percent.

$385.09 a week? The last two compensation figures look skimpy because economists express them in constant 1982–1984 dollars. Re-read this passage while listening to Donald Fagen’s Nightfly album, Duran Duran’s Rio, or Michael Jackson’s monster-smash LP Thriller, and everything’s gonna be alright. (Side note: recently deceased music legend Quincy Delight Jones produced Jackson’s groundbreaking album, amid countless other achievements. R.I.P.)

Kamala can trumpet improvements in unemployment now versus the last day Trump jetted to Palm Beach aboard Air Force One. Joblessness has fallen from 6.7 percent on that day to 4.1 percent now. Female unemployment is 42.9 percent lower, likewise for blacks (down 42.4 percent), Hispanics (down 13.6 percent), and Asian-Americans (down 58.1 percent).

While this is impressive on the surface, an inconvenient truth lurks just behind these figures: Trump left the White House during the massive, job-crushing COVID global pandemic, which was totally beyond his control. With that catastrophe finally in the rearview mirror, Kamala’s employment situation looks splendid. This reality recalls President John F. Kennedy’s timeless observation: “Life isn’t fair.”

Between his inauguration and Oct. 30, 2020, Trump added $7.18 trillion to the national debt. (Alas, COVID slapped twin Saturn V rockets onto federal spending and borrowing.) That’s when Kamala further fueled the debt by adding $8.19 trillion — a 14.1 percent faster liftoff toward a fiscal black hole.

To combat the ensuing Kamalaflation, the Federal Reserve spiked the 30-year mortgage rates, before easing them slightly. Nonetheless, like inflation, interest rates remain higher than when Trump ruled. A 30-year mortgage was 2.79 percent when he exited. Today, that rate is 6.54 percent. With home loans now 134.4 percent higher than when Kamala waltzed in, home ownership now eludes millions of frustrated potential buyers. A 24.2 percent increase in median home costs (from $338,600 to $420,400) intensifies this nightmare.

Food prices have made Kamalaflation indigestible. Compared to January 2021, milk is up 15.9 percent, bacon 19.3 percent, sirloin steak 28.8 percent, ground beef 30.2 percent, and eggs are up a brain-scrambling 160.6 percent.

Kamala promises to fix this by stopping alleged price gouging by greedy grocers. (How odd that their greed kicked in only when Kamala took power.) But for that to work, Kamala first must establish fair costs for items on store shelves and determine from what acceptable price tags they have been gouged.

For instance, what is the social justice price for a pork chop? Does that price increase the further a supermarket is from hog farms since transportation expenses would increase? Would the “Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Meat Production” set the equity-inducing pork chop price, or would the FBI do this? Who would police that price at America’s 62,383 grocery stores? Of the 39,500 items at a typical Safeway or Whole Foods, how many would be subject to federal supervision? Does any of this involve search warrants? And do “greedy” grocers go to federal prison if they resist the Pork Chop Patrol? Has Kamala thought even this hard about her brilliant idea?

Kamala has shrunk the Strategic Petroleum Reserve by 39.5 percent. Regardless, crude oil costs 28 percent more. Gasoline is up 34.4 percent. Electricity is 30.9 percent pricier.

Minds are closing under Kamala. Scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress between 2019 and its latest sitting in 2022 have slid. Average fourth-grade math is down 2.1 percent. Reading is down 1.4 percent. Eighth-grade scores skidded 2.8 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively.

Despite the Left’s shrill lies about “falling lawlessness,” the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer confirms that Sheriff Kamala has made America far more dangerous. In January 2021, when Sheriff Trump wielded his badge, 238,498 violent offenses transpired. The most recent data shows 374,047 violent offenses in December 2023 — up 56.8 percent. Homicides in January 2021 stood at 1,485. Last December there were 2,115 — up 42.4 percent. (RELATED: FBI Caught Gaslighting the Public With Bogus Crime Stats)

Perpetrating pure evil, Border Czarina Kamala Harris deliberately obliterated the U.S.–Mexico frontier while relentlessly duping taxpayers. “The border is secure,” Kamala disinformed the American people on Sept. 11, 2022 — among many other deceptions.

During their first 43 respective months in office, Border Patrol agents apprehended 2,554,478 illegal aliens under Trump. While Kamala slept, 8,427,854 were encountered — up 229.9 percent. Border Patrol nabbed 11 on the terrorist watch list while Trump was on patrol. As Kamala snored, 385 attempted to cross — up 3,400 percent.

Unlike Kamala’s squalid, deadly record, Donald J. Trump wants to take the USA back to the future. He plans to restore the public policies that made this country sparkle before Cackling Kamala and Crooked Joe made it rust.

“America’s future will be bigger, better, bolder, brighter, happier, stronger, freer, greater, and more united than ever before,” Trump declares in a spectacular campaign-closing ad. “And we will make America great again!”

But first, as this spot recommends, citizens must do one thing: “Go Vote.”

Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News contributor.

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