Can The President Turn The Economic Story To His Advantage With "Bidenomics?" - Free Websites, Share News And Posts Publicly

WED, JUL 05, 2023

Can the “Bidenomics” Message Win with Voters?

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President Joe Biden was in Chicago last week rolling out a major piece of his re-election campaign: He’s embracing the term “Bidenomics” and trying to draw a contrast with Ronald Reagan’s “Reaganomics” approach 40 years ago. Can the strategy work? Jon Fortt is here to weigh in.

JON:

“Yes. The Bidenomics approach can absolutely work.

Here’s why: The 2024 election is going to be won or lost on the economy. That’s clear. And the U.S. economy is in decent shape, all things considered. Unemployment is near historic lows at 3.7%, wages are up, inflation is cooling, and the market has rebounded.

U.S. adults give the President no credit though. In a new poll from The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, just 34% approve of his handling of the economy. That’s lower than the 41% who approve of his job performance overall. Same trend with Democrats: 72% approve of Biden’s job performance, but just 60% on the economy. If he can convince even a few of his allies that good economic outcomes come from his policies, that could give him both a boost in turnout and an assist with Independent voters who aren’t inspired by the red meat from the culture wars.

So what is Bidenomics? He says it’s a middle-class focus, in contrast with Reagan’s supply-side approach of cutting taxes and easing regulation. Three main Bidenomics pillars: One, investment in infrastructure and manufacturing. Two, empowering workers through unions and education. Three, giving workers financial leverage by banning non-competes. It can work.”

Critics will say many of the good things in the economy have happened in spite of the President’s policies, not because of them.

JON:

“On the other hand, that’s the problem: Those three pillars of Bidenomics don’t explain why he deserves credit for what’s going right in the economy.

And they don’t protect Biden from what’s most likely to go wrong over the next 16 months.

The main ingredient keeping the economy humming in the face of rate hikes has been consumer spending. And consumers keep spending because they have jobs. Yes, the Infrastructure Act, Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act all give business incentives to invest in manufacturing. But are they really creating the jobs that fuel the resilience? It’s a tough case to make.

Then there’s education and unions. What if consumer spending continues to slow down in the next year, and job cuts rise? The benefits of education have a long lag, and the biggest union headlines are about writer strikes and store decorations. Hard to see how that’s going to put money in middle-class pockets.

The Bidenomics message is the beginning of a good idea, because the president needs a way to run on economic success. But it doesn’t connect the dots. Fine, fine, you say tax cuts for the rich aren’t the future. What is? More infrastructure bills? Stronger unions? Bigger government is going to be a tough sell this cycle. So will Bidenomics.”

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On the Other Hand is Jon Fortt’s weekly segment on Squawk Box, Thursdays in the 7 a.m. ET hour. He’s been writing it just about every week since August 2020. The second (or first) argument each week isn’t necessarily the one Jon agrees with. He just makes an honest effort to construct the best argument he can for each side.

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