Bidenomics Isn’t Working For Working People

Biden promised to build back better, but even as the economy recovers, workers are being left behind.

by Stephen Semler, The Lever

Democrats are touting economic recovery heading into the 2024 elections, and liberal pundits are claiming that “Bidenomics” is working and those who disagree are disillusioned or ruthlessly partisan. But the country’s impressive economic growth betrays the reality on the ground: Millions of Americans are being left behind.

Yes, those White House press releases and Treasury Department fact sheets are right: Broad economic indicators like gross domestic product and unemployment have markedly improved. Inflation is generally coming down, too.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks in the East Room of the White House.

“‘Bidenomics’ is working,” Biden said earlier this summer. “When I took office, the pandemic was raging and our economy was reeling, supply chains were broken, millions of people unemployed, hundreds of thousands of small businesses on the verge of closing after so many had already closed. Today, the U.S. has had the highest economic growth rate, leading the world economies since the pandemic.”

But data released late last month show food insecurity at its highest level since Biden took office, and average financial hardship in 2023 is worse than it was over the last three years. In other words, “Bidenomics,” the president’s economic plan to grow the economy “from the middle out and the bottom up,” has been accompanied by a humanitarian crisis.