OPINION:
President Biden loves his tall tales, and “Bidenomics” might be the biggest one yet.
His entire reelection campaign could come down to one thing: whether or not America believes the story he’s telling about the economy.
But even a president so skilled at exaggeration, imagination, and outright fabrication can’t hide this economic fairy tale in the magical media forest anymore. The facts are clear to anyone with eyes to see, or mouths to feed.
Prices are up. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the consumer price index is 16% higher than it was when Mr. Biden took office. Your eyes aren’t lying; you really are paying more than you used to.
Real wages are down. Americans have less money to pay those higher prices than when Mr. Biden took office.
Inflation isn’t solved. “Less inflation” (3% in June, down from 9.1% a year ago) doesn’t translate to lower prices or a stronger economy. Inflation at any percentage is still inflation, just like 95 degrees is still hot — even if it’s down from 102 degrees yesterday.
Bidenomics, with all its cherry-picked data and political spin, has one key message at its heart: “Trust me, the economy is fine!”
Americans aren’t buying it.
Recent polling shows only 1% of Americans think the economy is excellent, compared with 44% who say it’s poor. Two in 3 Americans, 66%, say the economy is currently getting worse, compared with 27% who think it’s getting better.
The economy consistently rates as the most important issue in poll after poll, and inflation is still top of mind for voters in every checkout aisle and at every fuel pump in this country.
Here’s the monster keeping the Biden reelection campaign awake at night: The president has spent the past 2½ years undermining his own message. Mr. Biden has consistently put big government, record spending, debt, and special interest priorities ahead of the top issue for American voters.
The Biden administration fought hard against welfare work requirements, including those proposed by Republicans in Congress during the debt ceiling fight. Instead of a temporary hand up in tough times, the trappings of big government end up trapping Americans in a cycle of dependency, actively discouraging and devaluing work.
The White House also unleashed a tidal wave of government red tape, drowning small businesses, workers and entrepreneurs, and leading to the highest inflation in 40 years. In President Biden’s first year alone, his administration added more than 72,000 pages of new regulations, executive orders and agency notices, with a record-high 69 new major regulations costing more than $100 million per year.
Those regulations didn’t get the headlines and attention they would have in a year other than 2021, but they were felt by workers and small businesses nonetheless.
Mr. Biden’s obsession with big government has directly worked against our economy in ways that can’t be waved away with a slogan, a sound bite, or a magic wand.
The arithmetic isn’t hard. More spending, fewer workers, more red tape and higher inflation add up to a broken economy.
That’s the story of the president’s term, whether he likes it or not. If he doesn’t make a change, he isn’t going to get a second one.
With the truth of Mr. Biden’s economy staring us in the face, why would we believe this politician’s fable over our own eyes?
Mr. Biden himself has the perfect word for the Bidenomics story: malarkey.
• Jonathan Ingram is vice president of policy and research at the Foundation for Government Accountability.
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