This theme is argued from the two ends of the spectrum, with very little from the middle. The study tagged 143 quotes to it, from 31 voices across 41 videos. Among quotes with a known political leaning, 32% came from Far Right voices and 30% from the Far Left, while Center voices contributed 8%. Real Progressives contributed more quotes than any other channel, followed by MSNBC and The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart.

The two ends agree that the Biden administration’s policies didn’t reach voters and disagree about why. Far Left and Left voices say the programs were too small, too narrowly targeted and too slow to show up in people’s lives. Far Right voices, including Mint, the NJ Libertarian Party and ReasonTV, say federal spending fed inflation and that regulation on energy and business held back growth.

Cost of living runs through both versions. Commentators point to housing, health care and student debt as places where voters expected relief and didn’t see enough of it, whatever the administration had signed into law.

Laws on paper, costs at home

The Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS Act and the infrastructure law come up as real achievements that voters didn’t connect to their own finances. The benefits arrived slowly, were spread thin, or went to projects most people never saw. On MSNBC, Ezra Klein said that over a long period Democrats “failed completely on cost of living” in the places they govern.

Student debt relief is a frequent example. A guest on a UChicago Institute of Politics panel said only 3% of the people in their district held federal student loans, and that voters there wanted “a program that works.” In the study’s reading, this theme and economic messaging feed each other: with few gains voters could feel, the party’s economic message had little to point to.