Democrats and the media are in a quandary to explain why Americans so underappreciate all that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have done for the economy. Or, should I say, to the economy.
They act as if these are the salad days for American families, with inflation falling and jobs aplenty. For now.
So why are Americans so dour? A recent Pew poll found that only 22% of Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction.
Another poll revealed that more than half of Americans think the U.S. is in recession.
A CNBC headline from last week treated the poll finding with shock and amazement: "59% of Americans Wrongly Think U.S. Is in a Recession."
According to the article: "Economists have wrestled with the growing disconnect between how well the economy is doing and how people feel about their financial standing. ... The U.S. economy has remained remarkably strong even amid persistent inflation."
Stop right there.
Yes, it's true that the GDP is growing, which means we are not in a technical recession.
But the economy is "strong" for whom exactly? Academics isolated in their ivory towers? Those cloistered inside the Washington Beltway? The people with cushy jobs in the newsrooms across America?
The poll cited above found that a major reason Americans say they are pessimistic is "higher costs and difficulty making ends meet."
This isn't a figment of their imaginations. The average household has lost roughly $2,000 of purchasing power since Biden came into office. They are poorer today than four years ago.
I would submit that when most families have lost real take-home pay over a four-year period, that is a recession. And apparently, 6 of 10 Americans agree with me despite the media cheerleading for the Biden economy.
The other night in his Democratic National Convention speech, Biden boasted that "wages are up." But they are only up before inflation. When we take into account the cost of living is 20% higher today than four years ago, there are only real wage declines for most workers.
One way to measure how much families are struggling under Bidenomics is to examine household debt. Credit card debt recently hit an all-time high, and delinquencies are rising.
The federal government can borrow until the cows come home (or investors around the world stop buying the bonds). But households have to repay debt.
This means that if things don't improve quickly, more and more families will be underwater.
Harris' only plan to relieve this middle-class fiscal squeeze is to pass out more free dollars. She wants to pay people up to $25,000 to buy houses.
The Wall Street Journal is wondering whether the government is going to start bailing out unpaid mortgages and credit card debts — just as Uncle Sam is paying off debt beats who refused to pay back student loans.
Where is the money going to come from for all those trillions of dollars of bailouts? From the Chinese?
Meanwhile, most of these jobs Biden and Harris are gloating about are direct or indirect government jobs. Why is a government so awash in debt on a hiring spree?
Americans have a sixth sense tingling, warning that something is very wrong with our economy. Harris and the media say: Don't worry; be happy.
Just who's living in la la land?
Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. His latest book is "Govzilla: How the Relentless Growth of Government Is Devouring Our Economy." Read Stephen Moore's Reports — More Here.