OPINION:
President Biden proudly touts “Bidenomics” as the cure for whatever ails the U.S. economy. Evidence mounts, though, that his eponymous policy tonic is actually causing the disease.
Rather than create prosperity, the president’s leadership has sharpened Americans’ financial struggles. Barring an about-face, which the administration shows no signs of performing, we can expect the condition to persist.
According to the man himself, Bidenomics is “about investing in America — investing in America and investing in Americans — American people.” Describing his economic policy recently before a Maryland audience, he explained: “It’s about growing the economy from the middle out and bottom up instead of the top down.”
But “investing” is just an excuse to spend.
And the runaway expenditures are having the opposite of the intended effect. The president and fellow Democrats hope Americans won’t believe their lying eyes, but the consequences of spendthrift ways in Washington are all too evident as Congress struggles to reach a sensible spending deal and avert a looming federal government shutdown.
Uncles Joe and Sam are on track to spend $7.6 trillion by the time the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, according to the feds’ official USAspending.gov website. Since the federal debt ceiling of $31.4 trillion was erased in June, the Biden administration has piled on nearly $1.7 trillion in added expenditures, pushing the cumulative national debt to new highs — $33.1 trillion and growing.
The spending avalanche has been so overwhelming that Fitch Ratings flinched in August, downgrading the U.S. long-range credit score from AAA to AA+. The thundering currency cascade is not bottom up, but a top-down economic dynamic, if ever there was one.
The government debt milestone acts like a millstone around the necks of taxpayers, burdening each household with its own $252,000 share of the total. To remain in the good graces of its creditors, Washington will have ponied up $750 billion this fiscal year just to cover debt interest. And the growth “from the middle out” that Mr. Biden plugs takes the form of middle America’s swelling tax payments that fly out the window.
The soaring inflation triggered by the president’s overspending forced U.S. families to suffer from May 2021 to January 2023 under living costs that climbed faster than their paychecks.
During the crippling pandemic panic between 2021 and 2022, median household income declined from $76,330 to $74,580, according to the Census Bureau.
Wages also declined in the second quarter of 2023 for all demographic groups except Black workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says.
Consumers relying on plastic to make ends meet have pushed cumulative credit card debt to a record $1 trillion, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reports.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone, then, that a Fox News poll conducted in mid-September found that 91% of respondents were extremely or very concerned about inflation and high prices. Regarding overall economic conditions, 78% rated them as fair to poor. Ominously, 53% said the Biden administration’s actions on inflation were hurting rather than helping. Only 24% disagreed.
Bidenomics is the tonic that has sickened the U.S. economy. Sadly, President Biden has no cure.
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