The economy continues to occupy the center stage of national political discourse. As many Americans are struggling to make ends meet, much of the attention has been on the Biden administration and its failure to present viable solutions to the problems people are facing.

President Joe Biden and his team have been working overtime to assure the American public that the economy is just fine. But at least some Democrats are not toeing the party line. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) recently attended a rally in Missouri in which she painted a much different picture of the economy from the perspective of everyday Americans.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said the U.S. economy was in a "crisis" on Sunday, seemingly contradicting President Biden on a core pillar of his re-election campaign.

"Our economy is in a special kind of crisis. Our whole economy is in a special kind of crisis," the progressive lawmaker said at a union rally in Wentzville, Missouri, on Sunday.

"Now if you ask a Washington insider or a Wall Street analyst, they will tell you, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,'" she said. "They’ll say, ‘Look at GDP. Look at the growth rate.’ They’ll say, ‘Look at job numbers. How are we in a crisis?’"

Without naming names, Ocasio-Cortez accused Washington elites and others like them of not having to make tough economic decisions before aligning herself with workers who feel the financial effects "in the callouses of our hands."

"And that’s an easy thing to say for someone who primarily experiences this economy on paper – who aren’t choosing between childcare and work, or medicine and rent. It’s easy to say that when you’re not making those decisions," Ocasio-Cortez said as workers cheered.

"Because those of us who do have to make those decisions, feel the economy in the callouses of our hands and the aches of our joints at the end of a long day, so we don’t have any time left, proper time, to spend with our children or loved ones."

Ocasio-Cortez did not name names in her diatribe against members of the government who are out of touch with what regular Americans are facing. Still, it was clear she was referencing the president and those trying to downplay the widespread effects of America’s economic situation.

Indeed, President Biden has touted “Bidenomics” on the campaign trail, claiming that his administration is creating millions of jobs and lowering inflation rates. During a speech on Labor Day, he highlighted his record while blasting his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.

The president appeared with sheet metal union workers in Philadelphia on Monday—Labor Day—to paint a rosy picture of the results of his policies.

As I said a thousand times, there is no quit in America. None. All I hear from my friends on the other side, what they say is wrong with America. They keep telling us America is failing. They're wrong. I've got news for them. America has the strongest economy in the world right now today. Lowest inflation rate among any major economy, 13.5 million new jobs.

America isn’t failing. America is winning, and the rest of the world knows it. That's why our friends and allies are looking to us.

However, it does not appear that Americans are buying what Biden is selling. A recent poll showed that 44 percent of respondents indicated that they were worse off under Biden’s presidency than they were before he took office.