POLL SHOWS STUDENT DEBT POLICY MAY BE KILLING BIDEN – By Ari Rabin-Havt (The Intercept) / Dec 21, 2023
Could the disappearance of certain benefits be causing Biden’s weakness among young voters in particular?
JOE BIDEN’S 2024 campaign comes at a unique moment for the economy and how the electorate perceives it.
Looking at the economy through the standard macroeconomic lens, everything points in a positive direction. Unemployment remains below 4 percent for the longest stretch of time in 50 years, and inflation has retreated without the pain of a recession many predicted. Yet many voters, including those in key demographics Biden needs to win, are not experiencing the economy in the same way.
At the beginning of the Biden administration, the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a massive increase in America’s social safety net culminating in the passage of the American Rescue Plan at the start of Biden’s term. Americans received direct cash benefits from the government, health insurance was heavily subsidized, unemployment benefits were expanded, student loan payments paused, and the child tax credit sent cash to nearly every American family, lifting millions from poverty. That’s aside from the direct checks periodically ballooning people’s checking accounts, leading to the largest reserve of savings among consumers Opens in a new tabin American history.
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