Punchbowl News: “America’s economic story has largely stayed the same this summer. Virtually every macro metric that policymakers care about — unemployment, prices, growth — is trending in the right direction, even allowing for some recent fits and starts. Investment in new factories is soaring. Consumer sentiment has improved recently. And economists have backed off their recession call for 2023. In a big way. This should all be good for President Joe Biden and the Democrats.”
“But public polling hasn’t reflected that progress, as we’ve written before. Voters have consistently identified the economy as a top concern, and they haven’t heaped praise upon the Biden administration’s approach so far, to put it mildly.”
“The disconnect isn’t too hard to grasp. Inflation has been brutal during the past two years, and the resulting higher prices are still with us even as wages start to catch up. The pandemic-era boom in social welfare funding dried up long ago. And in the meantime, we’ve seen an unprecedented surge in U.S. food insecurity and homelessness. That makes it harder for Democrats to embrace ‘Bidenomics’ as a full victory.”
