President Joe Biden and his team are in full 2024 campaign mode. Virtually every move the president makes, every trip he takes and every speech he delivers is now planned and executed with an eye on the 2024 presidential sweepstakes and the effort to bolster the president’s chances of reelection. None of this is a surprise.
Biden’s central campaign theme was announced early on. He wants voters to embrace the work he has done thus far and get their vote to continue in a second term to “finish the job.” But that strategy presents a challenge. If voters don’t support what Biden has done thus far, they may not want him to “finish the job.” This is particularly true when it comes to the economy, which impacts the day-to-day financial lives of the very middle-class voters to whom Biden is directing his pitch.
On the issue of the economy — with some polls showing that only 33% of the country supports how Biden is handling things — Team Biden has decided to double down on his record and to sell it hard. They have embarked on a plan to promote and rebrand the administration’s economic strategies and programs that have been the subject of much debate, and claim credit for continuing low unemployment, real wage growth, a surprisingly resilient economy and a government that is working.
They call the approach “Bidenomics,” a term originally coined by conservative opinion writers who attacked the administration for inflationary policies and rising consumer prices.
As explained by the White House, Bidenomics is “an economic vision centered around three pillars: Making smart public investments in America; Empowering and educating workers to grow the middle class; and Promoting competition to lower costs and help entrepreneurs and small business thrive.”
Bidenomics rejects Reagan-era policies that cut taxes for the wealthy in the belief that the profits would “trickle down” to the middle class. Instead, Bidenomics seeks to grow the economy from the middle out and bottom up, with particular focus on growing the
middle class.
Bidenomics is not a new economic approach. It is, instead, the promotion of policies that use government muscle to revive and reshape the economy to help the middle class. Examples include the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and the administration’s $500 million Good Jobs Challenge, which have together led to thousands of federally funded projects and expanded work opportunities.
The Bidenomics move is reminiscent of the successful decision by the Obama administration to embrace the term “Obamacare” ― which was initially used as part of a conservative attack against the Affordable Care Act ― and shift from a derisive use of Obamacare to one of pride. As Obama did with health care, Biden seeks to do with the economy.
But it will not be an easy lift. Opponents will continue to challenge the policies under any name as a grab bag of protectionist policies without a clear economic plan. And so long as 57% of Americans continue to disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy, it won’t matter what he calls his plan.
