Rampant inflation, anxiety stymie Biden effort to focus on strong economic growth
WASHINGTON — It’s a maxim in politics: Bad economic news trumps the good. And that is what scares President Joe Biden and the Democrats.
On Tuesday, inflation hit a new 40-year high.
Just five days earlier, the nation’s unemployment rate had plummeted to nearly a 50-year low, a sign of a strong economy that the White House worries is getting lost in a swirl of consumer concerns about rising costs and deeper anxieties triggered by war and pandemic.
“Economic statistics don’t matter anymore in this polarized political environment,” said Steve Israel, a former Democratic congressman who oversaw the party’s campaign arm from 2011-15. The small percentage of swing voters up for grabs in November’s midterm election, he continued, “are going to make a judgment this fall not based on charts and data but based on how they feel about
