I hate to break the news to President Joe Biden, but he may need more than a catchy moniker to define the state of the U.S. economy and what he intends to do about it.
Biden has started to embrace the term “Bidenomics” to describe what he believes to be the fabulous things his administration has done for the financial well-being of Americans.
Unfortunately for Biden, voters aren’t buying the president’s rosy portrayal of the economy.
Consequently, they may associate Bidenomics with much more negative connotations than Biden envisions, as he gears up for his reelection campaign.
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While things are starting to look up after the pandemic’s devastating economic consequences, troubling factors remain. Chief among them is inflation.
While rates have dropped from record highs last summer, high prices have stuck around and citizens notice the damage to their finances. That’s especially true of core inflation, which excludes much more erratic food and energy prices.
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So, what is the essence of Bidenomics? It appears to be the Democratic response to Reaganomics, which, under Republican President Ronald Reagan’s leadership, advocated for lower regulation and taxes as well as reduced federal spending.
Reaganomics was a blueprint for letting the free market work. That’s something Biden and Democrats fail to comprehend. To them, more government is the answer, regardless of how stifling.
According to the White House’s recent primer on Bidenomics: “The President took office determined to move beyond these failed trickle-down policies and fundamentally change the economic direction of our country. His plan – Bidenomics – is rooted in the recognition that the best way to grow the economy is from the middle out and the bottom up.”
Your guess as to what “middle out and bottom up” actually means is as good as mine. Even Biden has seemed unsure of the term “Bidenomics,” which he apparently first heard coined in the media.
“I didn’t realize I had Bidenomics going,” he said last month. At a different event, he said: “I don’t know what the hell that is. But it’s working.”
Regardless, Biden’s advisers seem to like the term, so expect to hear about it a lot in coming months as the president tries to sell himself to voters.
Biden not trusted on economy
For all the criticism that Biden likes to throw at former President Donald Trump, the economy during Trump’s first three years was very strong and going in a good direction until COVID-19 brought the world to a halt.
And Trump embraced much of the Reagan approach that Biden wants so desperately to unravel.
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Americans aren’t as enthusiastic about Biden trying to change the direction of the economy. That hesitancy is reflected in poll after poll.
Biden continues to struggle with low approval ratings. A June CNN poll found Biden’s percentage (32%) is even lower than Trump’s (33%) – and that’s after Trump faced his second indictment.
Similarly, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll in May found that only 33% of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, and that just 24% said the economy is in good shape.
And a Pew Research Center survey found that the Republican Party “holds a 12-point advantage on economic policy” over the Democratic Party. Nearly 70% of Americans said inflation and the economy are the nation’s top problems.
All this indicates troubles ahead for Biden’s big-spending, high-tax agenda. These are policies that won’t empower the middle class but will further drag the country into debt and fuel the inflation and other economic pains Americans are feeling this summer.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques
