A recent poll from Monmouth University paints a very clear picture of the current state of the union. President Biden is increasingly unpopular across the country, and continuing economic uncertainty is dragging down his approval rating even further. He and his administration have been hoping that the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade would help turn the tide in favor of Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections. So far, abortion has not been a top issue for voters, and therefore, Democrats are not getting the polling boost they had hoped would help their electoral prospects.

Only five percent of voters surveyed consider abortion to be their top issue. On the other hand, 63 percent say economic issues are their top issue heading into the midterms. The issues that comprise the larger question of the economy include inflation, gas prices, everyday bills, groceries, the stock market, etc.

Inflation has been a major issue contributing the Biden’s historically low approval ratings. The rate of inflation when he took office was 1.4 percent year over year (YoY), and it is now 8.5 percent. The ideal inflation rate is around 2.0 percent. The next inflation report could be pushing 9.0 percent, which would indicate that inflation has not yet peaked. This would be devastating news for an economy that is already nearing an official recession. 

There are three major reasons inflation has skyrocketed during Biden’s presidency:

1. The Federal Reserve kept interest rates artificially low for much too long, which caused a spike in demand when supply was too low. 
2. The supply chain was disrupted by pandemic restrictions, which caused the supply in the economy to not be able to meet the increase in demand.
3. The federal government spending trillions of dollars in response to the pandemic decreased the dollar’s value, which increased import costs.

President Biden should be thanking Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for blocking the passage of his $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan earlier in the year. The additional massive spending would have caused inflation to be even worse right now. It is difficult to understand why Biden would be pushing for this kind of spending in this current economic environment. Every move he makes ends up hurting both himself and his entire party.  Moderate Democrats have been warning both Biden and others in party leadership, including Pelosi and Schumer, that the United States is not a left-wing country. Senator Manchin has said that he believes the nation’s political core is slightly to the right of the center.

At this point, the Democrats have virtually no chance of holding the House and only a slight chance of holding the Senate. As the Democratic Party continues to emphasize issues like abortion and climate change, they are losing key voters, especially Hispanics, to the Republican Party in droves.