Democrats and the media are in a quandary about why Americans don’t appreciate all that President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have done for the economy — or should I say to the economy. They act as if these were the salad days for Americans, with inflation falling and jobs aplenty — for now. So why are Americans so dour? A recent Pew poll found that only 22% of Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction.
Another poll revealed that more than half of Americans think the U.S. is in a recession.
A CNBC headline from last week treated the poll finding with shock and amazement: “59% of Americans wrongly think that the U.S. is in a recession.
” According to the article: “Economists have wrestled with the growing disconnect between how well the economy is doing and how people feel about their financial standing. The U.S.
economy has remained remarkably strong despite persistent inflation.” Stop right there. Yes, gross domestic product is indeed growing, which means we are not in a technical recession.
But the economy is strong for whom? Academics isolated in their ivory towers? Those cloistered inside the Beltway? The people with cushy jobs in the newsrooms across America? The poll cited above found that a major reason Americans say they are pessimistic is “higher costs and difficulty making ends meet.” This isn’t a figment of their imagination. The average household has lost roughly $2,000 in buying power since Mr.
Biden entered office. They are poorer today than four years ago. I would submit that when most families have lost real take-home pay over a four-year period, that is a recession.
Apparently, 6 in 10 Americans agree with me despite the media cheerleading for the Biden economy. Last week, in his speech at the Democratic National Convention, Mr. Biden boasted that “wages are up.
” But they are up only before inflation. When we take into account the cost of living is 20% higher today than four years ago, most workers are seeing real wage declines. One way to measure how much families are struggling under “Bidenomics” is to examine household debt.
Credit card debt recently hit an all-time high, and delinquencies are rising. The federal government can borrow until the cows come home (or investors around the world stop buying the bonds). But households have to repay debt.
This means that if things don’t improve quickly, more and more families will be underwater. Ms. Harris’ only plan to relieve this middle-class fiscal squeeze is to pass out more free dollars.
She wants to pay people up to $25,000 to buy houses. The Wall Street Journal is wondering whether the government will start bailing out unpaid mortgages and credit card debts — just as Uncle Sam is paying the debts of those who refuse to repay student loans. Where will the money come from for all those trillions of dollars of bailouts? From the Chinese? Meanwhile, most of the jobs Mr.
Biden and Ms. Harris are gloating about are direct or indirect government jobs. Why is a government so awash in debt on a hiring spree? Americans have a sixth sense tingling like Spider-Man warning that something is wrong with our economy.
Yet Ms. Harris and the media say don’t worry, be happy. Just who is living in la-la land? Copyright © 2024 The Washington Times, LLC.
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