
Bidenomics Isn’t Working For Working People
Biden promised to build back better, but even as the economy recovers, workers are being left behind.

Along the same lines, economist Justin Wolfers recently told MSNBC that Americans feel negative about the economy because the conversation has been politicized, suggesting that people “tell themselves stories that are completely at odds with reality.”
The way to cut through the partisan noise, according to Wolfers, is to shift the economic conversation from the national to the personal level. Once the topic centers on people’s own household economic conditions, “all of a sudden there is this incredible optimism,” said Wolfers. In other words, just ask around.
The Census Bureau has been asking. Through its Household Pulse Survey, the agency has been tracking the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic and Americans’ recovery since April 2020. The data are wide-ranging, collected monthly, and disseminated in near real-time. A review of these surveys by The Lever reveals an ongoing humanitarian crisis.
Two of the survey’s longest-running questions concern financial hardship — people who reported that it was somewhat or very difficult to pay for basic household expenses in the last seven days — and food insecurity, tracking those who sometimes or often did not have enough to eat the week before. Data from the most recent survey period were released in late July.
For the first time under the Biden administration, food insecurity rates eclipsed 12 percent, marking a fourth consecutive month of increase. What’s more, average financial hardship and food insecurity rates this year exceed the previous three.