The “Biden Effect”

At Roll Call Republican pollster David Winston notes that Biden’s net disapproval is dimming the electoral prospects of Democrats all over the country. After a lengthy digression on President Biden’s lack of understanding of how increasing willingness to pay in the context of constraints on supply should be expected to increase prices,

On top of that, confidence in the federal government to manage the nation’s challenges has also taken a beating. It started with a lack of COVID-19 tests, followed by shortages of everything from paper towels to cars to chicken and now baby formula, an embarrassing exit from Afghanistan, the negative effects of an open border, and inflation. The list is a long one.

In a survey done by The Winston Group for the S Corporation Association, we found the brand image of the federal government at an unbelievable low, with almost 2-to-1 negatives — 33 percent favorable to 59 percent unfavorable. It is even worse among independents, at 24 percent favorable to 68 percent unfavorable.

This puts the feds at the bottom behind Pelosi, Biden, Trump and both parties in Congress. Still, in the end, it is the president tasked with running the federal government, and if it is failing in its mission, so is the manager in chief.

It is hard to see a way out of the hole this president and his party find themselves in without a significant change in policy direction. But to listen to Biden over the past week, staying the course seems to be the operative strategy.

There has been a lot of bad news lately—inflation, the shortage of infant formula, Russia’s war against Ukraine, the murders in Buffalo, decreases in various stock market indices. A lot of things seem to going wrong all at once. Joe Biden is the president and the Democrats hold narrow majorities in both houses of Congress. It’s the party in power that tends to get blamed when things go wrong.

I had to guffaw at this paragraph:

But Team Biden seems intent on ignoring well-founded criticism even from the Democratic fold. In February, Democratic economist Steven Rattner warned in The New York Times, “The bulk of our supply problems are the product of an overstimulated economy, not the cause of it. … It’s a classic economic case of ‘too much money chasing too few goods,’ resulting in both higher prices and, given the extreme surge in demand, shortages.”

Steve Rattner is no economist. He’s a Democratic fundraiser, apparatchik, and private equity Rolodex hire (i.e. he didn’t get the job for his business acumen but for his contacts). Nonetheless his advice should be heeded since it probably reflects what his big money contacts are saying.

IMO President Biden’s problem is that any “change in policy direction” is likely to be the opposite of what needs to be done. That’s the direction in which the progressive wing of his party is pulling and he’s sunk without their support.