I think the Democrats are seeing that they were punished for stimulus that supported government and industry– we made sure people kept their jobs and kept getting service (or expanded service) from the government. That probably resulted in a small amount of inflation– most of it was almost certainly supply chain issues– but also is a part of why economic growth continued strong and employment stayed solid. It’s part of how our recovery from the pandemic was mostly “things are normal or better for now”.

So many people who benefited from these policies, short and long term, didn’t perceive their benefit. In almost every way, the country would have been worse off if we used all that money to give individual checks, possibly including inflation. And yet, something tells me that it would have resulted in a landslide Democratic victory and a sense that they had fought effectively for the working class.

Inspired by The impact of ARP on inflation by Kevin Drum.