I’ve been saying for some time now that the Biden administration made a gross miscalculation by spending more than a year touting Bidenomics. And boy, did the White House go all in.
Joe Biden embarked on a nationwide tour, consistently praising the state of the economy and eagerly assuming full responsibility for it. Time and time again, he gave speeches before banners adorned with the phrase "Bidenomics," and he remained steadfast in his belief that a rosy depiction of the situation would convince people that things were great.
The strategy didn’t work. Not at all. In fact, it backfired spectacularly, as voters chose to believe their eyes and bank accounts more than the White House talking points. Who can blame them? When you’re struggling to make ends meet because of out-of-control inflation, anything short of hypnosis isn’t going to convince you that all is well.
And it’s no guarantee that hypnosis would work either.
In any case, the messaging backfired so badly that House Democrats wanted nothing to do with it as they embarked on their reelection campaigns. Even the White House started to realize it wasn’t helping and stopped using “Bidenomics” around November of last year.
It was a smart move to ditch that messaging, even it was too late to change the fact that he'd taken full ownership of an economy that people are hurting in.
And then Biden decided to resurrect it this week.
"But our plan is delivering for the American people, building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down," he said in a speech on Wednesday. "That’s what I said I was going to do—that's what I tried to do as a senator and vice president—but because, when we do that, the poor have a ladder up and the middle class does well, and the wealthy do well. Although they should be paying a hell of a lot more in taxes."
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"We all do well," he continued. "It’s called Bidenomics. If you notice, all the major—all the major economists who are talking about 'there’s going to be a recession next week, next month'—they’re all of a sudden—they're seeing the Lord."
Economists are still predicting that a recession could happen in 2024, by the way. TD Securities puts the odds of a recession in 2024 at 65%. George Glover at Business Insider anticipates a recession in Q2-Q3 2024. Charlie Dougherty, a senior economist at Wells Fargo, predicted last year that a recession may happen in the second half of 2024.
But I digress. I suspect that there were plenty of Democrats who collectively gasped when Biden brought that message back to life.
Voters on both sides of the aisle are panning this economy, yet Biden continues to push this Bidenomics messaging even though it's clearly not in his best interests to do so. Is he actively trying to sabotage his campaign? I've been critical of plenty of Donald Trump's campaign decisions, but this could be the most blatant example of political malpractice yet.
And he's doubling down on it. He mentioned it again in a speech on Thursday in Wisconsin, claiming, "That’s our economic plan: invest in America, invest in American products, build in America. That’s what we call Bidenomics."
This is the political equivalent of the Titanic hitting the iceberg, turning around, and then hitting it again. That said, I advise Biden to keep doing it.
