By: The Editorial Board – wsj.com – September 10, 2024

They have good reason to be, as the latest Census data reveal.

Kamala Harris says the Biden Administration rescued the U.S. economy. The truth is that the Biden inflation has left most Americans worse off than they were before the pandemic. The latest evidence comes from Tuesday’s Census Bureau report on household income, poverty and health coverage in 2023.

Real median earnings for full-time workers last year declined 1.6% and even more for high-school grads (3.3%). This means inflation outpaced wage gains for most low-wage workers. One culprit may be that workers logged fewer hours and less overtime as the labor market started to soften, especially in leisure, hospitality and manufacturing.

The upshot is that real median household income remains lower than in 2019 and has barely grown since 2020. The contrast between the first three years of the Trump and Biden presidencies is striking. See the table.

Between 2016 and 2019, incomes climbed for Asians ($14,600), whites ($8,910), Hispanics ($6,960), and blacks ($4,540). The gains were comparatively modest from 2020 to 2023: Asians ($1,500), whites ($850), Hispanics ($700), and blacks ($2,650). Because Covid reduced incomes in 2020, this comparison, if anything, flatters the Biden record.

The Trump tax reform and deregulation boosted growth, which resulted in a tighter labor market and rising wages—without fueling inflation. Federal spending as a share of GDP averaged 20.5% during the first three years under Mr. Trump compared to 25.8% under Mr. Biden. Never has the government spent so much money only to leave Americans poorer.

While the headline poverty rate declined 0.4 percentage points to 11.1%, the bureau’s supplemental measure that takes into account housing costs and government transfer payments rose 0.5 percentage points to 12.9%. The supplemental measure is 1.1 percentage points higher than in 2019 despite an increase in transfer payments under Mr. Biden. Blame the housing-price inflation of the Biden years.

The Administration is trying to put a shiny gloss on the report. “Today’s reports show we are making real progress growing the middle class,” the White House says. Talk about defining progress down. America’s middle class has seen their incomes after inflation stagnate during the Biden Presidency.

The White House also boasts that “health insurance coverage reached record highs,” but the share of uninsured was the same in 2023 as in 2019, according to the Census report. The difference is that fewer Americans now have private insurance (-2.6%), while more are covered by Medicare (0.8%) and Medicaid (1.7%).

All told, federal healthcare spending has increased by more than $500 billion since 2019, yet this money hasn’t bought better health or coverage. The Administration has dangled more money for states to expand Medicaid for working-age, healthy adults under ObamaCare. Small employers have responded by paring back their health coverage.

The Census report explains why so many Americans are sour on the Biden economy. The facts back them up.

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Source: Why Americans Are Sour on the Economy – WSJ