The topline number from the Bureau of Economic Analysis in today’s final report on Q2 GDP looks bad enough, if familiar. Economic activity contracted on an annualized basis by -0.6%, the same as in the interim report a month ago and just a tenth of a point worse than in the advance report published in July.

The real surprise may not get as much attention, but it may represent the primary stumbling block for Joe Biden and Democrats in this midterm. While Biden holds “mission accomplished” celebrations on the White House lawn and lauds the Inflation Reduction Act, the situation grew more dire for American households than first thought. The final number for Q2 real disposable personal income (real DPI) plunged nearly a full percentage point from the interim numbers.

In fact, none of the figures in the income category look good, but the plunge in real DPI is particularly bad:

Personal Income

Current-dollar personal income increased $305.7 billion in the second quarter, a downward revision in change of $47.4 billion from the previous estimate. The increase primarily reflected increases in compensation (led by private wages and salaries) and personal income receipts on assets (table 8).

Disposable personal income increased $253.3 billion, or 5.7 percent, in the second quarter, a downward revision of 0.8 percentage point from the previous estimate. Real disposable personal income decreased 1.5 percent, a downward revision of 0.9 percentage point.

Personal saving was $629.0 billion in the second quarter, a downward revision in change of $78.0 billion from the previous estimate. The personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 3.4 percent in the second quarter, a downward revision in change of 0.4 percentage point.

That is a large downward revision for both nominal and real DPI, but particularly so in the latter. Nor did these revisions limit themselves to Q2. Today’s report also notes that Q1 figures got sharp downward revisions on income — by nearly three full percentage points on real DPI:

Current-dollar personal income is now estimated to have increased $157.7 billion in the first quarter, a downward revision in change of $89.5 billion from the previous estimate. The revision primarily reflected a downward revision to compensation (led by private wages and salaries) (table 8).

Disposable personal income decreased $181.7 billion, or 3.9 percent, in the first quarter, a downward revision in change of $122.9 billion from the previous estimate. Real disposable personal income decreased 10.6 percent, a downward revision of 2.8 percentage points.

As bad as that looks, the year-on-year numbers for real DPI look far worse. In both the quarter-to-quarter and year-on-year real DPI numbers, American households have lost ground for five quarters in a row. Year-on-year, however, we lost 12.8% in Q1 and 5.5% in Q2.

This is what Joe Biden calls an “inch”:

Those numbers aren’t an “inch,” especially in the revised Q1 numbers. That -10.6% figure means that American households lost ten percent of their annualized buying power in a single quarter — and that followed three previous quarters of declines. The Q2 decline of -1.5% is a decline from that outcome, as all of these numbers compound.

This is no game of inches. Biden’s inflationary economic policies are pushing American households back by yards at a time, without any end in sight. That lost ground will take years to get back, and even that can’t start until American economic policies reverse to boost supply rather than tank demand, especially in the energy sector.

What’s more, Americans having to struggle with shrinking buying power already know how much ground they’ve lost and are still losing. That’s why economic issues are by far and away the biggest priority in the midterms — and why Biden and Democrats will face a shellacking in the elections. Especially if Biden continues to micturate on voters’ heads and insists on calling it Russian precipitation.