If the definition of elitism is ignoring what ordinary people think and feel in favor of “expert” opinions, then President Joe Biden is our elitist in chief. Just look at his response to the news that more people trust former President Donald Trump on the economy than him: “The polling data has been wrong all along,” he claimed. “We’ve created more jobs. We’re in a situation where people have access to good-paying jobs.” 

The reality is far less rosy than this misleading rhetoric.

Last year, 60% of workers held positions that paid fewer than $40,000 per year or lacked basic benefits such as health insurance, paid time off, or a controllable schedule. The Biden administration has “created” hundreds of thousands of jobs since then, but full-time employment has fallen, which means virtually all of those jobs are part-time. What full-time job growth we do see is driven by government jobs, not a revitalization of industry.

Then, there is the fact that employment for native-born Americans was 600,000 jobs short of pre-pandemic levels as recently as April of this year, while foreign-born employment is up 2.7 million. 

In plain English, Biden’s “recovery” from COVID-19 is mostly a boost in unstable, low-paying jobs for immigrants, partially created by his willful failure to secure the southern border and misguided expansion of immigration programs.

None of this has stopped “expert” economists from arguing that “the U.S. is doing fantastically well.” But working families know better. They know their spending on groceries has increased roughly 30% since Biden took office. They know the sticker price of a home has gone up 25% in the same time frame, even before they factor in record-high mortgage rates. And they know their pay raises, if they have any, aren’t making up the difference. Even CNN admits that “real income, when you account for inflation, is actually down.” 

Biden claims he inherited that inflation, but it’s a bald-faced lie: inflation was only 1.4% in January 2021, before runaway government spending caused prices to skyrocket.

Tragically, there is no end in sight. Economic data from the last few months show the “worst of both worlds,” according to investors, meaning “slower than expected growth, higher than expected inflation.” This could spell an outburst of 1970s-style “stagflation,” the consequences of which would be disastrous. All Americans would experience greater financial stress. Many would see their standard of living collapse. Worst of all, countless families and communities would begin to erode.

We often overlook the latter point. Economists, journalists, and politicians tend to talk about Americans as line items on a spreadsheet: individual workers and consumers reduced to numerical inputs that tally up to the gross domestic product. But we aren’t a country of inputs; we’re a country of families. And the economy is about more than getting dollar bills to change hands; it’s about building communities where we can grow, find meaning, and make a difference in the lives of others. This requires a virtuous combination of stability, dignified work, and prosperity, all of which are in short supply in Biden’s economy.

Consider this fact: more than 50% of people aged 18-34 would potentially have a child, but feel incapable of doing so due to their high cost of living. In other words, there are tens of millions of people who are being deprived of the joy of new life by the pressures of our economy. Meanwhile, our country is being deprived of tens of millions of future parents, mentors, workers, entrepreneurs, volunteers, soldiers, and leaders.

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Biden should be the first to lament these losses. Instead, he belittles them or pretends they don’t exist. The president’s motive is obvious: he wants voters to think they’re doing well so they’ll vote him back into office this November. 

But the action is shameful nonetheless. Even Democratic strategist David Axelrod calls it a “terrible mistake.” In this time of crisis, our families and communities need leadership, not false optimism.

Marco Rubio is the senior U.S. senator for Florida.