by David Catron
Anyone still wondering why voters trust former President Trump more than President Biden on the economy should read what the White House posted on X about inflation last week: “Ahead of the holiday season, costs are down for everything from airline tickets and car rentals to toys and TVs.” Biden and his underlings continue to believe public disapproval of his disastrous economic performance can be improved with happy talk and cherry picked statistics. It assumes Americans can’t remember how much less the cost of living was when Biden was elected.
Ahead of the holiday season, costs are down for everything from airline tickets and car rentals to toys and TVs.
The Biden-Harris Administration is working every day to create more breathing room for hardworking families. pic.twitter.com/GH3OSERTIu
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 21, 2023
This is an insult to the intelligence of the voters and a losing strategy. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out on the same day the above-quoted post appeared, just driving to Grandma’s house for Thanksgiving provided a reality check: “The regular unleaded gasoline they buy to fuel up on the way will be on average 70 percent more expensive than it was three years ago.” And the food? Turkey costs about 30 percent more than it did the month Biden was elected. Rolls, butter, cranberry sauce, and desserts are up by 27, 25, 23, and 30 percent respectively. Few voters will find much to celebrate here. Yet, after the recent Consumer Price Index (CPI) report was released, Joe Biden took a victory lap:
Today we saw more progress bringing down inflation while maintaining one of the strongest job markets in history. At 3.2%, annual inflation is now down by 65% from the peak. Gas prices are below $3.40 per gallon, reflecting an average decline of $1.65 from the peak after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Inflation has come down while the unemployment rate has been below 4% for 21 months in a row — the longest stretch in more than 50 years — while wages, wealth, and the share of working-age Americans with jobs are all higher now than before the pandemic.
This interpretation of the CPI report is profoundly dishonest. The 3.2 percent inflation rate is nearly three times the 1.2 percent rate that Biden inherited. It is down “65 percent” only because the Biden’s administration let it skyrocket to 9.1 percent before attempting to get it under control. That gas is “below $3.40” hardly compares well to the national average of $2.11 that prevailed when Biden was elected. As to wages, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that average hourly earnings (adjusted for inflation) for all employees stood at $11.05 in October, down from $11.10 in March of 2020, when the lockdown lunacy began.
There are just too many discrepancies between the President’s claims and the voter’s experience with the real world economy. According to the RealClearPolitics average, only 38.1 percent approve of his economic stewardship. Even worse, according to the NYT/Siena poll, swing state voters trust Trump over Biden on the economy by wide margins. Any president running for reelection must convince voters they’re better off than four years earlier. Biden isn’t making the sale. This is not merely politically perilous for him, it is a source of perplexity for the corporate media. MSNBC’s Paul Waldman says he has cracked the code:
It isn’t hard to figure out why. The conservative media and the associated echo chamber is relentless in its insistence that with a Democrat in the White House, America is a land of unending misery and despair. And with the country as polarized as it is, even Republicans who don’t spend their evenings watching Fox News will be loath to say anything that might reflect well on Joe Biden. Telling a pollster “The economy is terrible!” isn’t much different than saying the same thing on X or Truth Social, a handy way to give Biden the finger if you’re so inclined.
This brings us back to insulting the intelligence of the voters. Waldman would have us believe that the vast reach of conservative media, plus the GOP’s iron grip on X and Truth Social, is enough to convince 75 million Americans to vote for a man whom former Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill recently described as “more dangerous” than Hitler. The problem with this reasoning, such as it is, is that the dictator in question would never have allowed a political opponent to denounce him in such terms in any public venue. And, during Trump’s previous four years as President, he never got around to executing any of his critics.
The voters know this, of course. Most of his supporters, and many independents, see Trump as the victim of an authoritarian regime motivated by fear that they will vote their wallets in 2024. This is why Biden’s public approval numbers are so low and Trump’s are rising. Despite his eccentricities, Trump’s accomplishments are still fresh in the memories of most who enjoyed the peace and prosperity that prevailed before the advent of COVID-19. Moreover, they are at this very moment enduring the consequences of Biden’s feeble foreign policy and feckless economic agenda. Gaslighting voters is a losing strategy for Biden.
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David Catron is a recovering health care consultant and frequent contributor to The American Spectator. You can follow him on Twitter at @Catronicus.
