Middle and lower income people’s wealth has increased under Biden: Jared Bernstein
December 31, 2023 03:51 PM
President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser stated Sunday that people in the middle and lower income classes have seen their net worth go up under the current president.
While appearing on Fox News Sunday, Jared Bernstein was asked about recent polling data that indicated only 22% of respondents believe the economy will get better in the coming year, while 44% predict that it will get worse. Bernstein, however, pointed to how spending over the last two months has gone up, which he called “a very strong Christmas season,” and how business startups have also gone up during the last year.
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Bernstein was also asked about credit card debt in the United States and if it could pose trouble for the president down the road, to which the economic adviser said that it is “something we want to look at.”
“But one of the things we’ve seen that’s been very important is an increase in the net worth or the wealth of not just folks at the top of the scale, but middle and lower income people as well,” Bernstein said. “In fact, for people in communities of color, we’ve seen a record number of increase in wealth, and that’s one of the reasons why household balance sheets have been in very good shape this time of year.”
Last month, inflation cooled to a 2.6% annual rate, declining 0.3 percentage points from the previous reading by the Federal Reserve. Core PCE inflation, a measure of inflation that strips out volatile energy and food prices, fell to a 3.2% year-over-year rate.
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However, many voters are still unsatisfied with the current state of the economy, with almost 70% of voters disapproving of the way Biden has been handling inflation compared to just 28% who say they approve, according to a recent Monmouth University poll released last week.
Going into 2024, a presidential election year, a majority of voters under the age of 30 say that the economy is the biggest issue facing the nation, with 44% of respondents sharing the sentiment. Meanwhile, 14% of those polled cited healthcare is the biggest issue for the nation, and 10% cited education.