Inflation has fallen from its peak above 9 percent in June 2022 to 3.1 percent in November, according to the latest consumer price index released Tuesday by the Labor Department. That’s still above the Fed’s 2 percent inflation target but within striking distance.
President Biden’s reelection campaign used last week’s jobs report, which showed higher-than-expected job gains, to make the case that he’s “cleaning up the economic disaster” left by his predecessor and presumed challenger in the 2024 race, former President Trump.
But it may be too soon to tell whether the economy is a winning message for Biden as the plane is still coming in for landing.
“This period of incredibly high inflation absolutely does not play well for Biden,” said Michelle Holder, an assistant economics professor at John Jay College.
While it looks like the U.S. economy could be making a soft landing, Americans remain concerned with high prices as they’re squeezed by higher borrowing costs. And even Democrats seem to have a hard time backing Biden’s economy.
A recent New York Times/Siena College poll of voters in six battleground states found 62 percent of Biden voters rated the economy “fair” or “poor.”
Trump is leading Biden in five of those six battleground states, the poll found, though the hypothetical general election match-up is still nearly a year away.
While the economy is improving by many measures, many Americans are struggling. Those who enjoyed pandemic stimulus-padded safety nets are seeing those savings dwindle, and credit card, mortgage and auto payment delinquency rates have all risen as borrowing costs have ballooned.
“Sixty percent of U.S. households live paycheck to paycheck. The prices are 20 percent higher than they were pre-pandemic and for a lot of households, income hasn’t increased 20 percent,” Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for Bankrate.com, told The Hill.
The Hill’s Taylor Giorno has more here.
