The president has struggled to sell strong growth and job gains to a public that appears more concerned about rising prices — and remains anxious about Covid.
President Biden and White House aides are struggling to bridge the gap between the economy they want to celebrate and the one that has left many Americans anxious and frustrated, as a record-setting recovery collides with prolonged inflation and an ongoing pandemic that has left consumers deeply pessimistic. The challenge begins with a disbelief of sorts among Mr. Biden’s economic top aides. They insist the job market, with a 4.2 percent unemployment rate, has never been better, delivering wage gains for lower-paid workers that Mr. Biden believes will help lift more people into the middle class. They say those benefits will endure for years, even once inflation, which accelerated at its fastest pace in 40 years last month, cools down. The struggle is also entwined with Mr. Biden’s fight against Covid. Administration officials say that the anxiety voters are expressing to pollsters is less about the economy and the president’s handling of it and more an expression of pent-up frustration with a pandemic that has persisted for nearly two years. White House officials say they have no plans to shift Mr. Biden’s messaging on economic issues, even as poll after poll shows his approval ratings in decline and voter worry over inflation swamping all other views of the economy. Their strategy remains focused on stressing the administration’s work to spread vaccinations and end the pandemic without further lockdowns, cheering the nation’s progress in economic growth and promising that Mr. Biden’s policies will bring down prices for oil, food and consumer goods. “Every economic indicator shows an economy that is growing, that is stronger, that is creating jobs, that is putting more money in people’s pockets, and that is in part a result of President Biden’s economic agenda,” Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director, said in an interview. “I think what you hear from the president is that he understands that when people experience a higher price at the grocery store or at the gas pump that has an impact on their budget, and so he’s doing everything in his power to bring those prices down.” Still, there is an economic and political chasm on inflation between the administration and American voters. Recent polls by Monmouth University, CNBC and even the liberal Navigator research group show rising anxiety over the issue and warning signs for the Democrats who control Congress ahead of the midterm elections. Consumer confidence surveys show price increases are denting Americans’ optimism for the economy in the year ahead. The University of Michigan’s survey of consumers shows Americans have lower expectations for the growth of their incomes, adjusted for inflation, over the next year than they have since the waning years of the Obama administration. Administration officials have consistently underestimated the size and persistence of price increases throughout this year, declaring at regular intervals that they would abate as various pandemic-related challenges worked their way through the global economy.
