President Joe Biden goes into next year’s election with a vexing challenge: Just as the U.S. economy is getting stronger, people are still feeling horrible about it.
Pollsters and economists say there has never been as wide a gap between the underlying health of the economy and public perception. The divergence could be a decisive factor in whether the Democrat secures a second term next year. Republicans are seizing on the dissatisfaction to skewer Biden, while the White House is finding less success as it tries to highlight economic progress.
“Things are getting better and people think things are going to get worse — and that’s the most dangerous piece of this," said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, who has worked with Biden. Lake said voters no longer want to just see inflation rates fall — rather, they want an outright decline in prices, something that last happened on a large scale during the Great Depression.
“Honestly, I’m kind of mystified by it,” she said.
Remember kids, ‘the economy’ means ‘rich people’s portfolios’.
Whenever anyone says “the economy”, you can and should mentally substitute it with “rich people’s yacht money”.
Rich people’s yacht money doing well doesn’t do shit for 90% of the population. It doesn’t pay the rent, put food on the table or clothes on their back. They can’t afford to see a doctor or ride the damn bus.
And you want them to be happy because some stockbroker is getting a second holiday in the Maldives this year?
Stupid arrogant fucks.
Median income is up since before the pandemic, even when adjusting for inflation. The average person is better off.
Cost of living is outpacing it. Housing in particular.
Wrong
When people say they’re not happy about the economy, this is the shit they’re talking about, not statistics.
Ordinary people get fucked in this economy, and there isn’t any party that can do anything about it.
The socialist party.
They’d like to do something about it. But they can’t get elected.
Unless there’s something else they’re planning.
'Murica had a chance in 2016 but the DNC decided “nah”.
I’ll say it an umpteenth time: good fash/bad fash afab.
Bernie would have won, and the last 8 years would have been vastly different.
Al Gore ran and would have won but republicans stole that one. It’s more complex than “DNC is icky”
No, if Bernie somehow won the nomination in 2016 then Hilary would have endorsed Trump to stop socialism.
Never underestimate Democrats.
Not at all. You’re missing the forest for the trees lmao
The problem is that no matter how much inflation goes down, if the price gouging capitalists that own the grocery stores, the gas stations, and so on don’t stop.
It’s not about rich people’s yacht it’s about the American people being taken advantage of simply because they can. The economy is doing a lot better, record low unemployment for example is a huge metric here but what difference does that make when the grocery stores are selling less for more money?
You’re crying about rich people’s yachts when you should be crying about record price gouging without any cause. Those yachts don’t have impact on the average American’s QoL but price gouging absolutely does.
The uh… the yachts are payed for with price gouging my dude. 😕
Lake said voters no longer want to just see inflation rates fall — rather, they want an outright decline in prices, something that last happened on a large scale during the Great Depression.
“Honestly, I’m kind of mystified by it,” she said.
My dad told me once: “never trust the words that come out after the ‘honestly’ or before the ‘but’.”
Second, Biden recently started to blame inflation on corporations that hiked prices when they saw an opportunity to improve their profits, bringing more prominence to an argument first used when gasoline prices spiked. The president’s argument is suspicious to many economists, yet the intended message to voters is that Biden is fighting for them against those he blames for fueling inflation.
“Let me be clear: Any corporation that is not passing these savings on to the consumers needs to stop their price gouging,” Biden said recently in Pueblo, Colorado. “The American people are tired of being played for suckers.”
Wow. There’s no question who’s side the reporter is on.
“Let me be clear: Any corporation that is not passing these savings on to the consumers needs to stop their price gouging,” Biden said recently in Pueblo, Colorado. “The American people are tired of being played for suckers.”
Then do something about it.
He isn’t a dictator. He needs at least another branch of government to get the most effective solutions in place.
He has been insanely effective despite having a broken Congress and brazenly corrupt Supreme Court.
If he can’t do anything but he shouldn’t be running his mouth. It just makes him look weak when he says this shit, corporations keep price gouging, and nothing happens to them. He needs to back it with force.
it’s not his ‘fault’.
if you want someone, anyone, to blame, it’s the republican clowns in congress and the greedy af CEOs.
Wages have not kept up with inflation. Why is this so hard for the media to understand?
It really doesn’t help to have snooty liberal assholes telling those of us on fixed incomes that our financial situation is great because their 401k’s are appreciating and we’re just too stupid to realize how great the economy is.
The Hillary Clintonism runs strong. Bill at least pretended to give a fuck about people. The democratic pitch being “hey, at least we’re not doing a Gaza to you! Be happy with your scraps” needs a rework Stat.
Wages have shot up like crazy over the past few years. But the FTC has not enforced antitrust regulations over the past 30 years which led to everything being owned by megacorps with no competition - so we’re getting the screws turned on us right now. The FTC is finally engaging in some antitrust measures, but it is too little, too late. It’s kind of hard to blame that on the current regime.
You literally use the term regime to describe yourself.
My wage has certainly gone up. I also can’t seem to go grocery shopping without spending $400 now. Literally everything is more expensive, bills included.
So if I look at my wage as 100%, rent and groceries and bills all take up a larger percentage of that then just five years ago.
Unless there are enforced laws around consumer pricing, every company on the planet is gonna raise prices when wages go up.
The oligarch-owned media shouts that everything is terrible when the only thing they care about, the interest rates that impacts their cost to borrow capital, is going up because that limits their ability to run their VS Ponzi schemes. The far-left media and far-right media shout that everything is terrible all the time because they both start from wanting a revolution that tears everything down and won’t ever let reality get in the way of that being the proper solution; things must always be bad and getting worse to justify their revolution. And that’s basically of all of our media.
Biden’s economy ;)
