Stephen Moore: It’s The Inflation, Stupid

In the latest edition of his must-read Unleash Prosperity Hotline our friend Steve Moore

noted that thirty years ago, Bill Clinton’s brilliant and flamboyant campaign manager, James Carville, put a sign on his desk for anyone who wanted to know what the election was about: “It’s the economy, stupid.” Mr. Moore says next week’s election isn’t very complicated either: “It’s the inflation, stupid.”

If you haven’t signed-up for the Unleash Prosperity Hotline you really should, it’s free and is one of the best resources available for news and commentary on the intersection between politics and the economy.

A chart from Laffer Associates Steve included in yesterday’s Hotline shows the growing global spike in higher inflation. It’s happening in the U.S. and most countries in the world because of runaway government spending, debt, and money-printing – almost unprecedented in modern times.

Mr. Moore says this almost unprecedented economic disaster has occurred because Biden and the Europeans have embraced Modern Monetary Theory – the looney tunes idea that nations can just spend and borrow forever and nothing bad will happen. Well, they were wrong. Really bad things have happened. It’s time to throw the theory and the practitioners of this theory into the trash can (figuratively). Which you can do, we note, by voting Democrats out next Tuesday.

Steve’s point about the damage inflation is causing to the quality of life of America’s working families is right on target, but we think there’s also another subtle effect Biden’s runaway inflation is having on the dynamics of 2022 election: It has reinforced and made clear the disconnect between our self-appointed cultural and governing elite and the average working American.

Millions of Americans had their lives and businesses destroyed by lockdowns, vax mandates and other arbitrary, unscientific policies Democrat government officials and their allies among medical, business, and cultural gatekeepers imposed during the pandemic.

The message those millions of Americans took away from that experience was that their self-appointed “betters” don’t give a damn about them and their families.

And now they’ve gotten the same message from Biden and the Democrats on inflation and the economy.

As Marc Thiessen observed in column for the Washington Post, President Biden’s recent gaffe — claiming, in a moment of confusion, that Congress had passed his student loan forgiveness plan — has provided Americans with an additional moment of clarity just before the midterm elections: It has forced the Biden administration to admit that the Inflation Reduction Act does not reduce inflation, voters’ top concern — and was never intended to do so.

No one is fooled about why gasoline has hit record highs during the first two years of Joe Biden’s presidency. It’s not “Putin’s price hike,” it’s because Biden has done everything possible to reduce the supply of crude oil produced here in America, and even the dullest low-information voter knows it.

Same with electricity and food – Biden’s policies to put coal out of business and raise the cost of fossil-based fertilizers are driving the vast cost increases, and everyone knows it.

Now, many Democrats think that’s just fine – they want to force you to drive an impractical and expensive electric car and eat food made from bugs, but the vast majority of voters are telling pollsters they are not interested and plan to vote against the Democrats.

A PBS analysis of recent Marist poll concluded confidence in President Joe Biden’s economic leadership has fallen since July 2021. According to the finding of that Marist poll, fifty-seven percent of U.S. adults say his decisions weaken the economy, including nearly all Republicans, 63 percent of independents and 76 percent of white people who didn’t graduate from college. That’s worse for Biden by 12 percentage points compared to over a year ago.

Today, a majority of Americans feel the country is already in a recession and trust Republicans more than Democrats to steer the nation’s economy back toward growth, and Democrats touting the alleged economic growth potential of a Green New Deal for the next week isn’t going to change their minds.

Indeed, a New York Times/Siena College poll taken in October found that 44% of likely voters say economic concerns are the most important problem facing the country, compared with 36% who said the same in July.

And the Left-leaning UK Guardian reports voters’ renewed focus on inflation and gas prices could hurt Democrats’ chances in some key congressional races, given that Republicans consistently score better on surveys asking which party is better equipped to manage the economy.

But it seems Democrats just can’t help themselves because no pro-growth policy will sell to the Far Left that now controls the Democratic Party’s policy and messaging apparatus. Every Democrat announcement on the economy seems to start with some new plan to add costs to hard-pressed private sector job-creators and end with some part of the Green New Deal.

Voters aren’t buying it because they see the obvious detrimental economic effects of those policies and have concluded Democrats aren’t really interested in fixing our problems, they just want to stay in power so they order the rest of us around.

• 2022 Elections

• Control of Congress

• inflation

• It's the inflation, stupid

• Unleash Prosperity Hotline

• government spending

• Modern Monetary Theory

• Bidenflation

• gas prices

• energy policy

• issue polls