President Joe Biden’s recent rhetoric about the economy is an indication that Democrats are already planning on losing the midterms, economists told the Daily Caller.
The president has shifted his messaging in recent weeks to say that Republicans will “crash the economy” and “make inflation worse” if they win the midterms while claiming that his policies are responsible for a “historic deficit reduction.” (RELATED: Biden Says Republicans Will ‘Crash The Economy’ If They Win Midterms)
The new communications strategy is a way to shift responsibility for the coming economic downturn to Republicans after they win the midterms, EJ Antoni, a research fellow for regional economics in the Center for Data Analysis at the Heritage Foundation, told the Caller.
“In my opinion, the writing has been on the wall for months that the economy is set for future declines, and that writing has now gotten so big that even an ideologue must notice it,” Antoni said. “Given that polls have also recently turned against Democrats, the party in power seems to be setting up the next Congress to take the blame for its own failures when the bill comes due.”
Republicans are leading Democrats 49% to 45% in a general midterm ballot, a recent USA Today/Suffolk University poll found.
“The Biden administration has tried to gaslight the American people for months, telling them that inflation either doesn’t exist or doesn’t affect them, or is diminishing. It appears that the White House now realizes the American people cannot be fooled into thinking the economy is healthy. That would explain the shift away from taking credit for an economy which they assert is strong to casting blame for an economy they acknowledge is weak,” he added. (RELATED: Biden Continues To Tout The Budget Deficit Reduction. His Policies Have Nothing To Do With It)
Daniel Di Martino, a Job Creators Network Fellow, told the Caller that “the Biden Administration will try to blame the upcoming recession on Republicans taking over Congress despite the reality that it is fully predictable now despite Democrats controlling both chambers of Congress.”
“This is a fully avoidable crisis that was caused by Biden’s policies of overspending and overregulation,” Di Martino added.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Caller’s inquiry about why Biden changed his messaging to blame Republicans.
The deficit fell by $1.4 trillion this year.
That’s the largest one-year drop in American history.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 24, 2022
The president has also engaged in misleading messaging about deficit reduction, claiming his policies were responsible for the historic feat. Economic data from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget showed that the administration’s claim is untrue, and that the reduction was fueled by cuts to emergency COVID-19 funding, not by the Biden administration’s policies.