Trump vs. Biden Again in 2024: 4 Money Reasons Millennials Need To Pay Attention
Written by
Vance Cariaga
Edited by
Nicholas Morine
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The 2024 presidential election rematch between President Joe Biden and ex-President Donald Trump holds at least one interesting element for millennials — many are young enough to be the grandchildren of both Biden, 81, and Trump, 77. That’s the case even though most millennials have already reached their 30s or 40s. These age gaps have raised concerns about how well the two presidential candidates can relate to the financial challenges facing younger people.
Biden and Trump were both born following the Great Depression and spent their formative years during the 1950s and 1960s, when the U.S. economy was on comparatively sound footing.
In contrast, millennials have spent their formative years living through a dot-com bubble, housing crash, Great Recession, COVID-19 economic crisis and skyrocketing inflation. Many millennials are also strapped with heavy student loan debt and face the prospect of seeing Social Security benefits shrink in coming decades.
Because of these and other issues, the outcome of the 2024 election could have far-reaching effects for millennials. At the same time, millennials could have a big impact on the election if they vote in sufficient numbers. Biden and Trump are trying to court younger voters by joining TikTok (Biden) and launching a new shoe line (Trump).
The race to win their votes remains a close one. Biden holds a narrow 4-point lead over Trump among voters under 35, The Hill reported, citing an Axios-Generation Lab survey. Younger voters are considered an especially important demographic for Biden because of Trump’s strength among older voters.
If recent trends are any indication, younger voters should make up a larger share of the overall voting bloc in 2024 vs. previous election years, according to the Washington Post. For many of these voters, financial policies will take center stage.
Here are four money reasons millennials need to pay attention to the Trump-Biden rematch.
Inflation
It’s no secret that inflation rose to its highest point in more than four decades during the Biden administration. In response, the Federal Reserve implemented a series of interest rate hikes to bring inflation down. That has mostly worked, though inflation remains above the Fed’s target range. Many millennials have also been locked out of the housing market because of soaring home prices, and there doesn’t appear to be much hope for relief in the near term.
One of the central themes of the Trump campaign has been to attack Biden for energy and food costs that have gone “through the roof,” CNBC reported. One way Trump plans to battle inflation is to increase oil and gas drilling in the U.S, which theoretically would lower gasoline prices. However, he has also recommended higher tariffs on imported goods, which could push prices on some items higher.
Wage Growth
One way millennials can overcome inflation is through higher wages. There has been progress in this area, though it has been slow. Real average hourly earnings (adjusted for inflation) in February 2024 rose 1.1% from the previous year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, wages declined slightly from a month earlier.
In a February statement, Biden said recent wage growth “has been the strongest of any economic recovery in 50 years.” Many Republicans (including Trump) strongly dispute that claim. Under Trump, wage growth from 2017 to 2019 “inched ahead” of inflation, CBS News reported, though things changed when COVID hit in early 2020. After that, wage growth failed to keep up with inflation.
Student Loan Forgiveness
This is a major financial issue for many millennials. Biden’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt per borrower was shot down by the Supreme Court last year. The president has since put together a piecemeal strategy to forgive loans.
As CNBC reported last year, Trump has a long record of opposing student debt relief. After the Supreme Court ruling, Trump told a gathering of campaign supporters that he supported the decision and called forgiveness “very unfair to the millions and millions of people who paid their debt through hard work and diligence.”
Social Security
Both Biden and Trump have promised not to cut Social Security benefits even as the program’s Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund heads toward insolvency. The OASI is expected to run out of money in about a decade. When that happens, Social Security will be solely reliant on payroll taxes for funding, which currently cover about 77% of benefits.
Although millennials are a long way from reaching retirement age, their eventual Social Security benefits could be significantly impacted by policies enacted by Biden or Trump.
Biden has unveiled a 4-point plan to bolster Social Security that would raise the income threshold on wages subject to Social Security payroll taxes and change the formula for annual cost-of-living adjustments. Trump has promised not to touch Social Security, though some of his budget proposals as president did include cuts to the agency itself, if not benefits.
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