America: What’s Behind “Bitenomics”

At the start of the election campaign, US President Biden is trying to score points on the topic of the economy. New keyword: “Bidenomics”. What’s behind it – and can the slogan catch on?

It’s an attempt to give a focus, a slogan, a new impetus to Joe Biden’s slow-starting campaign. Let’s move away from the debate about Biden’s aging and look at his accomplishments. At first he tried it with humor — the press coined the term “bitenomics” for his economic policy, and the president said he didn’t know what the hell he was talking about.

In fact, the term appeared occasionally at the beginning of his tenure. In early June, the “Wall Street Journal” used it in a headline, and other media outlets followed suit. Now Biden tried to revive the word in a speech to a union audience in Chicago: “Imagination: ‘Bidenomics’ works. When I took office, the pandemic was raging and the economy was reeling,” the Democrat said. “Since then we’ve created 13.4 million new jobs. More new jobs in two years than any president did four years ago.”

Join Reagan Neoliberalism

After all, Biden repeatedly mentions his infrastructure package, which, along with state subsidies, is intended to be a counter-plan to the “Reaeconomics” of the 1980s. Around that time, Republican Ronald Reagan listened to economist Arthur Laffer, who once wrote his main idea on a napkin—in the form of a Laffer curve.

Simply put, anyone who massively cuts taxes and gives freedom to entrepreneurs creates more growth, the positive effect of which trickles down to the lower income brackets and ultimately fills the government coffers themselves.

State investments in infrastructure

Biden, a Democrat, is banking on the opposite: big government investments in roads, bridges, railroads, climate protection, new factories in his home country, for example, chip manufacturing. “Bidenomics is about putting things together and getting it done,” Jared Bernstein, Biden’s top economic adviser, told NPR radio. “It means designing the economy from the ground up to resonate strongly with people.”

But it is precisely this echo that is the problem. Economic relationships are difficult to explain. Many people on the street are still feeling high inflation: “To buy groceries, to fill up the car – everything has become so expensive,” says the mother of two from Pennsylvania, “We have to count every penny.”

felt less Business skills

There are certainly voices supporting Biden even among young voters: “He’s the best president I’ve ever seen,” says the 19-year-old from Florida. “He is fighting for my generation.” He cited climate protection as the main reason he appreciated it.

So far, however, representative surveys have shown that, when it comes to economic viability, Joe Biden fares even worse with just a 34 percent approval rating compared to a 41 percent public approval rating. Will the catchphrase “bitenomics” ever shine? However, there is still a long way to go.