President Joe Biden continued to tout so-called “Bidenomics” today after new numbers were released showing inflation has fallen dramatically in recent months. He wrote: "Today we learned that annual inflation has fallen each of the last twelve months and is now down to 3%. We’ve made this progress while unemployment remains near record lows. That’s Bidenomics in action."
But by claiming that is “Bidenomics in action,” it only reveals there is no actual philosophy or even set of policies at the foundation of Bidenomics.
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The question I have is simple: What exactly did Biden do, animated by his idea of Bidenomics, that caused inflation to come down? The answer is nothing. In fact, each piece of major legislation he has passed while president included massive spending that actually helped exacerbate inflation. Additionally, the Biden administration has even admitted that the Inflation Reduction Act had nothing to do with actually reducing inflation and was actually a climate bill. Inflation has fallen primarily because the Federal Reserve has been aggressively raising interest rates. It has nothing to do with any policy derived from the supposed philosophy of Bidenomics.
What is actually going on here, then, is fairly obvious. Biden’s advisers wanted to find a slogan with a bit of a ring to it (Bidenomics sure does sound nice, doesn’t it?) that they could also say is a particular brand of economics embraced by the president. They would then be able to attribute any good economic numbers to this supposedly unique philosophy as a way of trying to improve Biden’s terrible approval rating — particularly on economic issues.
The issue here is obvious: It means Bidenomics means nothing more than “good things happening in the economy.” But, importantly, outcomes do not constitute a philosophy. Outcomes are the consequences of policies enacted as outgrowths of a philosophy.
Never mind the fact almost all the Biden administration’s talking points on the economy are either misleading if not outright false — I just want to make the point that the idea Bidenomics is some sort of actual philosophy is plain wrong. That Biden contrasts Bidenomics with the supply-side philosophy of Reagan, though, indicates he is trying to make it seem as though it is a distinct idea when, in fact, it is just an artificial PR slogan. It is fine to engage in marketing campaigns, but we ought not to treat it as anything more.
Even the more detailed description of what Bidenomics is is full of platitudes that sound nice but mean nothing. He says it is “about growing the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down. It’s a vision where we make smart investments in America, educate and empower American workers, and promote competition to lower costs and help small businesses.”
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Once again, that’s fine, but I’m really not sure how this description largely differs from what most Republicans aim to do with their economic plans. Moreover, I am left wondering how exactly electric vehicle subsidies, forgiving college-educated Americans’ student loans, and raising taxes on small businesses constitute building from the “bottom-up” and “help[ing] small businesses.” It doesn’t, but that would only matter if Bidenomics was a coherent theory — which it is not.
I have no doubt the American people don’t have a hard time seeing right through the wholly artificial nature of the Bidenomics marketing campaign. After all, there is a reason Biden’s approval rating on the economy remains below 39%. Nevertheless, we cannot ignore when the president promotes ideas that simply aren’t true. We must continue to point out how he is misleading the American people.
Jack Elbaum is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.