President Joe Biden goes into next year’s election with a vexing challenge: Just as the U.S. economy is getting stronger, people are still feeling horrible about it.
Pollsters and economists say there has never been as wide a gap between the underlying health of the economy and public perception. The divergence could be a decisive factor in whether the Democrat secures a second term next year. Republicans are seizing on the dissatisfaction to skewer Biden, while the White House is finding less success as it tries to highlight economic progress.
“Things are getting better and people think things are going to get worse — and that’s the most dangerous piece of this," said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, who has worked with Biden. Lake said voters no longer want to just see inflation rates fall — rather, they want an outright decline in prices, something that last happened on a large scale during the Great Depression.
“Honestly, I’m kind of mystified by it,” she said.
Just on a tangent here - I agree with everything you said except for the gas price part. Gas prices are at a 3 year low, and when you adjust for inflation we are not that far off from an all time historical low price of gas.
There are cars out there that get insanely good mpg now. 100-200 empg for EVs and even 57 mpg on a Prius. The fact that 90% of the cars on the road in the US are SUVs or trucks just shows how selfish people are. The average US driver drives 37 miles a day, at $3 a gallon & 57mpg that comes to a monthly gas expense of $58. A pretty minor expense when you compare it to rising costs at the grocery store.