ATLANTA: Donald Trump accused Joe Biden on Thursday of doing a “poor job” on the US economy and of presiding over a disastrous rise in inflation — reflecting how rising prices and the cost of living have become key issues ahead of November’s presidential election.

“He has not done a good job. He’s done a poor job,” Trump said during CNN’s head-to-head debate with Biden in Atlanta, Georgia. “And inflation is killing our country. It is absolutely killing us.

“I gave him a country with essentially no inflation. It was perfect. It was so good, all he had to do is leave it alone.” he added. “He destroyed it“

In response to Trump’s attacks on his record, Biden said Trump had “absolutely decimated” the US economy when he was president.

“There was no inflation when I became president. You know why? The economy was flat on its back,” he said, adding that his administration had helped create “millions” of new jobs, including in minority communities.

Americans have named inflation or the cost of living as “the most important financial problem facing their family,” in each of the last three years, according to a recent poll from the Washington-based firm Gallup.

Perhaps more worryingly for Biden, 46 percent of adults in the United States said they have “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of confidence in Trump to do or recommend the right thing for the economy, while just 38 percent said the same thing about the current president, according to another Gallup poll.

While it is true that US consumer inflation jumped sharply after Biden took office, hitting a multi-decade high in 2022, the rise was largely fueled by a post-pandemic supply crunch and by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In response, the US Federal Reserve hiked its key lending rate from almost zero to a two-decade high of between 5.25 and 5.50 percent — where it has remained for the past year.

Higher interest rates cool down the economy by raising borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, indirectly impacting everything from mortgage rates to auto loans.

Inflation has eased sharply since the Fed started hiking rates, but remains stuck stubbornly above its long-term target of two percent — keeping the US central bank on pause as it waits for more positive data.

Because inflation has remained high for a number of years, consumer prices have now risen by around 20 percent since January 2021, when Biden took office, according to the Labor Department’s consumer price index (CPI) inflation calculator.

In contrast, consumer prices rose by less than six percent during the same timeframe under Trump.

Although Congress has given the Fed the mandate to tackle inflation on its own, it is still a difficult topic for Biden, who has looked to talk up his economic record ahead of November’s election.

The Fed expects inflation will continue to ease this year and next, before hitting its long-term target of two percent in 2026.

But the path to two percent will likely depend on who becomes president in November — and which parties will control the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Trump has suggested that, if he wins the election, he will look to extend a series of tax cuts made under his leadership, severely restrict immigration, deport some foreign-born illegal immigrants and slap tariffs on all US imports.

These policies would all “likely be inflationary,” by putting up prices, placing upward pressure on wages and boosting adding to the nation’s debt, JP Morgan economists wrote in a recent note to clients.

As things stand, Republican control of the House, Senate and the White House is not the most likely scenario come November, Oxford Economics lead US economist Bernard Yaros wrote in a recent note to clients.

“If Biden is reelected but presides over a divided government, the upside risk potential to the economy from fiscal policy is limited,” he said.

“If Trump returns to the White House with a divided government, he will have a tougher time enacting his fiscal agenda,” he added.

WASHINGTON: Democratic US President Joe Biden and his Republican rival Donald Trump took the stage on Thursday night for a debate that offered voters a rare side-by-side look at the two oldest candidates ever to seek the US presidency.
Here are some of the major takeaways:

HOARSE AND BUGGY
The leading question going into the debate was how the two men, both of whom have faced questions about their fitness for the job, would handle themselves on stage.
The early going favored Trump, 78, who appeared forceful and energetic when compared to the 81-year-old Biden, who spoke in a hoarse, halting voice and coughed regularly.
The White House said during the debate that the president was suffering from a cold.
Biden began to find his footing later in the debate as he attacked Trump’s character. “The idea that I would apologize to you?” Biden asked at one point, incredulous after Trump accused him of mistreating veterans.
“You’re the sucker. You’re the loser,” Biden told Trump.
Each suggested the other was a criminal.
“The only person on this stage who is a convicted felon is the man I’m looking at right now,” Biden said and then accused Trump of having sex with porn star Stormy Daniels.
The bad blood between the two men was on display from the start when they eschewed the traditional handshake. Biden frequently referred to Trump as “this guy” and chuckled at some of his opponent’s more hyperbolic statements.

SPARRING OVER THE ECONOMY
Both candidates blamed the other for the number one issue on voters’ minds: inflation.
Biden accused Trump of leaving him a “terrible” economy in response to the moderators’ first question about rising prices paid by consumers.
Trump replied that Biden’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic was a “disaster” and said inflation was “absolutely killing us.”
He blamed the pandemic for wrecking the economy and his shot at re-election. “Everything was rocking good,” he said.
Voters, right now, seem to be agreeing more with Trump than Biden, with polls showing they favor Trump’s handling of the economy.
Biden’s challenge on Thursday was to make clear to viewers that his administration is the one that dug the country out of the pandemic-induced hole.
“There was no inflation when I became president,” Biden said. “You know why? The economy was flat on its back.”

LOSING HIS TRAIN OF THOUGHT
Biden seemed to lose his train of thought while responding to a question about the national debt.
His voice trailing off several times, Biden first referred to “billionaires” as “trillionaires” before correcting himself.
Then, while arguing that the wealthy should pay more tax, he seemed unable to complete his sentence, pausing for an extended awkward moment, before ending his thought in a way that sounded nonsensical.
Tax reform would create money to help “strengthen our health care system, making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I was able to do with the, with the COVID, excuse me, with dealing with everything we had to do with,” Biden said before pausing.
“We finally beat Medicare,” Biden said, likely referring to COVID-19.
Trump pounced.
“He’s right. He did beat Medicare. He beat it to death.”

THE SWEET SPOT
CNN served up exactly the topics the candidates wanted to discuss. In the weeks prior to the debate, the candidates and their campaigns openly signaled what they wanted to talk about: for Biden, it was abortion rights, the state of democracy and the economy. Trump wanted to talk immigration, public safety and inflation. In each case, the candidates’ aides thought it would allow them to tee up winning talking points.
They got their wish: CNN’s moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, opened the debate by asking about the economy, before turning to abortion and immigration, then hitting foreign policy and the attacks on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The economy is the number one concern for voters, and registered US voters favor Trump on the issue, 43 percent to 37 percent, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling this month. The Republican has a more significant edge — 44 percent to 31 percent — on immigration. Americans favor Biden 36 percent to 27 percent on health care.
Whether the debate changes those numbers remains to be seen. (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and James Oliphant; Editing by Ross Colvin and Daniel Wallis)