Objectively, most of us are better off now than we were four years ago. Who wants to go back to the days of school closures, masks, and double-digit unemployment?
So, why is former President Donald Trump eagerly asking the question on social media, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
Paul Krugman thinks the answer is that voters give Trump a “mulligan” for COVID, which is undoubtedly true. But then, Krugman asks why voters don’t give a similar mulligan to President Joe Biden.
The problem for Biden is that, unlike Krugman, most people don’t view the high inflation of the post-COVID economy as inevitable. Nor should they. Obama aides Lawrence Summers, Jason Furman, and Steven Rattner all warned Biden that his $1.9 trillion partisan spending plan would cause inflation. And it did. As a direct result of Biden’s reckless spending, real wages are down, borrowing costs are up, and people can’t afford homes or cars, two big pieces of the American dream.
Krugman also seems to forget how well positioned Trump was before COVID. In February 2020, he had his first net positive approval rating, unemployment was 3.5%, and Trump was reaching out to minority voters with a Super Bowl ad touting his First Step Act. But for COVID, Trump was set to cruise to reelection.
Most importantly, however, not only do voters not blame COVID on Trump, it is Democrats and Biden whom voters most associate with the worst of the COVID policy response. And they are right to do so. Biden was not president for most of 2020, but when he became president, he instantly sold out children to teachers union demands for more school closures. Voters remember, and they are not happy.
In fact, before Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, Democrats were heading toward disastrous midterm elections based in large part on their COVID response failures. It is only the abortion topic that saved Democrats from a red wave.
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Biden promised a return to normalcy if elected president. Instead of bipartisan moderation, Biden has governed from the extreme left, passing a huge stimulus that caused inflation and dismantling our immigration law enforcement capabilities, causing a flood of 3.8 million illegal immigrants.
A majority of voters want a pre-inflation, pre-border crisis America, and that is what Trump is promising.