Why data points on the economy aren't telling the full story

This is an adapted excerpt from the Nov. 7 episode of “Deadline: White House.”

In the aftermath of the election, there’s been a lot of talk about how anger over the U.S. economy helped fuel Donald Trump’s win. According to the NBC News Exit Poll, 46% of Americans said their family’s financial situation was worse today than it was four years ago.

That number may come as a shock to people looking at the overall state of the U.S. economy. Under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, we’ve seen significant job growth, wage increases and unemployment rates at historic lows.

But for Americans just trying to make it through their daily lives, those data points don’t tell the whole story. The fact of the matter is we came out of the darkest hole, the Covid pandemic, and then we experienced the biggest inflation spike that most of us have seen in our lifetime. That takes a toll on people.

So I can sit here all day and give accurate data about how jobs and wages are way up. But when people get paid more, they often credit themselves. When you get a raise, you say, “Well, it’s because I’m so good at my job.” However, when prices go up and eat into that bigger paycheck, people blame the government. 

I can give you the data about how we had the best economic recovery in the world after Covid — which we did — but when Biden tried to tout that with “Bidenomics,” everybody flipped out on him and said, “How could you do that? Don’t you know we’re suffering?” 

People are suffering. Despite the economic gains under Biden and Harris, the economic reality for many Americans is that they’re paying more for rent, more for their mortgages and more for food. Everything just seems to cost so much more.

Tuesday’s results don’t mean we have scores of people across this country jumping on board to be on Team MAGA; they’re just saying, “My life costs too much money.” So, then they look at who’s in office and that’s who gets the blame.

This kind of reaction isn’t unique to the United States. We saw the same exact scenario play out in practically every election in developed countries. Around the world, people are asking why life costs this much. But they’re not always connecting the dots of where and when it started with that Covid hole.

Charlie Herman and Allison Detzel contributed.