Experts Pan Bidenomics
President Biden spoke in Chicago today outlining the so-called successes of “Bidenomics.”
The President and his team have sent memos to Democrats trying to cultivate a winning message centered on false, misleading, and inaccurate claims about his Administration’s economic agenda. This comes the same week where a new poll finds that “only one in three U.S. adults approve” of Biden’s handling of the economy, according to the Associated Press.
House Budget Committee Republicans fact checked the President’s assertions, showing that his record on lackluster job creation, soaring inflation, and reckless spending have led to what some economists are saying is a recession.
Ahead of the President’s speech, experts are weighing in on what Bidenomics actually means for American workers and businesses: slower economic growth and historic rates of inflation.
Doug Holtz-Eakin, former Congressional Budget Office Director and President of the American Action Forum:
“Bidenomics is built on the three pillars of (1) smart public-sector investment, (2) improved competition, and (3) empowering workers. More on these pillars in a bit; just know that they are supposed to have done wonderful things. For example, the president ‘faced an immediate economic crisis’ that Bidenomics cured.”
“False. When the president took office, the economy was growing at a rate of 6.3 percent. It is 1.3 percent now. Unemployment had fallen from 14.7 percent in April 2020 to 6.3 percent in January 2021. The momentum on both fronts has only diminished in response to a dose of Bidenomics.”
“Some of the other claims are simply pathetic. The assertion that ‘President Biden reduced the deficit by $1.7 trillion’ has been widely debunked, and earned a ‘bottomless Pinocchio’ from the Fact Checker at The Washington Post. Houston, if your only defense of your economic policy is something already proven wrong, you have a problem.”
“The president has been in office since January 2021. Since then, we’ve experienced declining growth, record-high inflation, and redistribution to favored constituencies. Those are the three pillars of Bidenomics.”
Greg Ip, chief economics correspondent at the Wall Street Journal:
“In a memo released this week, his political strategists Anita Dunn and Mike Donilon write that Biden ‘faced an immediate economic crisis when he took office.’”
“Actually, he didn’t. By January 2021, the economic crisis brought on by Covid-19 was largely over, even if the health crisis wasn’t.”
“Inflation is the main reason voters disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy by a two-to-one ratio, according to a May poll by the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. If inflation doesn’t fade of its own accord, the Federal Reserve might have to raise interest rates further and push the economy into recession, which won’t help Biden’s approval ratings.”
David Winston, president of The Winston Group:
“President Joe Biden’s speech Wednesday in Chicago is likely going to be an imaginative, largely misleading take on the economy, designed to counteract Biden’s consistently bad polling numbers. But hard as Biden and his team might try to claw their way out of what is an economic mess of their own making, people aren’t buying it.”
“When asked if Biden’s economic plan was working, by a margin of 31 percent to 55 percent, people said they didn’t believe it was working. Even worse for the ‘Bidenomics’ narrative, a significant majority of respondents said they don’t believe inflation is getting better: 22 percent better to 56 percent worse.”
“In April, Biden’s overall inflation rate had been 16 percent; in the May report, his inflation rate had increased to 16.3 percent, which means prices have gone up 16.3 percent since the beginning of his administration. Of the previous seven presidents, only Carter had a worse number.”
“For some additional context, in their first term, four presidents, Trump, Obama, George W. Bush and Clinton never had a 4 percent inflation rate or higher in any month. Collectively, that comes to 192 months without inflation at or over 4 percent.”
Boston Herald editorial board:
“Americans know what Bidenomics is, we’re living through it.”
“When was the last time American families could buy what they needed at the supermarket, without cutting back or doing without because prices were so high? Biden’s “transitory” inflation was anything but, despite his efforts to dodge the issue.”
“When he became president, inflation was at 1.4%, Last year it hit 9.1%, 40-year-high.
“In between came Democrats’ runway spending of the past two years, which fueled the inflation surge.”
Alfredo Ortiz, president and CEO of Job Creators Network:
“Ordinary Americans and small businesses will see through this PR stunt as they continue to experience a stagflationary economy due to Biden’s policies. Biden’s reckless spending has caused the cost of goods and services to increase by more than 15% over the course of his presidency, leading to declining real wages and living standards. Biden’s regulations and tax increases have led to anemic economic growth. Calling this failed economic agenda ‘Bidenomics’ won’t change the fact that Biden’s presidency will be forever remembered by Bidenflation and stagflation.”
Read more:
Latinos Aren’t Sold on Bidenomics
FACT CHECK: Setting the Record Straight on Bidenomics
