Inflation may haunt Biden’s poll fortunes even if it cools further

livemint.com:

Joe Biden and his team get little credit for their management of the American economy. Aware that the 2024 presidential election, like most, will turn on economic conditions, or perceptions of economic conditions, the president has taken to the hustings with his mantra that “Bidenomics is working." But while Bidenomics may be working, the message is not. A CBS/YouGov poll conducted between 26 and 28 July 2023 gave Biden just a 34% approval rating on the economy.

The explanation for this negative impression is straightforward: inflation. People rightly perceive inflation as a tax on their incomes. When unemployment is low and they succeed in finding work, they attribute their good fortune to diligence and individual initiative, not to their government’s management of the economy.

But when they confront higher prices at the grocery store or gas- filling station, they regard that—not unreasonably—as someone else’s fault. The question, of course, is whose. And that question is complicated by the fact that America’s recent bout of inflation had multiple causes.

This doesn’t let the Biden administration off the hook. Its American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion stimulus package announced on 20 January 2021, the president’s first day in office, provided vigorous support for spending. With hindsight, we can say “too vigorous." Together with two stimulus packages passed by the US Congress in 2020, the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, signed by President Donald Trump in March, and the $900 billion Covid-19 Economic Relief Bill, signed by Trump in December, Congress and the president provided $200 billion a month in tax cuts and spending increases to offset a $30 billion monthly income