Democrats lose ground with women in recent polling

Samantha-Jo Roth

October 20, 03:08 PM October 20, 03:08 PM

Democrats appear to be losing ground with one of their most crucial voting blocs, women, in the final weeks of the midterm elections, according to recent polling.

A Monmouth University poll out Thursday found women to be evenly split between Democrats and Republicans on the generic ballot, 38% to 38%, an 8-point decrease since August, when the poll found women preferred that Democrats over Republicans be in control of Congress, 46% to 29%.

The findings come as Republicans focus on rising inflation and economic concerns under President Joe Biden as their closing argument. The poll found the number of people who rate inflation as extremely important has increased from 37% in September to 46% this month.

VOTERS AGREE: GOP TO TAKE HOUSE AND SENATE

This is the second poll this week that spells trouble for a critical constituency for Democrats in swing states and districts. A New York Times-Siena College poll released Monday found female independent voters favored Republicans by 18 points — a swing from the same poll conducted in September, when they favored Democrats by 14 points.

Overall, women were split 47% to 47% on whether they would support Democrats or Republicans on the generic ballot. Democrats had an 11-point advantage in the same poll last month.

Democrats have been banking on high turnout among female voters in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade this summer. However, the latest poll shows the economy has surpassed abortion as a top concern among likely voters.

WATCH: Sen. John Kennedy says ‘Biden is your man’ if you want 'misery'

Heather Hamilton

October 20, 10:19 AM October 20, 10:20 AM

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) slammed President Joe Biden’s policies, saying they have “screwed up” the United States.

Appearing on Fox News's Jesse Watters Primetime Wednesday, Kennedy blasted Biden’s infrastructure bill as being “emblematic of a larger problem.”

The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was touted by the Biden administration as a major bipartisan achievement that will create jobs and provide much-needed funding for roads, bridges, water projects, and broadband access, passed Congress in August 2021.

WATCH: TULSI GABBARD CAMPAIGNS FOR KARI LAKE AND A RETURN TO ‘OBJECTIVE TRUTH’

“The American people have learned over the past 20 months that if you want something screwed up, President Biden is your man,” Kennedy said. “It has been 20 months of misery and vexation and Homer Simpson goes to Washington. I mean, pick your issue. The infrastructure bill, COVID, crime, the border, Congress, the economy, inflation, gas prices, Afghanistan, baby formula, for God’s sakes.”

“That’s why, based on the polling, you can see it,” Kennedy continued. “A majority of Americans believe that if you put the Biden Administration in charge of the Sahara Desert, it would quickly run out of sand.”

Kennedy, who is running for reelection in the Senate and is heavily favored to win, also said the “wokers” with whom Biden surrounds himself have turned him into a laughable caricature.

“The journalism professors with their comment-worthy man purses, experts like James Taylor and Vice President Harris — these people have way more zeal than wisdom,” Kennedy said. “They have turned our president into a caricature of this nice elderly gentleman — maybe on a day pass from a nursing home — happily eating ice cream and wandering around the country saying, ‘Well, the economy is slowing and prices are rising, and your 401Ks are crashing because the economy is so good and my policies are so good.’ And nobody is believing it. Because it’s not true.”

A new battleground election tracker released earlier this week showed many voters are not satisfied with the direction of the country and blame Biden. More than 70% of voters said the Biden administration’s policies are responsible for the current state of the economy, with 45% saying it is to blame “a great deal.”

Common 401(k) down $34,000 this calendar year as markets struggle: Research

Zachary Halaschak

Oct 18, 04:24 PM October 18, 04:27 PM

The normal person’s 401(k) has missing some $34,000 in benefit since the start off of the yr, new financial investigation discovered.

E.J. Antoni and Stephen Moore (a columnist for the Washington Examiner magazine), conducting the review on behalf of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, released their research this week. The two pored by details compiled by monetary products and services corporations and located that given that the begin of the yr, 401(k) strategies have endured more than $2 trillion in losses.

The pair mentioned that even though the typical 401(k) had more than $135,000 at the start out of this yr, individuals property have considering the fact that shrunk on average to about $101,000. Antoni informed the Washington Examiner in the course of an interview that a ton of information from companies have been analyzed to appear to a determine, which he described as a conservative estimate. That is about a 25% drop.

“We fundamentally looked at facts from a bunch of skilled financial products and services companies and estimated mainly the amount of cash in 401(k)s, and the number of 401(k)s, and the common stability of 401(k)s at the commence of the year, and then we followed how significantly their holdings, which are likely to be primarily issues like stocks and bonds, how significantly that has fallen 12 months-to-date,” he claimed.

Economic downturn ODDS Rise TO 100% IN Financial MODELING

To review the estimate to other people, Antoni reported that Fidelity Investments, in its next-quarter report, observed that just in the 1st two quarters of the year, the regular 401(k) harmony had previously fallen about 21%.

“Now we arrived up with a variety that was basically not significantly more substantial than that because we manufactured our estimate as conservative as doable,” he said, noting that the Fidelity estimate spans six months whilst theirs spans a nine-thirty day period time period.

