Poll: Americans divided on what term, like 'horrible' or 'terrible,' describes the economy

Jacob B. | 4:02 PM on September 17, 2023

@NRCC, the tweeter of the National Republican Congressional Committee, references a recent poll published by Suffolk University and USA Today.

Voters aren’t buying the White House’s spin on Bidenomics. pic.twitter.com/l7We8ZadS3
— NRCC (@NRCC) September 17, 2023

The survey offered respondents several groups of adjectives to describe the economy. A large majority of those polled describe the economy as one of the adjectives listed in the @NRCC graphic. Among those who describe the economy negatively, the two highest polled groups of adjectives were "Horrible/Terrible/Awful" (22 percent) and "Bad/Poor/Weak/Sad/Dismal" (22 percent).

Different words have different meanings, but they add up to disgust over the state of the economy.

For 30 consecutive months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has recorded inflation as being higher than the figure the Federal Reserve has repeatedly stated is its inflation goal, 2 percent. During that time, inflation has been recorded at the highest levels in four decades. Also during that time, the Biden administration and congressional Democrats have pushed an agenda of government spending, taxation, and regulations. One legislative piece of that agenda is the counterintuitive entitled "Inflation Reduction Act."

The BLS recordings are of the year-over-year price increases of goods and services. The latest inflation recording, of August 2023, is 3.7 percent, which means the statistic indicates that the price of the same goods and services has increased by 3.7 percent since August 2022. Prices can increase in an economy when too much money is chasing too few goods and services.

President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress have failed to even attempt applying a working solution to the economic challenges facing the U.S. They could have sought ways to cut wasteful federal government spending, but the push has instead been to spend more in a high-inflation environment. They could have sought to cut taxes so that more funds would be freed up for employees and employers, but the push has instead been to find increasingly creative ways to regulate the U.S. economy. However "Bidenomics" is defined, it has been measured to be an utter and unmitigated economic failure.

What works is an economy that can work. Innovators, inventors, entrepreneurs, business owners, and all who keep the U.S. economy going are most free to create and produce when government is least involved in their creation and production.