The White House and elites in the media continue to maintain that President Joe Biden’s economy is working for everyday people, while Americans and economists are insisting just the opposite.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters in June that the administration can “prove” its economic policies, marketed as “Bidenomics,” are working after being asked about a poll that showed only a minority of Americans approve of how the president has handled the economy. While Jean-Pierre continues to insist that “Bidenomics” is a success, citing low unemployment rates and lower inflation, 61% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck and 75% of U.S. adults think the economy is in a “fair” or “poor” state.
“If the goal is to help middle class and poor families, there are neither policies or outcomes that bear evidence of that,” Peter Earle, an economist for the American Institute for Economic Research, told the Daily Caller. “But if the objective was to enrich ideologically-aligned interest groups by handing them hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, and to increase the reach of government into citizens’ lives, then Bidenomics is working effectively.”
“Americans see what’s happening around them,” Earle said. “They’re paying much higher prices than they were two years ago, interest rates are rising, and they’re probably seeing layoffs and increasing economic hardship in their homes and communities. It’s quintessentially political to tell people not to believe what they see and feel, but rather what they’re being told.”
Biden signed the American Rescue Plan in March 2021, spending $1.9 trillion on economic relief from the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan included stimulus checks for Americans, debt bailouts for local and state governments and funding for vaccine rollouts.
The president also signed the Inflation Reduction Act, a focal point of Bidenomics, in August 2022. The law approved roughly $750 billion in new spending, giving $370 billion to green initiatives aimed at combating climate change.
Popular economist Paul Krugman, who was once slated to make $250,000 as a Princeton economics professor without actually having to teach classes, said in September that Bidenomics has been good for American workers, “whether they know it or not.”
Krugman wrote in The New York Times that Biden’s economy has been good for American workers’ incomes if one considers wage increases and the “rising number of hours for those employed.” However, Krugman noted that if you asked the average American worker about the state of the economy, they would probably have a negative answer.
Mehdi Hasan, who could afford a brief vacation to the United Kingdom in July, also argued that Bidenomics is working – touting jobs, inflation and growth numbers – but said that Americans “don’t know” about such improvements. Democrats, Hassan said, are not communicating to Americans how much the economy has improved, adding that one doesn’t consider how much money they made under one president compared to another.
James Surowiecki, a contributing editor of the Atlantic, claimed that Americans have a pessimistic view of the economy because the most influential companies in the media and technology businesses have been hit the hardest by economic hardships, thus creating a “deeply pessimistic public narrative.”
“Bidenomics is working: Unemployment is near historic lows, inflation has fallen about two-thirds, wages are rising and job satisfaction is at a record high,” Michael Kikukawa, a White House spokesperson, told the Daily Caller when asked about the disconnect between the administration and Americans view of the economy. “Our Administration is focused on delivering for the American people and ensuring they know how the president’s agenda is creating jobs and lowering costs. That includes capping insulin costs, lowering prescription drug prices, creating clean energy and manufacturing jobs, and building stronger roads and bridges — accomplishments four in five Americans support.”
“The midterms and recent special elections showed Americans favor the president’s vision for growing the economy from the middle out and the bottom up over congressional Republicans’ trickle-down economics,” Kikukawa continued.
The presidential seal is placed on a podium before the arrival of U.S. President Joe Biden at the Philly Shipyard on July 20, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Biden attended a ribbon cutting at the shipyard for a new offshore wind vessel called the Acadia which will be employed in the building of offshore wind farms. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
But the American people don’t see the economy the same way the White House does; about 16% of Americans believe the economy is getting better while 56% of U.S. adults say the economy is getting worse, according to the YouGov Poll.
While the White House boosts its economic record and ability to create more jobs, more Americans have been taking part-time work and even second jobs as high inflation and increased prices have affected American wallets. Inflation rose to 3.7% in August, according to the New York Post.
Additionally, Americans’ incomes have fallen for the third straight year in the Biden administration, according to September data from the US Census Bureau. The median household income, adjusted to inflation, fell from $76,330 in 2021 to $74,580 in 2022.
“Americans are getting crushed by the hidden tax of inflation which is costing the average worker more than federal income tax,” E.J. Antoni, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, told the Daily Caller. “And rising interest rates have made borrowing more expensive too. The monthly mortgage payment on a median price home has doubled since Biden took office and homeownership affordability is at one of its lowest readings on record.”
“People’s budgets are so stretched that financing companies have popped up in the last year that offer credit for only one type of purchase: groceries. Many Americans are struggling to buy food because of the last two and a half years of price increases. And that was the real driver behind the increase in the poverty rate in the Census Bureau’s most recent report. That’s Bidenomics.”