President Biden holds a "Bidenomics" rally in Chicago. Photo via Picryl. Licensed for publication under Public Domain.

The ‘Bidenomics Worked’ Sham Kicks Into High Gear For 2024

Advertisements

Bidenomics boosters in the media and on Wall Street are everywhere to be seen these days, selling the election-year idea that our president’s economic policies have somehow triumphantly raised our economy Phoenix-like from the ashes. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A sampling of headlines going back to last summer show the adulation for Bidenomics among our supposedly objective economic cognoscenti (Latin for “know-it-alls”):

Bidenomics Is Real Economics,” Time Magazine.

Bidenomics is working,” New York Magazine.

And our over-the-top favorite: “Bidenomics’ critics are being proven wrong. Happy days are here again,” Fortune Magazine.

We could go on, but why bother? Popular pundits, media mavens and left-leaning economists are all selling you a bill of goods.

But Bidenomics isn’t a coherent philosophy, founded on clear principles; it’s a marketing strategy, a series of policy moves intended to move America ever-closer to socialism.

Indeed, this pretty much describes what’s gone on the last three-plus years. Democrats, with unwitting help from foolish Republicans, collapsed the economy to “save” us all from COVID-19, while using it as a pretense for unparalleled centralized control over the nation.

As the American Institute for Economic Research remarked:

(Starting in April 2021) the Biden administration pushed through a COVID-19 relief bill that had little to do with COVID relief, and much to do with seizing the commanding heights of the economy. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of November 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of August 2022 continued the profligacy and increased government control of the economy. The Chips and Science Act (also passed in August 2022) continued the protectionist trend towards national industrial policy.

But did those policies work? Well, they certainly increased inflation. Since the advent of the Bidenomics binge, prices have surged by nearly 18% overall, and closer to 30% for energy and food, key staples for the average American family. The impact has been a disaster for all, but especially those at the bottom rungs of the economic ladder.

Moreover, here’s how well Bidenomics “is working”: In our January I&I/TIPP Poll, two-thirds of Americans said they now live “paycheck to paycheck,” and another quarter said they have zero savings for emergency.

Any wonder that Biden suffers the worst presidential approval ratings ever?

Spending $6 trillion in borrowed and newly printed money hasn’t brought the economy back; it has only brought inflation and now mass layoffs. By shutting everything down, Bidenomics killed millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in output virtually overnight. But its Democrat supporters now claim credit for a comeback from a calamity they caused.

Let’s take the most recent GDP report as an example. It displayed what appeared to be sparkling growth of 3.3% amid declining rates of inflation. The Biden administration brags that for all of 2023, the economy grew 2.5%.

Nice numbers, but the growth isn’t real. It’s fueled by government borrowing and spending, not actual private-sector business growth.

As Heritage Foundation economist Peter St. Onge put it, “Fresh GDP numbers came in and it was a blowout. The kind of blowout that only a $2.7 trillion government deficit can buy while the private economy crumbles around it. Another couple blowout GDP reports like this and Americans will be living under an overpass.”

“In the past 12 months, the federal deficit increased by $1.3 trillion,” he added. “Yet we only got half that in GDP — about $600 billion. In other words, everything else shrank. It’s even worse for that brave and stunning Q4 — there we got just $300 billion in extra GDP for — wait for it — $834 billion of new federal debt.”

Are we getting bang for the government’s buck? The edgy financial website ZeroHedge did the fourth-quarter math:

“(W)hile Q4 GDP rose by $329 billion to $27.939 trillion … over the same time period, the U.S. budget deficit rose by more than 50%, or $510 billion … the increase in public U.S. debt in the same three month period was a stunning $834 billion, or 154% more than the increase in GDP. In other words, it now takes $1.55 in budget deficit to generate $1 of growth … and it takes over $2.50 in new debt to generate $1 of GDP growth!”

In just a couple years, the amount our federal government spends just to pay off its debts has exploded to more than $1 trillion from an already-huge $517 billion in 2020. That will only grow. That can only mean higher taxes, more inflation, less wealth, and slower economic growth.

Last year’s $1.7 trillion government deficit guaranteed a continuing expansion of U.S. funny money for the foreseeable future. This year, an estimated $7.6 trillion in U.S. debt has to be refinanced. Who’ll buy it?

The world has only so much hunger for U.S. debt, so this can’t go on forever. What happens when the music ends and that last chair is already filled? The U.S. taxpayer and workers will be left standing.

So, no, Bidenomics hasn’t saved us. Indeed, it’s what did the economic damage in the first place. Americans know this, which is why Biden lags behind former President Donald Trump in most polls, and why Biden’s favorability ratings are in the gutter.

Voters are right to distrust what’s marketed these days as “Bidenomics.” It’s an economic fraud, a sure path away from economic freedom and toward the failed socialism that the far left has always wanted to force on us.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board

We Could Use Your Help

Issues & Insights was founded by seasoned journalists of the IBD Editorials page. Our mission is to provide timely, fact-based reporting and deeply informed analysis on the news of the day -- without fear or favor.

We’re doing this on a voluntary basis because we believe in a free press, and because we aren't afraid to tell the truth, even if it means being targeted by the left. Revenue from ads on the site help, but your support will truly make a difference in keeping our mission going. If you like what you see, feel free to visit our Donations Page by clicking here. And be sure to tell your friends!

