Welcome to the diabetic’s world, Democrats! Although to be fair, members of both parties have backed the idea of applying quick sugar-high disbursements in order to boost the economy during the pandemic. Only one party seems to have convinced themselves that these momentary rushes would lead to lasting love from voters, however:

When they took power this past winter, Democrats made a commitment to not repeat what many viewed as a critical misstep of the Obama years. The legislation they passed would do two things well: make sure that the benefits were frontloaded and that the impact was tangible.

The result was a Covid relief package that included direct payments of up to $1,400 to most Americans, $300 per week in unemployment insurance supplements, and an expansion of the child tax credit for a year.

Nine months later, whatever political benefits were supposed to accrue from that package have seemingly faded. The public’s support for the direct payments has been overtaken by its concerns about the lingering pandemic. The federal unemployment insurance benefits ended in September with no apparent appetite by the feds or state governments to extend them. And while Democrats are seeking to extend the expanded child tax credit past its expiration date this December, recent polling data suggests that they are getting little credit for it.

I bought her flowers and candy … why doesn’t she answer my calls? Perhaps it’s because flowers die and candy disappears quickly. What have you done for me lately?

This story is a bit of a re-run for Politico, which last week ran the results of the Morning Consult poll driving this analysis. To provide a reminder from my analysis, even the ongoing child tax credit payments aren’t doing much for Democrats. It only scored a 50/38, even though 61% of respondents benefited from the program. Only 55% of Democrats give credit for the program to House Dems, and only 48% of Democrats credit Joe Biden.

That’s a very bad return on investment, especially given the inflation risks with which Democrats are flirting with their big spending plans. It’s creating consternation over the midterms among Democrats in Congress:

Those numbers are causing agita on Capitol Hill, where there is growing concern that in a rush to continue legislative momentum around infrastructure and Biden’s Build Back Better social spending plan, the party has failed to hammer home the benefits of their first big bill: the American Rescue Plan.

“It’s great to deliver and do things, but you have to actually go out and tell the f—ing world about it,” conceded one top Senate Democratic aide who worked on getting the child tax credit passed. “That’s not a two-month project. It has to keep going.”

The problem isn’t messaging — it’s voter confidence, and Biden is providing precious little basis for it. Spending more money for immediate voter consumption won’t solve that problem either, and to the point that it contributes to inflation, it actually compounds their competence problem. With supply chains backed up, printing more cash and handing it out like candy will only force prices up even higher as demand increases for a fixed amount of supply. That will erode the buying power of the handouts, just as it has wiped out the supposed wage gains from the sugar-high interventions on wages and unemployment bonuses.

As long as Biden is perceived as incompetent, the problem will only magnify. The collapse in Afghanistan and Biden’s disgraceful abandonment of Americans and Afghan allies there exposed Biden as hopelessly in over his head. That genie can’t go back in the bottle easily, and the perception will accelerate with every failure large and small. Sugar-high monetary policies won’t stop that confidence-crisis cascade, and as long as Democrats focus on silly shortcuts rather than the real problem in the ersatz Oval Office, the longer the cascade will continue.