A guest who appeared on CNN Friday made a bizarre claim as to why President Joe Biden’s approval ratings are in the basement.
The diagnosis: The U.S. economy is “too good.”
In an interview with host John King, Kai Ryssdal, the host of Public Radio’s Marketplace, said he thought the economy was “a little too good” right now.
“You don’t want to see 390,000 new jobs. Because that increases wage pressure, wage pressure helps drive inflation, and that takes direct aim at [Fed chairman Jay] Powell and the Federal Reserve are trying to do which is cool this economy a just a little tiny bit,” Ryssdal claimed.
“So, sometimes good news can be too good, I guess is what you’re saying,” King responded before claiming that Biden is putting “American families, number one, and his own politics as we get closer to Election Day” second.
In drawing attention to the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index, which — like other recent surveys — shows that inflation and the state of the economy are the two top concerns among voters heading into the November midterms, King appeared to disapprove of the fact that Americans were not giving Biden more credit.
“Consumer sentiment, even though the economy is adding robust jobs. Even though, as you said, if you have a job, you’re probably getting a raise. If you want to switch, you can,” he tried to explain.
King went on to describe Americans as “in a funk” and that “gas prices, food prices” were the “2×4” “hitting them in the head.”
Ryssdal went on to say that consumers are still “spending,” however, which was another sign of a robust economy — though consumers are spending more because prices for goods, food, and services are higher.
Earlier in the day, At This Hour host Kate Bolduan boasted: “[W]e heard the President say essentially the economy in this historical sense, the economy is very strong. We’ve heard over and over, I know you do all the time, the fundamentals of the economy are still there and they are still strong.”
She then lamented to White House correspondent John Harwood that the American people weren’t rewarding Biden with positive poll numbers.
“But again, that message, if it’s getting out there, people aren’t believing it because look at the poll numbers. They really are historically bad with the President’s handling of the economy. Are you sensing the White House is aware of that? Is this their attempt to try to respond to that?” she asked.
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