You can also subscribe to I&I: It's free!

Just enter your email address below to get started.

I & I Editorial Board

The Issues and Insights Editorial Board has decades of experience in journalism, commentary and public policy.

3 comments

  • Breezes and Sunshine cannot manufacture anything. Electricity CANNOT exist without crude oil ! Electricity came AFTER crude oil as all the components to generate electricity are made with oil derivatives manufactured from oil.

    We’ve become a very materialistic society over the last 200 years, and the world has populated from 1 to 8 billion because of all the products and different fuels for planes, ships, trucks, cars, military, and the space programs that did not exist before the 1800’s.

    Energy literacy starts with the knowledge that renewable energy is only intermittent electricity generated from unreliable breezes and sunshine, as wind turbines and solar panels cannot manufacture anything for the 8 billion on this planet.

    All the parts and components for wind turbines, solar panels, nuclear, and hydro, and for all the mining equipment used to extract the metals and minerals to build clean “electricity” are made with the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil!

    As an all-wind and sun-powered future unravels in Europe, rational thinkers are turning to the insatiable demand for minerals that comes when renewables are used for electricity. What Europe and particularly Germany highlights is an electrical grid solely powered by sunshine and wind is impossible. Some argue it is downright ludicrous.

    The co-authors Ronald Stein and Todd Royal are true energy agnostics. The main aspects of their publications are spreading awareness among the public about energy-related subjects to increase their energy literacy. Being energy agnostics, they try to engage people in conversations about fossil fuels that collectively support lifestyles and economies worldwide, and intermittent electricity from renewables.

    A few notes about electricity and “products”:
    As a refresher for those pursuing net-zero emissions, wind and solar do different things than crude oil.
    1. Wind turbines and solar panels only generate occasional electricity but manufacture no products for society. Electricity from wind turbines and solar panels can charge the iPhone but cannot make the iPhone. Electricity can make the defibrillator work but cannot make the defibrillator.

    2. Fossil fuels, on the other hand, manufacture everything for the 8 billion on this planet, i.e., products, and transportation fuels.

    3. In fact, all the parts and components for wind turbines, solar panels, nuclear, and hydro, and for all the mining equipment used to extract the metals and minerals to build clean “electricity” are made with the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil!

    4. And MOST importantly, there is a lost reality that the primary usage of crude oil is NOT for the generation of electricity, but to manufacture derivatives and fuels which are the ingredients of everything needed by economies and lifestyles to exist and prosper, i.e., all products that did not exist pre-1800’s.

    5. Energy realism requires legislators, policymakers, economic developers, and the media to understand the staggering scale of the decarbonization movement.

    6. Thus, ridding the world of oil will eliminate wind, solar, nuclear, hydro, and all mining equipment!

    7. Before we rid the world of crude oil usage, i.e., jumping out of an airplane with a parachute, what is the plan to identify the replacement for the oil derivatives that are the basis of more than 6,000 products and all the fuels for more than 20,000 commercial aircraft and more than 50,000 military aircraft, as well as many of the more than 50,000 merchant ships and almost 500 ocean-worthy cruise ships worldwide that support the 8 billion on this planet?

    8. The “Elephant in the Room”, is that the ruling class, powerful elite, and media, avoid energy literacy conversations. Breezes and sunshine cannot manufacture anything. We are talking about the end of civilization if crude oil is no longer used.

    Shockingly, very few parents, teachers, students, politicians, and those in the media, have any clues or understanding about the basis of the products in our daily lives! Obviously, a lack of Energy Literacy. As John Stossel so often says, “give-me-a-break”!

    In summary, we had a zero-emissions world before the 1800’s when we had less than one billion on this planet, that is now 8 billion since we discovered crude oil and how it could be manufactured into usable “things” for mankind.

    The world has become a very materialistic society over the last 200 years, and the world has populated from 1 to 8 billion because of all the products and different fuels for planes, ships, trucks, cars, military, and the space program that did not exist before the 1800’s.

    Until a crude oil replacement is identified, the world’s 8 billion on this planet need a back-up plan that replaces crude oil that will support the manufacturing of the products of our materialistic society.

    • Quart of motor oil:
      2023: $5.72.
      2024: $7.12

      Inflation being “down” means prices still go up ….just not *quiiiiite* as rapidly. Public schools and “media” conspire to keep everyone stupid.

About Issues & Insights

Issues & Insights is run by seasoned journalists who were behind the Pulitzer Prize-winning IBD Editorials page (before it was summarily shut down). Our goal then and now is to bring our decades of combined journalism experience to help readers understand the top issues of the day. I&I is a completely independent operation, beholden to none, but committed to providing cogent, rational, data-driven, fact-based commentary that the nation so desperately needs. 

We Could Use Your Help

Help us fight for honesty in journalism and against the tyranny of the left. If you like what you see, leave a donation by clicking on donate button above. You can also set up regular donations if you like. Ad revenue helps, but your support will truly make a difference. (Please note that we are not set up as a charitable organization, so donations aren't tax deductible.) Thank you!

Discover more from Issues & Insights

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Exit mobile version