After two years of struggle, the U.S. economy is still having growth issues as new reports revealed that, instead of growing, the American economy actually shrank in the first quarter of 2022.
While this is bad news for every American, Democrats in particular are dismayed at how this will affect their political positions.
This is the first time that the U.S. economy has shrunk since the pandemic recession two years ago. The gross domestic product shrank at a 1.4 percent annual rate, the Wall Street Journal reported.
This 1.4 percent contraction is a reversal from the previous quarter, which showed a 6.9 percent annual growth rate.
With supply chain issues, a significant trade deficit and low inventory investments by businesses (due to supply chain issues), the whole economy is suffering.
Democrats are seeing this as an event that could wind up being disastrous for them, particularly in the 2022 midterm elections.
Even CNN reported in its April 28 headline that “Today is a disastrous day for Democrats’ 2022 chances.”
The media outlet called the news of the economic shrinkage, “an absolute body blow to Democrats already reeling amid growing economic concerns ahead of the 2022 midterm election.”
“It’s the worst political environment that I’ve lived through in 30 years of being a political consultant,” John Anzalone, a Biden pollster, said.
With inflation still skyrocketing and costing everyone more money, and now the news that the economy has actually shrunk, American voters are concerned.
In a new Gallup poll, Americans showed that their confidence in the economy is very low.
Most Americans are saying that the state of the economy is either “poor” or only “fair,” the poll discovered.
Only 2 percent of those polled said conditions were “excellent,” 18 percent said it was “good,” but 38 percent said it was “fair” and 42 percent said the economy was “poor.”
What’s even more concerning is that 76 percent of Americans say the economy is getting worse, while only 20 percent say it’s improving and 3 percent think it is remaining the same.
On top of Gallup’s poll numbers, the Economic Confidence Index that they calculated is at -39. The index measures respondents’ feelings about the economy from +100 (the economy is doing wonderful and everyone is confident) to -100 (low confidence as an economy is crashing).
For reference, the 2008 crash and Great Recession hit a record low of -72 on the Economic Confidence Index.
“Add all of those factors up, and you get an absolutely toxic political environment facing President Joe Biden and Democrats as they prepare to defend their House and Senate majorities in November,” CNN reported.
Voters are unhappy with Biden and how he is handling the economy. Only 33 percent of Americans approved of how Biden is handling the economy, a Quinnipiac University poll revealed.
This frustration will likely spin out and fall upon Biden’s broader political party of Democrats this fall.
There are only 193 days until the midterm elections that will end up determining which party controls Congress. A mere 193 days is a very short window to try to turn the entire American economy around, drive down consumer prices (like gas), fix the supply chain issue and get back to where things were almost three years ago, before the pandemic.
“If things stay roughly where they are today — in terms of economic measures like GDP and CPI and Americans’ perceptions of the state of the economy – Democrats will experience a cataclysm at the ballot box this fall,” CNN predicted.
“The question won’t be whether they hold their paper-thin majorities in the House and Senate,” the outlet continued, “but rather how big the electoral hole will be that they have to try to dig out from over the coming decade.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
