This commentary was written by Kevin Woster for South Dakota Searchlight, an online news organization.

A couple days back I was sifting through my emails when I happened upon a recent column by Sen. John Thune. He was lamenting how American families are being hurt by the “reckless spending” of the Biden-Harris administration and Democrats in Congress.

In the column, Thune wrote that “it costs a typical family $13,000 more per year just to maintain the same standard of living it enjoyed when President Biden took office” and that “nearly every aspect of daily life is more expensive in the Biden-Harris economy.”

In addition, Thune wrote, a third of Americans are “worried about paying their bills,” people are “pulling back on their spending and putting more on their credit cards” and some people are “taking on extra work just to get by.”

And, as Thune tells it, it’s all pretty much because of Biden, Harris and the “Biden-Harris economy.”

Now first, to give him credit, Thune’s opinion piece was a lot gentler than the end-of-times rhetoric we get from the leader of his party, former President Donald Trump. Thune didn’t call anyone crooked or crazy or communist or low-IQ incompetent, nor did he label America as a “third-world country” as Trump likes to do when he’s not president.

But Thune’s column was still pretty gloomy. And it probably needs some further consideration.

Thune doesn’t provide a source for his assertion that a typical family is paying $13,000 more a year for the same standard of living it had when Biden took office. Maybe that’s true. But it’s not the whole story.

I don’t think my wife and I are paying anywhere near $13,000 more each year, but we don’t have kids at home or kids in college or mortgage payments to fret about. We do have plenty of family members who do, however. And while some struggle mightily, most seem to be getting by OK and others are doing quite well.

I had to smile slightly when I read what Thune wrote about a third of Americans being worried about paying their bills. Only a third? I would have expected at least that many were worried about paying the bills long before Biden and Harris took office. I was worried about paying the bills for most of my working life as a reporter, which began in the 1970s. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t Biden’s fault.

And it’s certainly not new that we as a people lean on our credit cards more than we should, often out of necessity, sometimes not. As for “taking on extra work just to get by,” well, that was going on long before Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took office, too.

No question COVID-related inflation, supply chain complications and price spikes in gas (think “war in Ukraine”) and groceries have been a problem. A big one. So have things like increased interest rates for credit-card debt and home mortgages, along with rising home prices.

Did increased government spending add to the inflation? Maybe. Probably, at least some. It also helped get us through and recover from a devastating pandemic, save and create jobs, reduce child poverty and begin long-overdue infrastructure improvements, among other benefits.

But Thune doesn’t mention any of that or the fact that millions more Americans are working today than were working when Biden took office. Wages are up significantly overall, as is household income.

Last January the U.S. Treasury Department concluded, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data, that the growth in real earnings for the typical American worker rose more than prices since before the pandemic. That left those workers financially able to “afford the same goods and services as they did in 2019, with an additional $1,400 to spend or save each year,” the Treasury report said.

Like the Thune numbers, the Treasury Department numbers are open to qualification and debate. And there’s no question many people continue to struggle financially. But many others are doing pretty well.

And for a couple of retirees like my wife and me, heavily dependent as we are on the condition of our IRAs and 401ks, things are probably better than they were 3 1/2 years ago.

Not all retirees are as fortunate, of course. Almost two-thirds of us age 65 to 74 still carry significant debt. But you really can’t blame that on Biden or Harris. The percentage of retirees with a debt load has been increasing since 1989.

My wife and I were fairly comfortable financially during the Trump years, although we were very uncomfortable in a lot of other ways. And we’ve been fairly comfortable financially during Biden’s term, and a lot less worried about the future of our democracy.

We must never forget that it’s still a grinding financial struggle for some. But the reduction and downward trend in inflation is good news, especially the latest report for overall inflation in July at 2.9 percent, the lowest since 2021.

And with hopes rising for a Federal Reserve interest rate cut in the not-too-distant future, there’s quite a bit to feel good about.

I understand that it’s not John Thune’s job to mention any of the good stuff about the Biden-Harris years. In fact, his job these days as Senate Republican whip and as a promoter of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign (something Thune does, I like to believe, while still holding Trump in general disregard) is the exact opposite of mentioning any of the good.

So it seemed only fair that someone mention it for him.