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NOVEMBER 15, 2022
Meyerson on TAP
Why Inflation Didn't Wipe Out the Democrats
How Bidenomics actually worked
One obvious takeaway from last week's midterm elections is that
despite high levels of inflation, the issue didn't drag Democrats down
to defeat. In more cases than virtually anyone predicted, both the
outrage over the Court's
**Roe** revocation and the rejection of Republicans who'd gone full
Trump eclipsed voters' discontent over inflation when they cast their
ballots.
But there's another reason-an economic one-why Republicans fell
short, and it's received virtually no attention. It becomes clear when
we examine two questions buried deep in the AP VoteCast exit poll
<[link removed]>.
In the first, voters were asked how confident they were that they could
find a good job if they needed to. In response, 65 percent answered they
were very or somewhat confident, while just 35 percent said they were
not too or not at all confident.
Voters were also asked "how confident are you that you can keep up with
your expenses?" To this, 67 percent said they were very or somewhat
confident, while just 33 percent said not very or not at all confident.
Inflation was clearly a problem, then, but for most voters, a manageable
one. Even more important, these questions don't reveal a level of
economic anxiety that can turn an election when there are other pressing
issues in play.
But how is it that voters felt so confident about getting a good job and
keeping up with their expenses? The answer, I suggest, is that the very
same economic policies for which Biden has been raked over the coals for
causing inflation also created a robust economic recovery in which jobs
are plentiful and incomes are rising. The very same $1.9 trillion bill
to offset the pandemic downturns-the bill on which every Republican on
the Hill voted no; the bill that Larry Summers et al. predicted would
have inflationary impacts-also created an economy in which jobs and
incomes were, and still are, growing. And they still may, unless the Fed
slams on the brakes so hard that growth turns negative.
This isn't to say that the bill wasn't inflationary. It is to say
that it also gave a boost to the economy-and to middle- and
working-class Americans who were the intended beneficiaries of that
boost-on a scale large enough to enable those Americans to feel
confident about getting a good job and weathering the rising prices.
Dare we say that the much-maligned Bidenomics actually worked? I think
we dare.
~ HAROLD MEYERSON
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Courts Use Increasingly Lawless Arguments to Block Student Debt Relief
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In the latest ruling, the Eighth Circuit turned a non-plaintiff into a
plaintiff. BY DAVID DAYEN
The Rural Turnaround
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Democrats have only begun to do better in rural America-but the road
map is there. BY ROBERT KUTTNER
Beyond the 12-Mile Limit
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Why Democrats win the cities and lose the states, and what to do about
it. BY THOMAS M. NELSON
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