Even so, it is worthy of noting that all those who are holding onto their 401(k) plans and not drawing from them may have misplaced some 25% in benefit, but if the markets increase — and they always have gone back up historically — those people losses in worth will be inevitably erased.

“If both the stock and bond current market had been to stage a miraculous rebound in the coming months or even in the coming years, then individuals values would go back again up,” Antoni reported. “For the human being who is previously retired, although, or the particular person who desires to get started drawing down their 401(k), let’s say, you are advertising those investments and you are marketing them these days. Which means you’re knowing that reduction today.”

For case in point, some folks intending to retire this 12 months may have to conclude up doing the job for a further calendar year in the hopes that the industry returns by then. If the rout in the inventory and bond marketplaces is worse than expected, some persons could possibly finish up paring back again their retirement timetable even more.

In addition to the exploration on 401(k) options, the duo also observed that inflation has brought on getting power to tumble since January of very last calendar year, when President Joe Biden to start with took business.

When Biden was sworn in, the consumer cost index was registering inflation managing below the Federal Reserve’s most well-liked 2% threshold. Prices started mounting in April of that 12 months, and inflation is now operating at a crimson-scorching 8.2%, much much more than is wholesome for the overall economy.

The scientists claimed that the normal loved ones in the United States has misplaced approximately $6,000 in purchasing electric power.

In buy to calculate the $6,000 figure, the economists took knowledge from the Bureau of Labor Data on nominal wage gains and modified for inflation, which is how one particular establishes authentic gains. They looked at nominal wage data from January of previous yr via September and modified that for how higher the consumer price index has greater all through that similar time span.

Regular monthly price savings have also fallen by a whopping 83%, according to the analysis. Antoni explained that they were being in a position to reach that variety making use of publicly accessible info gathered by the Bureau of Financial Investigation.

In response to the inflation, the Fed has embarked on its most intense tightening cycle because the Great Inflation of the 1970s and 1980s. The central lender has hiked costs by 75 foundation details in the course of its very last a few conferences, analogous to nine classic raises in just a span of months.

The stubbornly large inflation usually means the Fed will have to continue to keep elevating costs aggressively to tame the higher rates, an action that causes desire to dwindle and the overall economy to awesome off, potentially even to the stage of a economic downturn.

“The chance of an even more aggressive rate of level hikes than we now assume has risen, which would weigh even far more seriously on development in 2023 (we at this time forecast negligible progress of .2% yr on yr in 2023, as the economic system activities a mild economic downturn),” said Cailin Birch, a worldwide economist at Economist Intelligence Device.

New financial modeling by Bloomberg, which was produced this 7 days, assigns a 100% prospect of a economic downturn taking place by subsequent October. That is up from 65% for the similar period of time of time in the past iteration of the model.

This weekend Biden faced blowback for feedback he produced about the toughness of the U.S. overall economy. Whilst on a swing out West forward of the midterm elections, Biden asserted that the financial state is “strong as hell.” That comment did not sit perfectly with Antoni soon after the analysis he did on how inflation is hitting shoppers.

“I just located it so insulting,” Antoni stated of the remarks, “that he has the gall to say the economy is as solid as hell when People are viewing their retirement price savings soften away more rapidly than his ice product.”

Joe-nuts: Biden stops for snack while rallying Dems in crucial races on West Coast swing

Zachary Halaschak

Oct 15, 03:42 PM October 15, 03:43 PM

President Joe Biden stopped by a phone lender, doughnuts in hand, to inspire Democratic volunteers in the ultimate push just before the midterm elections.

Biden, acknowledged for his sweet tooth, was in Oregon as part of a swing throughout the West Coast to shore up Democrats prior to Election Day. Biden indulged on a single frosted and one glazed doughnut as he served cellphone voters, according to the Related Push.

Tina Kotek, the Democratic nominee in the Oregon gubernatorial race, is experiencing a significantly nearer-than-expected race against Republican Christine Drazan. Democrats are hoping that Biden’s presence could spark some a lot more engagement in the race and enable the party cross the finish line in a state that hasn’t experienced a Republican governor considering that 1987.

“What a governor does matters,” Biden advised volunteers in Portland, Oregon, on Friday evening. “It issues! It issues, it matters, it matters!”

FED SUFFERS Yet another SETBACK IN Attempts TO Suppress INFLATION

Biden is trekking by way of California, Colorado, and Oregon as portion of his preelection campaign sweep. During the excursion, he has attempted to tout his party’s results in passing the Inflation Reduction Act and has had to contend with some even worse-than-anticipated financial reports.

In California, he pointed out investments in infrastructure and in combating local climate adjust. On Thursday, he stopped at a construction web-site in Los Angeles, exactly where workers are developing an extension of the city’s subway.

“When you see these projects in your neighborhood, cranes likely up, shovels in the ground, life getting improved, I want you to truly feel the way I do: pleasure,” the president explained to these collected. “Pride in what we can do when we do it with each other. This is what I indicate when I say we’re developing a far better The united states.”

