On Friday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Last Call,” CNBC Contributor and former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) stated that even with many people working multiple jobs, “they don’t feel financially secure,” and “the mistake that the Biden campaign is making is telling everybody, smile, it’s great.” And they “haven’t really gotten out there to explain their plan on how to make families prosperous again.”
Heitkamp said, “When you think about jobs, think about the fact that a lot of people have jobs, they know they can get a job, and a lot of them are working two jobs. The question is, are they making enough to make ends meet? And what they’re basically telling us, through these numbers, is, they don’t feel financially secure, even though they feel secure in employment. And so, it’s the cost of living that we have to focus on. Yes, it is coming down. But the misery index is the piece. Everybody wants to measure GDP and jobs. Guess what? What people look at is, what’s in your checking account at the end of the month or at the end of the week.”
Later, she added, “I think that the mistake that the Biden campaign is making is telling everybody, smile, it’s great. … People don’t feel like the economy is good. And it doesn’t matter what those macro numbers are. You’ve got to look at — as my friend Barbara Mikulski used to say — the macaroni and cheese numbers, not just the macro numbers. And I think they haven’t paid enough attention to the macaroni and cheese issues and haven’t really gotten out there to explain their plan on how to make families prosperous again.”
Heitkamp added that if the mac and cheese numbers don’t change between now and the election, “you’ve got to start by talking about where we came from after the pandemic, be honest about it. But also, I think people just want to be heard and they want to know that people hear their complaint, they know what they’re talking about when they say, I can’t make ends meet. And…insurance costs, those are also adding to this. And so, let’s take a look at all the things that you can control and then tell people you’re working on those things that will make the economy better and hopefully wages higher and will offer an opportunity to actually have the American Dream.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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