On September 25th, The Daily Torch posted an article citing some economic news you might not have heard. Americans have short memories. Many Americans don’t seem to remember what inflation and gasoline prices were under former President Biden.

The article reports:

2025 was a good year for American households, the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows, with real household median income rising to $87,460, the highest on record, while the percent of the population below the poverty line fell to 10.2 percent, a record low after 2019’s 10.5 percent.

…The news came even as the unemployment level rose slightly from 6.9 million in December 2024 to 7.5 million in December 2025, making 2025’s gains largely the product of higher earnings.

Even with those numbers, labor markets are still fairly tight with the unemployment rate averaging 4.3 percent — the average annual unemployment rate since 1948 has been 5.67 percent — amid the continuing Baby Boomer retirement wave and shrinking migration. The combination of labor markets still tight on a postwar basis and shrinking inflation did the work of boosting incomes on a real basis.

The article concludes:

So, disinflation has resumed, but appears dependent on getting global supply chains fully open. We need to break even and start getting wealthy again. It’s critical. Trump ran on getting prices down in 2024. It’s why he won. If incomes stay ahead of inflation, then we’re getting wealthier and the politics will usually take care of itself.

Historically, when it doesn’t, that is, when inflation outpaced incomes during the incumbent’s term, you get 1976, 1980, 1992, 2008 and 2024: The incumbents lose. 4 out of 5 of those were one-term presidents. One exception was Obama in 2012 following the Libya war oil spike. He’s the only one who escaped.

So, there’s a real incentive to keep those numbers right-side up. It’s worth noting every one of those episodes in part had pressure on oil prices from wars overseas. Inflation regardless of the cause destabilizes incumbents. Security before politics. As the President stated, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. But there might be a price.

The question is whether or not the safety of Americans from nuclear attack is worth temporarily higher gas prices.