Happy Monday! It’s almost August and President Joe Biden is spending the next few days at the beach while Congress is out until next month. So here’s what we’re watching while waiting for baseball’s trade deadline.
DeSantis Unveils Economic Plan Attacking ‘Failed Elites’
As he looks to revive his campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, Florida governor Ron DeSantis on Monday introduced a 10-point economic plan built on both populist talking points and long-standing conservative doctrine.
In a campaign speech in New Hampshire, DeSantis tore into corporate interests, government bureaucrats and what he called the “failed elites” who have led America into military, cultural and economic decline. “Economic policy needs to be focused on making the cost of living more affordable and the American Dream more attainable for American working families,” DeSantis said. “We cannot allow, no longer, the failed ruling class in this nation to dictate our nation’s policies. We have to defeat those individuals and institutions that have caused our economic malaise.”
His recipe for the economy centered on attacking large corporations and Wall Street while making vague promises to “reward hard work and ingenuity” and “usher in a new era of growth, prosperity and civic pride.” DeSantis proposed to cut taxes, government spending and regulations while also boosting fossil fuel energy and revoking China’s “most favored nation” trade status. He also pledged to change the education system and “make universities, not taxpayers, responsible for the loans their students accrue” and to allow student debt to more easily be discharged through bankruptcy.
“Revitalizing economic freedom and opportunity will require building an economy where the concerns of average citizens are elevated over those deemed too big to fail,” he said. Among his goals, he said: “We want to be a country where you can raise a family on one sole income.”
The politics at play: “His populist, anti-corporatist comments seemed intended to lift his standing with non-college-educated voters, a crucial Republican constituency that polling shows is not supporting Mr. DeSantis’s candidacy in large numbers,” writes Nicholas Nehamas at The New York Times.
The bottom line: This plan and this speech probably won’t do much to boost DeSantis’s campaign. As Nehamas writes: “In sum, the plan largely repeats standard conservative promises to stoke economic growth by reducing taxes on corporations and investors, and by cutting government regulation — proposals that are typically cheered by business lobbyists, despite Mr. DeSantis’s anti-corporate, ‘anti-woke’ rhetoric.”
Strong Economy, Weak Ratings for Biden
President Biden has been traveling the country to promote his economic policies, which the White House says have produced better-than-expected GDP growth, low unemployment and a healthy stock market — all while inflation continues to cool. But according to recent polls, voters don’t share the president’s embrace of “Bidenomics,” as he’s sought to label his economic policies, or his rosy outlook. No matter what the economic statistics may say, a significant number of Americans appear to believe that things are going badly for them and their fellow citizens.
Asked how they would rate the condition of the economy, 65% of respondents in a new CBS News/YouGov survey said it is “bad,” while just 29% chose “good.” The job market got better reviews, with 46% saying it is in good shape. But even as the unemployment rate is hovering near a 50-year low, 43% of respondents reported that the job market is bad.
On specific economic issues, Biden did no better. Asked about the president’s handling of inflation, 70% said they disapprove, while 30% said they approve. Fifty-eight percent said they disapprove of Biden’s handling of jobs and employment issues, while 42% said the opposite. Overall, 66% said they disapprove of his handling of the economy.
Many respondents appear to blame the Biden administration for the inflationary surge that is still affecting the economy. Although the inflation rate has been falling, 45% said the administration’s policies are making inflation worse, with just 19% saying the policies were making inflation better. The remaining 36% said the policies had no impact (13%) or they weren’t sure (23%). Crucially, 70% said that inflation is outpacing their incomes.
More broadly, asked how they “feel things in America today are going,” 71% of respondents chose “very badly” (35%) or “somewhat badly” (36%).
Things don’t seem to be improving, either. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said the economy is getting worse, while 21% said it was getting better and 21% said it was staying about the same.
Another problematic finding for the White House: Not many people seem to know what “Bidenomics” is. Just 14% of respondents said they had heard a lot about it, while 27% said they had heard some things about it. But a majority (59%) said they had heard either not much (21%) or nothing at all (38%).
The bottom line: There’s a big gap between the recent, surprisingly strong economic reports and outlooks of millions of voters. Whatever the cause — and the persistence of inflation looks like a leading suspect — it’s clear that Biden has a lot of selling to do before he can convince voters that his policies are making things better for ordinary Americans.
Analysis of the Day: America’s Sick Health Care System
The American Prospect’s Maureen Tkacik and David Dayen on Monday introduced a new special report about the state of the U.S. health care system.
“The business of health care in America is deeply out of whack,” the pair write. “The problem is, because the country essentially lacks any institutions designed to broadly improve public health, our medical advances are funneled through a veritable gauntlet of gatekeepers, distributors, middlemen, subcontractors, loophole-exploiters, conglomerates, and monopolies, all under the watchful eye of Wall Street investors. … The science of health care points to a bright future; the business of health care points directly backwards.”
They include some disturbing data on U.S. health spending:
“Where is the money for the most expensive health care system in the world going? The cut of gross national health care expenditures commanded by administrative overhead and waste has ballooned to an estimated 30 percent; the portion that pays doctors and nurses has fallen. Experts estimate that fraud comprises at least $10 of every $100 the U.S. government spends each year on health care. And how much does the government spend policing that fraud? In 2021, that figure was two cents, according to the HHS inspector general. Wealth extraction has become so normalized in American health care, it can barely be considered illegal.”
FISCAL NEWS ROUNDUP
- Democratic Caucus Chair Says Shutdown Is Looming Because ‘the Far Right Is Battling the Extreme Right’ – The Hill
- Biden Administration Launches New Income-Driven Student Debt Repayment Plan – CNN
- DeSantis Unveils New Economic Policy That Targets China, Taxes and Regulations – Associated Press
- Top Super PAC Commands House Dems to Talk Up the Economy – Politico
- House Dems Sideline One of Their Own Leaders in the Fight Over Food Stamps – Politico
- Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Medicare Dementia Care Model – The Hill
- Biden Heading West to Tout Climate Funding – The Hill
- IRS Gears up to Go After ‘Complex Partnerships’ Despite Lack of Clear Definition – The Hill
- Biden Overturns Trump Decision to Move Space Command HQ From Colorado to Alabama – The Hill
- 99-Year-Old Trucking Company Yellow Shuts Down, Putting 30,000 Out of Work – CNN
- Chicago Fed's Austan Goolsbee Says He Hasn't Made Up His Mind on September Meeting – Yahoo Finance
- Traders Brace for $102 Billion Wave of Treasury Bond Sales – Bloomberg
- The U.S. Clean-Energy Company That Hit the Subsidies Jackpot – Wall Street Journal
VIEWS AND ANALYSIS
- ‘Bidenomics’ Was Born as a Put-Down. Now, It’s a Boast – Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
- The Problem With the ‘Bidenomics’ Sales Pitch – Philip Bump, Washington Post
- How the U.S. Economy Is Sticking the Soft Landing – Ruth Simon and Sarah Chaney Cambon, Wall Street Journal
- I Wouldn’t Bet the Farm on ‘Bidenomics’ – Blake Hurst, Wall Street Journal
- Why the Drivers of Lower Inflation Matter – Nick Timiraos and Tom Fairless, Wall Street Journal
- The Economic Case for Taxing Star Athletes – Peter Coy, New York Times
- A Sick System – Maureen Tkacik and David Dayen, American Prospect
- My Life in Corporate Medicine – Stephanie Arnold and Maureen Tkacik, American Prospect