00:00Here is, at this point in the presidency, for both Joe Biden and President Trump, their second year in office,
00:08the first half of that year, January to July, inflation.
00:13Overall inflation was 12% for Joe Biden, 4% for President Trump.
00:18Groceries were up 16% for President Biden, a little over 3% for President Trump.
00:24Gas was up almost 70% for Biden, it's up about 12% during that time frame for Trump.
00:31New and used cars were up almost 24% for Joe Biden, down under President Trump.
00:38But prices aren't the only numbers that matter.
00:41It's no secret Americans are feeling about how they're feeling about the high cost of living.
00:47But there's also what you make, what you earn.
00:50And that has been moving up.
00:52Real median household income hit more than $80,000 last year.
00:59That's the highest level on record, according to the Census Bureau.
01:04On the flip side, that's median household income.
01:07There's poverty.
01:08Poverty was down another half point last year to just over 10%.
01:14That, as you can see, is a historic low.
01:18So this reality and how we feel have to be reconciled.
01:24But that's hard to do when you see how these two different stories are covered.
01:29See if you can spot the difference.
01:30Here's the Washington Post in 2022 under Joe Biden.
01:34The stunning drop in child poverty is a huge story.
01:38This month, as we hit poverty rates that are the lowest in history,
01:41Here's the headline in the Washington Post.
01:44U.S. poverty rate dropped slightly, but experts fear worse ahead.
01:49Let's reconcile how we feel in reality with Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antony, who joins me now.
01:56E.J., it's good to see you.
01:58Listen, I know how people feel.
02:00We both talk to people.
02:03And we see it showing up in polling.
02:05But how do we compare and reconcile that with these numbers, which are historically great?
02:14They are, Will.
02:15But one of the things I think is important, going back to that first chart you showed,
02:19where it was the inflation rate difference between Trump and Biden.
02:23At the end of the day, consumers don't as much care about the inflation rate,
02:27which is the pace at which prices are increasing.
02:29What they really care about are the levels of prices.
02:32And so any additional price increases that we see under this administration,
02:37it's kind of like the straw breaking the camel's back,
02:39because they are on top of all of the price increases that we had
02:43from the previous administration during Biden.
02:46And so even though, again, even though things have gotten better under President Trump,
02:52in other words, not only are paychecks bigger, but they can buy you more,
02:55which is why, as you were saying, real median household income is up.
02:58You know, for a lot of Americans, they still have not yet regained all the lost ground
03:03that they saw under Biden.
03:05So let me just put this into real numbers so that I and perhaps the audience understand
03:11exactly what you're saying.
03:12If your grocery bill went up 15 percent under Joe Biden,
03:16the fact that it's now only going up three percent doesn't inspire a lot of credit.
03:22They're still paying 18 percent more than what they expected to be paying from the inflation
03:26baked in during the four years under Biden.
03:29And this, even though wages are growing?
03:32Exactly.
03:33And I think the other thing that that has really left a kind of a bad taste in people's mouths,
03:38well, is the fact that during the first year, really the first 14 months of this second Trump
03:43administration, we were making tremendous progress.
03:46In fact, if you can believe this, the average American's weekly paycheck adjusted for inflation
03:51shrunk four percent under Biden from when he entered office to when he left.
03:55But during Trump's first year, it went up two percent.
03:59In other words, we clawed back half of the losses that we saw under Biden.
04:04Again, this is the average American's weekly paycheck.
04:06Check.
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