Key Point: “But now that message may no longer be as powerful. Inflation has eased to 3 percent on an annual basis, down from 9 percent last year, and workers’ earnings are beginning to outpace rising costs. Economists’ fears of an imminent recession have abated as well, and Biden administration officials are eager to tout the billions of dollars in private investment unleashed from legislation on semiconductors and clean energy that they pushed through Congress.”

Washington Post: As inflation falls, GOP may have to rethink attacks on Biden economy
By Jeff Stein 

• But now that message may no longer be as powerful. Inflation has eased to 3 percent on an annual basis, down from 9 percent last year, and workers’ earnings are beginning to outpace rising costs. Economists’ fears of an imminent recession have abated as well, and Biden administration officials are eager to tout the billions of dollars in private investment unleashed from legislation on semiconductors and clean energy that they pushed through Congress.
   
• These developments have led Republican analysts to begin early discussions about whether, or how, the party should adjust its attacks on Biden to account for the new economic reality. For now, most are convinced that the scars of inflation remain deep enough for the issue to serve as a central electoral message a year from now. But some conservatives acknowledge that may be shifting as the rate of price hikes levels off.
   
• “I think the thing that would change their message — and I know this from working in the White House — is what happens to real wages. If inflation stops at the highest price level, and wages continue to march ahead, you’re in a very different situation,” Mulligan said. “If that were to happen, that would shift the narrative — no doubt.”
   
• Democrats have reason to be optimistic that change is occurring. Arindrajit Dube, an economist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, found that inflation-adjusted wages have already caught up to their pre-pandemic trajectory for “nonsupervisory workers,” a category that encompasses 80 percent of workers.