Economic Angst in the Heartland
Bidenomics is failing America, infecting the land with a persistent and intensifying cynicism, despite attempts by the White House and a partisan press to impose misleading narratives on the electorate.
For example, the media rushed to heap praise upon last week’s modestly constructive jobs report. The actual numbers reveal a mixed bag – not a terrible report, but certainly not a parade-worthy one, either.
The 199,000 jobs added in November sits below the average for the year 2023, and far off the prior levels of 2021 and 2022. Regarding jobs added since Biden took office, the easy part is over, meaning the task of regaining the lost jobs resulting from the COVID panic is largely complete – and now net new job creation languishes.
Moreover, a sector analysis of this latest jobs report shows that 70% of the jobs were in either healthcare or government positions. More productive private sector jobs continue to lag, with manufacturing payrolls still flat in 2023.
In addition, even modestly positive economic data points cannot compensate for the harm inflicted upon workers for most of Biden’s tenure. Specifically, real wages – incomes adjusted for inflation – declined for a record 24 straight months, and recent small recoveries in real wages cannot come close to making workers whole.
The reality, as revealed by the data, proves that workers have toiled harder to get poorer under Biden, in real world terms – and they know it.
My organization, the League of American Workers, has commissioned a series of battleground state polls conducted by North Star Opinion Research. The most recent survey of Wisconsin canvassed an evenly split sampling of Biden and Trump 2020 voters in that Heartland swing state.
The crisis of confidence pervades the upper Midwest, where only 22% of Wisconsin likely voters think America is on the right track, and the clear main culprit for the despondency is the economy.
The economy remains the primary concern of battleground voters, regardless of partisan affiliation. For example, approval of Biden on the economy shows the president badly underwater, with only 17% strong approval vs. a whopping 47% strong disapproval. But among the independent Midwest voters we sampled, the results are just about as dismal, with a mere 19% strong approval for Biden on the economy among non-partisans. Even among self-described liberals, 23% disapprove of Biden on the economy.
Despite this widespread dissatisfaction, the president and his team insist on promoting the term “Bidenomics” to defend their radical agenda. Despite those efforts by the Democrats and a complicit legacy media, 37% of Wisconsin voters have not even heard the term. Among those who have, just 9% of voters in the state have a very favorable view of the phrase.
Reflecting the stressed budgets of parents grappling to deal with high inflation, only 5% of parents in Wisconsin with school-age children have a very favorable view of Bidenomics, vs. 40% with a very unfavorable view.
Swing state voters consistently blame the administration for this stifling inflation. On energy, for example, only 5% of Wisconsin citizens believe Biden’s agenda has lowered gasoline prices, while 51% blame his policies for raising prices at the pump.
These numbers reflect a bracing economic reality in America under Biden: Only the very top end of the economic ladder is doing well. For instance, a JP Morgan research report last week detailed that 80% of Americans have already burned through their increased savings from the lockdowns and government support payments.
Given current trends, by mid-year 2024, JP Morgan economist Marko Kolanovic projects “it is likely that only the top 1% of consumers by income will be better off than before the pandemic.”
So, there it is.
Great news for the top 1%, per usual from the supposed “progressives,” but a slog for everyone else. Americans are stressed, polarized, and losing faith in society’s future, even in the Heartland. A big driver of this pessimism flows from an economy that works only for a crony, credentialed ruling class.
Accordingly, into 2024, the candidates and activists who address this anxiety and propose workable populist conservative solutions to fix our economic woes will win hearts, minds … and votes.
This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
Steve Cortes is former senior advisor to President Trump, former commentator for Fox News and CNN, and president of the League of American Workers, a populist right pro-laborer advocacy group.
