“Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
Then-candidate Ronald Reagan posed that iconic rhetorical question during his 1980 debate with then-President Jimmy Carter. The voters answered with a resounding “NO!” when they elected Reagan by a huge margin of 489 electoral votes to 49. That Reagan question has since become a staple of presidential polls.
Fast forward 43 years: a record number of Americans — 44 percent — said in response to an ABC News/Washington Post Poll released in September that they are worse off financially today than before Biden was elected president. Historically, that is the worst figure for any president since the poll began in 1986. In November of 2018, just 13 percent of Americans said they were worse off since Trump took office.
Biden’s approval rating is equally dismal, standing at a weak 37 percent in the same poll. In a hypothetical match-up against Trump, Trump leads by nine percentage points, 51 percent to 42.
These dreadful Biden poll numbers are due in large part to the abject failure of Biden’s radical progressive economic program (which he calls “Bidenomics”). Biden’s misguided policies have led to inflation, the decimation of America’s energy production, reckless spending, a spurious investment in questionable green energy initiatives and the highest mortgage rates in over 20 years.
Bidenomics has created severe economic turmoil for Americans. Families are struggling mightily. Sixty-one percent of hard-working Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Seventy-five percent of those earning less than $50,000, and 65 percent of those making $50,000 to $100,000 per year struggle to pay for gas and groceries and to make ends meet due to the heavy burden of inflation.
In difficult straits, many families have resorted to credit cards to pay their bills. As a result, Americans’ overall credit debt has reached a record high of $1 trillion. This represents a $300 billion increase since Biden was elected president.
This mounting debt is creating a financial crisis for families and the country. Delinquencies in payments and default rates on credit cards, auto loans and consumer loans are at their highest levels in a decade and are increasing at a rapid rate. Not only are families in an intractable bind, but consumer-focused businesses such as car dealerships and department stores are dealing with significant losses and shortfalls in revenue due to these delinquencies and defaults.
Meanwhile, home ownership has become a fading dream for many Americans as interest rates rise above seven percent and families’ debt burdens make a mortgage unaffordable and unattainable.
Americans’ struggles are reflected in the ABC News/Washington Post Poll, in which 74 percent of Americans described the economy as not good or poor, and nine out of 10 Americans had the same negative assessment of gas and food prices.
Families are not fooled by Biden’s false economic rhetoric. They see the truth every time they pull into a gas station or buy groceries.
Just like they said “No” to Carters failed agenda more than 40 years ago, American voters today need to say “No” to Biden’s economic crisis, and “Yes” to free enterprise, innovation, entrepreneurship and American energy.
Michael Clancy is a lawyer, member of the Federalist Society, and a frequent contributor to The Daily Caller on Constitutional law and political issues. Follow him on Twitter @MikeClancyVA.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.