Joe Biden’s economy isn’t working for any Americans, never mind ‘all’
Within recent memory, you could find a pound of butter on sale for $2. Now it routinely costs $4, dipping to $3 at baking-centric holidays. That’s when you buy several pounds — because butter freezes well and you have to save where you can.
Yogurt cups that used to go for 75 cents now hover at $1.50 and never drop below $1 on sale. When it costs a dollar, you get a dozen of your favorite flavor.
You’re lucky to get a decentsized bag of chips for under $4, so you simply buy less than you used to. And so it goes, down your grocery list.
Inflation took off
Statistics and explanations coming out of Washington and New York don’t do much to soften the blow to the average family budget. But failing to soften the blow is better than adding insult to injury — like some campaign ads and questionable headlines do.
On Tuesday, after I spotted broccoli at $4 a pound, the PostGazette website carried a bumper crop of ads claiming that Joe Biden’s economy is “working for all Americans.” The ad featured squiggly red lines pointing to, and encircling, the word “all.”
Unfortunately for Mr. Biden, most Americans disagree — including a majority of Democrats.
Inflation took off in early 2021, rising from 1.4% in January, when President Biden was inaugurated, to 5% in May. What happened in those four months was the passage of two more pandemic relief bills, the first for $900 billion and the second for $1.9 trillion.
Inflation rose quickly, peaking at 9% in June 2022. Then it began a slow decline, bottoming out at 3.1% this January — still more than double what it was when Mr. Biden took office. And it’s climbing once again.
The problem for low- and middle-income Americans is that inflation is cumulative. Higher prices aren’t going away. Their rate of increase has simply slowed. We are reminded of this every time we check out with one bag of groceries for $40 or $50.
The other problem for most Americans is the Federal Reserve’s response to inflation, which, as everyone surely knows, has been to raise interest rates. Forbes magazine’s experts said that last week’s inflation report (3.5%) was “so bad that a possible [interest] rate hike is not out of the realm of possibility.”
That’s a double doozy for people who have variable interest rate loans on their cars or homes. They get pummeled first by inflation and then by its supposed cure.
Given these circumstances, it’s hard to comprehend how any political genius thought a pro-Biden-economy ad was a good idea.
Economy over character
The latest polls reflect widespread dissatisfaction. According to a New York Times-Siena College poll released a few days ago, 64% of registered voters approve of how former President Donald Trump handled the economy and 63% disapprove of how President Biden is handling it now.
The Times noted that “almost 80% of voters” rate current economic conditions “fair or poor, including a majority of Democrats” — 56% of Democrats, to be exact. And far more voters of all stripes rate it poor (52%) than fair (27).
The Times-Siena poll also asked voters how favorable or unfavorable their impressions of the two major-party candidates are. Biden and Trump have comparable scores: Biden’s favorable rating is 41% and unfavorable 56, while Trump’s are 43 favorable and 55 unfavorable.
But when you look at those numbers by gender, men have much better views of Trump than of Biden, while women prefer Biden to Trump. The numbers are almost perfectly inverted.
As Mr. Biden visited Pittsburgh yesterday and Mr. Trump was in court for another day of his “hush money” trial, questions about character and leadership must swirl in many voters’ minds.
I’m reminded of the 1992 contest between President George H.W. Bush and Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. The latter’s campaign manager, James Carville, coined the slogan “It’s the economy, stupid,” which has become a lasting and flexible catchphrase.
Gov. Clinton was running against a president perceived as nice but old and weak. Voters were learning that Mr. Clinton was rather sleazy — a serial philanderer credibly accused of much worse.
But the economy was lagging and voters clearly thought a big change, from 12 years of Republican leadership, might bring better days. Beginning in 1994, the economy boomed, and it continued to boom — with the tech industry leading, and Congress’s balanced budgets — and despite President Clinton’s marital lapses, the Starr report and an impeachment trial.
A different election
How different is this election? A November 2023 article in The Atlantic opened, “Joe Biden is both old and boring. The American voter has come to expect celebrity and excitement from the White House, and they pay little attention to policy.”
But we do pay attention to policy when we can’t make ends meet. And the article bore this headline: “Quiet competence could cost Joe Biden the election.” What?