White House officials grow exasperated by media coverage as public sours on Biden economy, rising prices
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WASHINGTON - Senior White House officials intensified their criticisms of the media's economic coverage this week, alleging unfairly negative news reporting as public frustration grows with President Joe Biden's economic stewardship.
The tact reflects mounting frustration within the White House about the disconnect the administration sees between positive economic indicators - such as a soaring stock market, fast economic growth and low unemployment - and widespread voter discontent with the economy as measured in opinion polling.
A collision of historic economic developments in the stock market, labor market and consumer prices has created one of the most complicated economies in modern U.S. history, vexing the president and his top aides as they try to sell their economic record to voters.
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The administration has struggled since the spring with how to respond to the fastest increase in prices in three decades, adopting numerous different responses to the challenge after first suggesting inflation would prove short-lived. A government report due out Friday is expected to show how rising prices continues to affect American families.
But inflation is just part of the picture. Roughly than 13 million Americans quit their jobs between August and October, a trend with no precedent. The economy has created more than 6 million jobs since Biden took office, something that has also never happened before. The stock market is up roughly 25% and economic growth is surging far faster than most analysts predicted before this year.
On Thursday, ahead of the difficult report, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain released a video with charts illustrating ways in which the economy had healed with remarkable speed under the president's tenure. Klain and other senior administration officials have on Twitter expressed discontent with the media's focus on negative economic trends and lack of attention to rapidly falling unemployment claims, among other economic measures.
Klain on Thursday retweeted a post by MSNBC anchor Joy-Ann Reid that said there was an "incredible disconnect between the way things are, and the way we in media too often describe them. The U.S. economy is in incredibly good shape . . . Yet the conversation is 'Biden is doomed.' " Klain also shared an op-ed in the Hill, titled "Biden is delivering the fastest economic recovery in history. Why hasn't anyone noticed?" that blamed conservative media for hyping inflation.
"I understand why the White House is frustrated. We've had the media consistently emphasizing the bad things, while downplaying or outright ignoring what are really positive things in the economy," said Dean Baker, a liberal economist. "The media has been finding people who claim to be experiencing real hardship in the economy and telling stories that are either not true - or, if they are true, are incredibly idiosyncratic."
But other economists - including many liberals and allies of the White House - say that voter frustration with the economy reflects real challenges facing millions of Americans, primarily inflation that has reversed the growth in wages in the U.S. recovery.
Rapid job growth and plentiful job openings are helping people at the bottom of the income distribution, and economic growth is recovering at a faster pace than from any other recent major downturn. Yet most American families are seeing their wage increases erased by staggering price hikes over the last year, according to Jason Furman, an economist who served in the Obama administration.
Price increases are hitting every part of the income distribution, including the vast middle class, across key household necessities like fuel, food and housing. The rapid recovery of jobs at the bottom is critical for the lowest-wage Americans - including millions who have for decades suffered from sluggish economic growth - but primarily helps a relatively small portion of the country's population and voting base.
Americans have more money in their bank accounts compared to before the pandemic, due to stimulus checks and other coronavirus relief measures approved by the government that boosted family net worth. But that boost is starting to fade - stimulus payments were disbursed more than six months ago - and families received comparable amounts of government aid under the Trump administration.
"The typical family is spending an extra $4,000 this year because of excess inflation," Furman said. "It does not seem like much of a mystery why people are upset when they have to spend thousands of additional dollars more because of inflation."
The White House has said it is taking a range of actions designed to head off inflation, from coordinating a release of the gas reserves to looking at anti-competitive behavior in a range of industries pushing up consumers prices. The White House has also said its Build Back Better agenda will reduce family costs on items from prescription drugs to housing and health care.
Still, some White House allies are urging the administration not to fixate on the media and instead emphasize that the president's economic agenda is designed to address strains on family budgets.
"I understand they're frustrated they're not getting any credit for the good stuff happening in the economy," one outside adviser in touch with White House officials said. "But this media conspiracy theory - the idea that this is driven by the media - is a bit much. Ninety-two percent of Americans say they're concerned about inflation. Name anything else 92% of Americans agree about."
Whatever the cause, there is growing evidence that voters are blaming Biden for high prices in a way that could spell political disaster for Democrats in 2022.
Roughly 70% of Americans rate the economy negatively, with nearly half of Americans and political independents blaming Biden for inflation, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC poll. Biden's approval rating on the economy has fallen dramatically, the poll found, with 55% of the country now viewing his economic stewardship negatively, compared to just 39% who view it positively.
Republicans say attempts to reframe the economy as a success for the country could backfire on Biden by making the White House appear out of touch.
"The more the White House tries to claim that the economy is hunky dory while families are struggling to fill their gas tank and put food on the table, the more out of touch they look," said Chris Hartline, communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "Voters just don't believe them."
Some White House officials have become exasperated by the negative perception of the economy, because they believe it has made a remarkable turnaround since Biden took office. As first reported by CNN, White House officials in recent days have briefed the television networks about the supply chain crisis in an attempt to improve economic coverage. Many liberal economists have echoed the administration's frustrations.
"It is surprising to me there's so little attention to very low unemployment, very historically low Black unemployment, very little receipt of unemployment insurance, unprecedented growth of jobs," said Larry Mishel, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, said Democrats should not downplay the extent of inflation and instead emphasize that the White House is taking steps to address it through the Build Back Better agenda. Ryan said former president Barack Obama and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton were hurt by Democrats at the time who tried talking about the strength of the economy under the Obama administration. Democrats now risk making a similar mistake, Ryan said.
"You have to acknowledge where people are and the squeeze they are under. If we learned anything from the Obama to Clinton, they said the economy is going great and people say: 'Not really, not for us,' " said Ryan, who is running for the U.S. Senate. "You have to acknowledge the pain the people are under - and emphasize that's what's driving the agenda."
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