There are a variety of factors dragging down Donald Trump’s approval rating, but the state of the economy clearly isn’t helping. Recent polling has left little doubt that the American mainstream is thoroughly dissatisfied with the economic status quo.
Republican Sen. Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania has not denied the existence of the data, but he apparently wants the public to appreciate what he sees as economic improvements that have unfolded during the president’s second term.
Last week, for example, the GOP senator appeared on Fox Business and insisted that families are “much better off” now, in comparison with Joe Biden’s term. This week, he appeared on CNBC and pushed the same line.
“You’re much better off economically than you were under the Biden administration,” McCormick said.
I can appreciate the underlying political strategy, especially with the midterm elections less than 10 weeks away. McCormick and many other Republicans aren’t willing to echo the White House line — on a nearly daily basis, Trump tries to tell people that we’re living in a “golden age” with an economy that’s awesome — so the senator is effectively telling people, “Things may not be great, though they’re at least better.”
But are they?
“A clear indicator that Trump sycophants realize that they are caught in reality’s snare is how they respond to any question about current economic difficulties,” Paul Krugman explained this week by way of his Substack newsletter. “Their first sentence almost always contains the word ‘Biden,’ as they make the false claim that things were worse under Joe Biden, or that Biden somehow caused all of our current problems (including high gas prices and depleted munitions), or that Biden left an economy in shambles. Call it a bad case of Biden derangement syndrome, a desperate and utterly transparent attempt to shift the blame for the gratuitous mess that Trump and his minions have made.”
Politics is filled with subjective questions, but when it comes to economic data, there are quantifiable metrics that answer the underlying questions. We know for a fact, for example, that since Trump’s return to the White House, job growth has slowed significantly, the unemployment rate has climbed and economic growth is worse. That’s not a matter of opinion; it’s just a summary of what’s happened.
Also, inflation is worse than it was when Biden left office, the average price of gas has gone up, the budget deficit and the national debt are vastly worse, the manufacturing sector has lost jobs and healthcare costs have soared.
McCormick didn’t say by what metric people are “much better off economically,” and that’s probably because people clearly aren’t much better off economically.
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