Ted Cruz Advocates For A Decade Of Trump Policies To Mitigate Biden-Harris Failures

Republican Senator and former presidential hopeful Ted Cruz believes it will take ten years of Trump policies for America to "overcome the failures" of the Biden-Harris administration. On Monday, Cruz, alongside Florida Senator Rick Scott, penned an article for the Wall Street Journal in which he criticized the economic record of Biden and Harris for making it "increasingly difficult for families to make ends meet."

Americans are still grappling with the lingering effects of inflation, and polling indicates that many will carry their anxieties about the U.S. economy to the ballot box. The Texas senator stated that a "decade of good economic policy" was essential to undo what he referred to as "Biden-Harris inflation." The two-term limit on the presidency, however, would prevent Donald Trump from implementing Cruz's proposal directly.

Newsweek has reached out to the White House for a response to Cruz and Scott's article. While U.S. annual inflation slowed for the sixth consecutive month in September to 2.4 percent, edging closer to the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target, Americans continue to feel the pressure of higher costs stemming from the COVID pandemic and other factors. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation calculator, it would now take just over $120 to purchase what $100 could have bought in January 2021.

According to Cruz and Scott, families are feeling the impact of inflation when buying everyday goods, fueling their vehicles, and purchasing homes. They argue that during Trump's presidency, inflation-adjusted private-sector wages rose by 8.1 percent, asserting that the "Trump-era economy" would have continued this growth had he won a second term in 2020. However, they did not provide sources for their claims.

Texas A&M economics professor Dennis Jansen has challenged Cruz's figures, stating that the three years leading up to the pandemic saw a 6.3 percent increase in prices along with a 3.1 percent rise in real wages. Jansen noted that, at the 37th month of their respective terms, Trump had the second-lowest price increase, while achieving the highest growth in real wages.

Despite these discussions, many Americans remain uncertain about the economic outlook. Polling for Newsweek found that 51 percent of voters believe the economy is heading in the right direction, yet only 30 percent feel optimistic about the nation's financial trajectory. In contrast, a poll from Harvard's Center for American Politics showed that 61 percent of respondents believed the economy was on the wrong track.

The disconnect between voters' perceptions of economic health and actual conditions could pose challenges for the incumbent vice president's election bid, especially as economic issues weigh heavily on the minds of the electorate. In Gallup's late-September polling of registered voters, 52 percent described the economy as "extremely important" in deciding their presidential vote, marking the highest level of this concern since the 2008 financial crisis.