‘Magic’ elixirs were all the rage from the mid-1800s through the early 1900s.

Peddlers, or ‘snake-oil salesmen,’ traveled the country, hawking these elixirs along the way. Most formulas indeed made gullible customers feel good as they contained heroin, alcohol and cocaine.

Hell, who wouldn’t be happy with that combo?

But…

Words are the new elixirs. Words crafted to make you feel good but contain nothing healthy for your brain to absorb.

Such are many of the words that come from the White House (we know elixirs are crafted in various potencies in every administration).

Specifically, when “Bidenomics” whatever that is, touts the robustness of middle-class wages and growing from the middle out? These words are the latest ingredients in this administration’s “Morley’s Liver and Kidney Cordial.”

Listen, there are lots of cool things in the middle. Creme in the Oreo, that stuff that explodes from a Twinkie, the white blop in a Ring Ding, but words are the emptiest calories that exist today.

I take solace in numbers. They’re non-partisan. They don’t require emotional stroking, which means, Bidenomic’s Numeral Elixir for wages isn’t working.

Real wages (adjusted for inflation) moved steadily higher through the Obama admin and exploded higher during the Trump stint.

During the current period (and it isn’t over, in all fairness, so we’ll see how it goes), real wages have fallen, thus negatively affecting the middle class.

You can’t point to the place on your body and tell me where numbers hurt you. I’m not buying it. Nor am I touching anything on you that hurts.

I call that “Rosso’s Cootie Principle.” But numbers are numbers.

When any politician makes a statement: Don’t fall for the narrative, avoid the heuristic, lizard nature of your brain to pounce, and do your homework.

Coincidentally, today, from the Wall Street Journal:

In 1982-84 dollars, which takes account of inflation, average hourly earnings were $11.39 when Mr. Biden took office but started to decline immediately and didn’t stop falling until inflation peaked in June 2022. They have bounced up a little but were still back only to $11.03 in May. That’s a 3.16% decline in real earnings for the average worker across the 29 months of the Biden Presidency.

Numbers don’t lie. People do.