Republicans have painted a incredibly different photograph of Biden’s presidency and the Democrats’ time controlling Congress — one marked by extreme fiscal spending that has fueled inflation to towering highs and has harm the regular person.

Annually inflation ending in September clocked in at 8.2%, in accordance to the September report posted by the Bureau of Labor Studies. Core inflation, which excludes unstable energy and food prices, grew to 6.6% on a year-over-yr foundation, the optimum mark given that 1982.

Republicans have been utilizing the increased costs as a cudgel from Democratic candidates. Inflation has come to be the best situation on voters’ minds, and the GOP hopes that it will generate ample of a thrust that the bash can wrest back command of the House and Senate.

White Property crows about paying when not calling inflation a 'crisis'

Naomi Lim

June 01, 07:00 AM June 01, 07:01 AM

President Joe Biden's financial concept is getting overshadowed by inflationary force, but that is not stopping him or his aides from pitching his spending offers to voters before the 2022 midterm elections.

The White Residence this 7 days introduced a concerted energy to underscore Biden's economic method, like how he intends to counter inflation. But strategists contend it could be too late for the president to capitalize on his bipartisan infrastructure deal and the American Rescue System right before November.

KAMALA HARRIS'S Awkward Moments, A NONEXHAUSTIVE Record

Biden has minimal time to modify general public feeling about his financial administration since sentiment tends to cement all-around Memorial Day, in accordance to former Republican Countrywide Committee spokesman Douglas Heye.

"I'm astonished I have not observed this earlier from Biden," he told the Washington Examiner. "A good deal of voters are making very authentic household decisions based on what all the things fees, and till that is assuaged, and that will not be at any time shortly, it is difficult for the Biden administration to make any headway."

Polls reveal the financial state is voters' No. 1 problem, according to Republican strategist Susan Del Percio, although Biden lacking this infrastructure deal possibility is especially "shocking," she reported.

"If Republicans had an infrastructure acquire, every single sentence would begin with infrastructure," she added. "People do affiliate infrastructure with working on the economic system."

At the similar time, voters are not linking Biden's investing expenditures with economic development, at minimum not positively. Biden's average over-all job acceptance-disapproval rating is 40%-55%, in accordance to RealClearPolitics. Biden's financial management approval is 35%-61%.

Biden is reportedly frustrated that he is not becoming credited for improved economic details, according to NBC Information. The president has equally complained that he does not have plenty of supporters defending him on television. Del Percio described the latter as "an justification," asserting that aides lacked a "pretty deliberate approach."

In contrast, Rutgers University historical past, journalism, and media experiments professor David Greenberg cited 3.6% current unemployment, a return to pre-pandemic quantities. Greenberg argued the economic climate is "solid," including that "we have recovered, and the [American] Rescue Approach of course served with that."

"Most people have employment, and many have gotten raises in the past yr," he reported. "I assume the 'tone deaf' types are the kinds who will not know that people are executing fairly nicely proper now."

Greenberg did concede that an "overheating" financial state implies inflation is negating salary increases. Nonetheless, it is the Federal Reserve Board's obligation, not Biden's, to increase desire fees, he claimed.

"Which they should really have performed a yr in the past," he continued. "But voters who are emotion the bite of inflation are probably to get it out on the bash in electric power, of training course, which is the Democrats."

Biden released a Wall Road Journal op-ed Tuesday distilling the a few pillars of his financial-inflation reaction, such as preserving the Federal Reserve's independence, lowering expenditures, and boosting U.S. production capability, as effectively as reducing the federal deficit. The op-ed was amplified by administration officials in media appearances and in Tuesday's push briefing, in addition to Biden's Oval Place of work conference with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.

National Economic Council Director Brian Deese denied that the push is an admission that Biden's very poor polling is tied to inflation. Deese also stood by his and other aides' predictions that price spikes would be "transitory."

"What the president has carried out with regard to communications has been to consistently demonstrate to the American individuals wherever we are and exactly where we have to have to go," he reported. "He understands that suitable now, the top rated challenge on people's minds is rates, price ranges at the gas station, price ranges at a grocery retail store. And he's designed really clear, and he is speaking quite clearly, that that's his prime economic precedence."

White Residence push secretary Karine Jean-Pierre avoided utilizing the term "inflation" and "disaster" in the very same sentence, only contacting it "a tough time."

"His insurance policies have aided the financial state get again on its feet," she mentioned.

Simultaneously, administration tries to emphasize this 7 days how the infrastructure deal is aiding Indigenous American communities acquired little awareness, as did previous week's advertising of the American Rescue Plan's equity report.

Del Percio apportioned some of the blame to congressional Democrats provided Biden's competing priorities and the myriad of neighborhood angles the infrastructure offer and the American Rescue Prepare could supply.

"Democrats concentrate on why we were being right, why we voted this way, even if you concur with them, and telling people today all the things that they ought to imagine and imagine," she reported. "They give an intellectual rationale for supporting them. Folks want a narrative. They want to come to feel connected."