Over the summer, the White House spokesperson declared that "the American people are starting to feel Bidenomics," a term that Team Biden had decided to reclaim from critics and own politically. "Bidenomics is working," Biden himself proclaimed last month, repeating it in multiple appearances and speeches -- one of which we fact-checked extensively. Americans are paying $709 more per month for the same goods and services, compared to two years ago, and views of the economy are decidedly sour. In the new Washington Post/ABC poll we examined earlier this week, just 30 percent of respondents approve of the president's handling of the economy. Roughly three-in-four voters (74 percent) expressed a negative view of the US economy in the survey. Undeterred, Karine Jean-Pierre was sent out to the podium to flog the flaccid talking point. Shot:
KJP: "This President has been so zeroed in, so laser-focused, on lowering costs for Americans — and we've done that!" pic.twitter.com/fLwxQLzL1g
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 25, 2023
Chaser: They have not, in fact, done that. As noted above, basically everything costs a lot more than it did when Biden took office. Overall, prices are up double digits, and are still rising:
Since President Biden took office, prices have increased cumulatively by 17.4 percent, while hourly wages have increased only 13 percent. In looking at the past seven presidents, only Jimmy Carter had a bigger inflation rate, 26.2 percent, at a similar point in his presidency. For the past four presidents, their Presidential Inflation Rate was in single digits, and, specifically, Biden’s PIR is triple that of where Donald Trump (5.6 percent) and George W. Bush (5.4 percent) were at this point in their first terms...Inflation has come down from the near historic highs people lived through in 2022, but prices continue to rise significantly, just at a slower rate.
Painful inflation, outpacing wage growth, is rendering people and families economically stuck, or slipping underwater. That last bolded point is also critical because even though inflation is going up at a slower pace than it was last year, it's still going up. That's the opposite of "lowering costs," per KJP's inapt term. To revisit an analogy, Americans want to turn the car around and drive in the opposite direction on inflation, with prices dropping. But the national car is still headed north, not south, and is just speeding a little less. And last month, inflation again edged up hotter than anticipated. Most people blame Joe Biden's policies for this mess, with nearly 60 percent telling pollsters he's made matters worse. They're right. He ignored inflation warnings from even Democrat-aligned experts and recently admitted that he wished he hadn't branded one of his signature tax-and-spend binges the "Inflation Reduction Act." The result:
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NBC News: “The latest NBC News poll finds Rs with a 21-point advantage on which party better handles the economy, with 49% of registered voters picking the GOP and 28% picking Ds.
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) September 26, 2023
That’s the largest lead Republicans have held on this question in our poll dating back to 1991.”
This is an awful number for Democrats, though it doesn't necessarily spell doom for them next fall, even if economic sentiment remains harshly negative. They were in a serious hole on multiple top issues last fall, with Biden deeply unpopular, yet they managed to salvage an historically-strong showing in the midterms -- dramatically limiting losses, and even making net gains among governorships and in the Senate. One of the driving factors behind the GOP underperformance isn't merely still around this cycle; it'll more than likely be front and center. I'll leave you with two more data points that cause the "Bidenonics is working" slogan to crater:
Bidenomics pic.twitter.com/fsy0yHBpVW
— Kyle Smith (@rkylesmith) September 25, 2023
The 10-year Treasury just hit a 16-year high of 4.5%, which - if sustained - is basically catastrophic for long-term federal deficits. This is much more important than the vast majority of daily politics and culture fights getting most of the media's attention. pic.twitter.com/2CBNEOOWZh
— Brian Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦 (@Brian_Riedl) September 25, 2023
Basically, yeah:
"Joe Biden is unpopular because Joe Biden is terrible at being president of the United States. One can ask 'what about Trump?' until one is blue in the face, and it will not change this fact one iota." @charlescwcooke @NRO https://t.co/SHWZxYZzmK
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) September 26, 2023
A Biden-Trump rematch isn't desired by voters, perhaps partially because everyone intuitively understands that it would be a lengthy slog about who is worse and less fit for the job.
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