CNBC’s Joe Kernen pressed White House economic advisor Jared Bernstein over the glaring “problem” of overregulation at the heart of “Bidenomics.”
Biden’s approval rating hit 41% in late June, nearly the lowest during his presidency, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. The poll had a +/- 3 percentage point margin of error. Respondents cited the economy and high inflation rates as their top concerns. The administration has begun touting so-called “Bidenomics” to turn public sentiment.
Bernstein lauded “Bidenomics,” arguing that there has been an increase in jobs and a strong labor market.
Kernen then cited an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that argued Bidenomics “throws free trade and free-market capitalism under the bus in favor of centralized government controls.”
“There is a perception among certain circles, whether libertarian or conservative circles, that the government is picking and choosing winners and losers and over-regulating,” Kernen said. “But that’s going to be a problem down the road because the government is not the most effective way to choose which path we take in a lot of arenas. And yet the Biden Administration is doing that.”
“So there’s a couple of really important and I think foundational pushbacks to that argument,” Bernstein argued. “The first is one that’s really very underappreciated, which is that we didn’t get here and start doing industrial strategy … I’m talking about the modern era where industrial strategy was a function of who had the best, most connected lobbyists who could get you the best tax breaks and that led to a disproportionate set of policies favoring the financial sector … And the second point is that one of the key underpinning factors of Bidenomics and pillar one is smart public investment pulling in private investment is that latter part. This is not public investment … This is public investment incentivizing private investment to come into the market, to stand up a domestic semiconductor industry … all of those have brought in something close to $500 billion of private capital following in the wake of policies from the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS Act. If you look in terms of manufacturing facilities built in this country, you’ll see about 100% increase, private capital at work, which is in stark contrast to what was going on before we got here.”
“There’s a lot of — there’s layers of regulation and to get some of the largess from the government, the government wants child care, wants this, you have to cooperate with us doing this other — there’s a lot what some people call overregulation in all of this stuff, which seems to gum up the works, Jared. Do you acknowledge that?” Kernen pressed. (RELATED: ‘It’s A Simple Question’: CNBC Host Shuts Down Dem Who Awkwardly Tries To Avoid Tough Biden Question)
“Well, let me point out we have had extremely strong demand for the tax credits in the IRA to support domestic chip production and clean energy production, setting up recharging stations across the country. So I’d say private entrepreneurs are voting with their feet, and yes, we’ve got to be great stewards of taxpayer dollars so we’re going to be pretty careful as to how we provide these subsidies,” Bernstein said.