Editorial: Dems delight in blasting president over economy – if it's Trump

Boston Herald, Boston Herald on Apr 18, 2025

Published in Op Eds

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How do you know Joe Biden is out of the White House?

Because Democrats care about the economy.

Specifically, they care about hammering President Donald Trump about the economy, and his tariff rollout/rollback’s effect on it. They are tickled pink to point fingers across the aisle.

Politico cited interviews with more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers, congressional staffers and media strategists, and found that many in the party see a prime opportunity to attack Trump on a key campaign promise they argue he’s failing to deliver. Some candidates are already hitting tariffs in campaign launch ads, while the party is planning to capitalize on anger over the economy, among other issues, in upcoming town halls.

Biden’s spending spree, famously fueling the Inflation Reduction Act, kick-started inflation to wallet-busting levels during his tenure. Americans, still struggling after the pandemic, found groceries getting less and less affordable each week.

Would-be voters noticed, and they were not happy. But Beltway Dems touted each new pricey Biden program as a win-win for his presidency and the country.

Inflation? It was caused by the war in Ukraine, or price-gouging companies, or some other factor that had nothing to do with taxing and spending, said the top Dems.

But the bloom was off the rose for ordinary people including those who voted Democrat. A June 2022 I&I/TIPP poll found that a majority of Democrats, 53%, believed Biden’s policies were to blame for inflation, while 39% said that they weren’t. Overall, 64% of the poll’s 1,310 adult respondents said that they believed Biden’s policies were either “responsible” or “very responsible” for the rising prices.

DC Dems stayed on Team Biden, until some switched to Team Get Him Out of Here, and paid the price in November.

Now it’s their chance to publicly put the screws to Trump over the economy.

“We heard for five freaking months going into the last election, people beating up Biden and Harris about inflation, and the price of (expletive) eggs,” said longtime Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher, who worked on both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns.

“There is an opportunity here, of historical proportions, given the advantage on the economy writ large that Republicans have had for decades,” he added. “You see Trump underwater on handling the economy and fighting inflation and bringing down costs – that is a major opening and a historic way for Democrats to take away what has been a major positive for Republicans.”

Here’s a thought: what if both parties focused on the daily lives of the American people, and not who picks up a House or Senate seat in the midterms?

Families were laid low by inflation, and now those invested in 401(k)s, even with a bond mix, are having palpitations with each Wall Street opening bell.

Unity and consensus may be too much to ask for from our elected leaders, but at the very least Americans need to believe a divided Washington can focus on our needs and worries, and not just launch salvos at each other.

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