WASHINGTON: The US economy was supposed to help President Joe Biden and the Democrats, but lately it’s hurting them with voters.
Biden on Friday praised the US economy for performing better than the rest of the world, saying it was largely due to his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package and nearly $10,000 on infrastructure, families, schools, health care and climate change. was due to. 2.75 trillion is due to plan for additional expenditure.
Yet Americans have become pessimistic about the economy as inflation remains. Voters in Virginia on Tuesday rewarded Republican Glenn Youngkin with a victory in the gubernatorial election, based on a belief that he would be better suited to economic growth. The president could not ignore these realities, yet he said Friday at the White House that the latest numbers reflect a strong, energetic economy.
Biden said that we still have to deal with the costs that American families are facing, but this recovery is fast, strong and fair and comprehensive, which almost no one would have predicted. That’s what the figures say.
The president also acknowledged that voters can’t just rely on the numbers they need to feel in their lives and their bank accounts and their hopes and expectations.
The question is whether Americans are feeling what the economic numbers show for Biden’s challenge in the months ahead for the 2022 election, when control of the House and Senate could potentially slip from Democrats. It’s not enough for the president to uncover 531,000 job gains on Friday and a 4.6% unemployment report in October until the pandemic and shortages of basic goods from autos to furniture are driving up prices.
Beneath this challenge lies a deep set of questions about how politics and the economy meet in the aftermath of the pandemic. Do Americans care more about job growth or inflation? Do they doubt that government spending can permanently improve the economy for the better? Can Democrats expect to be rewarded for their results or are voters indifferent to policy achievements?
These questions also pose a stumbling block as House Democrats prepare to vote on Friday on Biden’s bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure deal, which has already been approved by the Senate and $1.75 in social spending and matching increases. Trillian is moving forward with the mix.
After attending a UN climate summit, Biden suggested at a news conference in Glasgow, Scotland on Tuesday that failure to pass his agenda earlier would have no effect on Democrats’ performance in the 2021 election.
The President said that I have not seen any evidence that whether I am doing well or poorly, whether I have passed my agenda or not, it is going to have any real effect on victory or defeat. Even if we had passed our agenda, I do not claim that we have won because the Bidens agenda has been passed.
Economists across the ideological spectrum said the country is facing an unusual situation after the coronavirus. The Delta version appears to have developed late this summer and the rush of funding from the government has led to increased consumer and business demand that hasn’t been seen in the recent recovery.
As a result, some reliable indicators of the economy have become less reliable. Yes, there has been a tangible improvement in hiring, yet so many people have stopped working or looking for jobs that the adjusted unemployment rate is closer to 7.3% instead of 4.6%, said the president of the Liberal Economic Policy Institute and Formerly said Heidi Schirholz, chief economist at the Department of Labor.
We’re still in a big hole, Schirholz said. Coming out of the COVID slowdown has created some unique situations that people have never experienced before.”
It created a Dickensian-like framework in which it could be the best of times and the worst of times. The economy is headed for its fastest growth since 1984 and the stock market’s Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record high this week. Yet inflation continues to run high at an annual rate of 5.4% and is eating into paychecks. Employers are struggling to find workers despite wage increases. Container ships have to wait to dock at ports, empty shelves build up and long delays for consumers ahead of the holiday shopping season.
Inflation is outpacing wage gains and is a huge problem,” said Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the center-right American Enterprise Institute. The economy seems to have taken a turn for the worse.
Average gasoline prices have risen more than 60% from a year ago to $3.42 a gallon, according to the American Automobile Association. The jump is so rapid that Biden last week called on OPEC countries to pump more oil as well as move away from fossil fuels to have a zero-emissions economy by 2050.
Voters go so far as to think the economy will perform better under Republicans.
In Tuesday’s election in Virginia, more than a third of voters said the economy was their top priority, according to AP VoteCast. Of that major group, 63% balked for Youngkin on the belief that a Republican could do more for development.
More importantly, 54% of Virginia voters said they disapproved of how Biden was handling the economy. This roughly matches a recent AP-NORC poll in which 58% nationwide disliked the president’s economic leadership, a sharp reversal from March when 60% supported Biden on the economy.
Republican lawmakers have been effective in beating Biden and Democrats on inflation. The Biden administration initially tried to play down this as a problem by calling it transient, but the general consensus of many economists is that it will continue to run above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target until the second half of next year.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell interpreted the results of Tuesday’s election as a rejection of Biden’s economic policies.
“Washington Democrats have been highly accusing inflation, rebuilding welfare without the need for work, and making America significantly less energy independent,” the Kentucky senator said in Wednesday’s floor speech. The American people are not in favor of it. Voters told Democrats last night.
Stuart Stevens, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, a conservative group that strongly opposes Donald Trump, said Biden has struggled to communicate his successes with the economy. He said many Americans still believe the country is on the wrong track despite increasing vaccinations, the stock market is climbing and the unemployment rate is falling.
Stevens concluded on Twitter Friday: The Democratic Party has a huge messaging problem.
Disclaimer: This post has been self-published from the agency feed without modification and has not been reviewed by an editor
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