Some people may ask what the hell is Bidenomics? Well it’s time to dive into it and discuss whether or not things became better or worse. The reason for analyzing Bidenomics now is it’s been a long enough time to start seeing how well Biden’s economy has been doing after the COVID-19 lockdowns. Essentially our ship was sunk on purpose destroying our economy, children, and freedoms with the lockdowns. Now some people are saying the economy is doing better than ever before and inflation has reached a low of 3% meaning everything’s getting better.
Bidenomics: Democrat Claims
There are many claims from Democratic voters about how great the economy is doing right now. If that’s shocking to you, then don’t worry about it. I had to dig into reddit comments and pro-Biden posts on YouTube to try and understand what they were talking about. Personally, I feel like Biden’s economy has been horrible because everything’s cost has gone up locally. Don’t even remind me about the $7 gas people were paying for in California in 2022. However, let’s look at what the claims are for why Bidenomics is working by the left:
- Inflation has dropped down to 3%
- Unemployment levels have dropped under 4% (3.5%) (below Trump’s levels)
- There’s a boom in infrastructure spending and manufacturing jobs
- Biden has created a 15% tax on corporations
- Growth and real wage has increased
- United States has the lowest inflation among the G7 countries
- Consumer spending has increased by a large margin
- Income inequality is being reduced
Now looking at this raises a couple questions regarding real wage and growth. Additionally of course inflation is lower from being at an all time high in the past 40 years. Regardless looking at these statements and only focusing on these statements it seems that Bidenomics is working. However, people have to be looking at the economy through a tunnel vision and just trying to focus on what they believe to be true. Many Americans don’t really feel like Bidenomics is working for them, and they feel like they’re getting poorer with increased income inequality.
Republican Claims
Just like what we talked about earlier it’s going to be important to understand that the opposite side will make opposing claims. Just like how leftists support their ideas by having a narrow vision that means that the right will also focus on the negatives with a narrow vision. Let’s just look at the claims here instead of just debunking or supporting them. Take all the statements made by both sides with a grain of salt and in the last part of this article we’ll just look at the data. Not the manufactured data, but the real data. Here are the claims from the right:
- Costs of goods from groceries, insurance, fast food, cars, online subscription plans, and gas has gone up
- Inflation reached an all time high under Biden in the past 40 years
- Home prices have increased from a range of 1.5x to 3x
- Trillions has been printed under the Biden administration in a short timespan
- Lockdowns have crippled the economy, education, and the supply chain under Biden
- Jobs have increased, but most people need to work additional jobs to survive
- Credit card debt has increased to $1 trillion dollars under Biden (never seen before)
- Interest has increased to levels outpacing people’s wages
Again just like the leftists you can understand that if you only follow this information without looking at the other side, than Bidenomics is failing. Republicans and the right genuinely think that every aspect of Bidenomics is ruining America. From high consumer debt, lockdowns, and high interest it makes this group of people very angry. Especially coming from the side that corporations have to pay additional taxes. Frankly it’s true that you can sell your home for a million dollars now, but those homeowners will need to downsize from their home with the money they make.
Analyzing the Data
Now we’re going to analyze the data regarding how America is doing from Trump’s reign to Biden’s reign. We’re going to really analyze the Democratic and Republican statements. We will be seeing data regarding Bidenomics and check whether America is doing better or worse. Some facts are true such as a lot of money has been printed to comeback from the Coronavirus lockdowns. This is inherently true and it definitely devalued the US dollar because of increased printing. Well lets look:
US Debt
- During World War 2 debt increased drastically ($1 Trillion dollars to $4 Trillion dollars)
- +300%
- +$3 Trillion dollars
- It remained stagnant from 1945 to 1983 ($4 Trillion dollars)
- Debt skyrocketed from 1983 to 1998 ($10 Trillion dollars)
- Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush
- +150%
- +$6 Trillion dollars
- Dropping slightly from 1998 to 2000 (Still $10 Trillion dollars)
- Debt skyrocketed from 2001 to 2009 ($16 Trillion dollars)
- Bush Presidency
- +60%
- +$6 Trillion dollars
- War in Afghanistan and Iraq
- Debt continued to skyrocket from 2009 to 2017 ($25 Trillion Dollars)
- Obama Presidency
- +56%
- +$9 Trillion dollars
- +$1.6 Trillion in stimulus and tax cuts
- Great recession occurred.
- Debt continued to skyrocket from 2017 to 2021 ($31 Trillion Dollars)
- Trump Presidency turning into Biden Presidency
- COVID-19 Pandemic
- +24%
- +$6 Trillion dollars
- +$2.2 Trillion was added during the CARES act known as the largest rescue package in US history
- Debt continued to increase from 2021 to 2023 ($34 Trillion Dollars)
- Biden Presidency
- COVID-19 Pandemic
- +9%
- +$3 Trillion dollars
- +$1.9 Trillion was added during the American Rescue Plan Act to help recover the economy
Biden’s term is not over with another year of spending to go through Bidenomics, but we can see some interesting information from debt overall. It seems that Obama and Bush were relatively not good at spending. Additionally Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush heavily increased debt. Now we look at Trump and Biden. It seems that neither of them increased the debt too badly percentage wise. However, percentages don’t tell the full story as trillions of dollar are at stake here. Obama easily spent the most with $9 trillion, and Biden so far has spent the least at $3 trillion. Looking at these amounts and statistics it doesn’t seem that Bidenomics increased spending too much.
US Inflation
Inflation in the United States has been high in the past with spikes in 1970 (5.8%), 1974 (11%), 1980 (13.5%), but then remained relatively stable at around 3% from 1983 to 2008. The real kicker here was the great recession that occurred due to George Bush’s policy causing Obama to take over a failing economy. After the great recession and house crash of 2008 interest has remained low during Obama’s presidency. From negative interest to 3% and then back to 0%. Now we’re going to focus on Trump and Biden with his Bidenomics.
During Trumps presidency interest rates remained lower than the averages in the past from 1% to 2%. Now we’re going to focus on Bidenomics with the interest hitting an all time high in 40 years at 9.1% in June of 2022. It’s a little unfair to state that Bidenomics failed due to high interest rates and increased spending. Biden has technically spent less than any other president and the interest rates were risen by the fed due to the large spending caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.
It’s not technically Trump’s fault or Biden’s fault in Bidenomics which caused the current economy. COVID-19 destroyed not only the US economy, but economies worldwide making it unfair to blame any president for what happened. People can disagree with Biden’s Democratic policies such as being soft on crime, open boarder issues, causing political polarization, and simply being unfit physically as a president. However, none of this really has a standpoint on economics.
Unemployment Rate
Now lets look at the unemployment rate with Bidenomics in play during Biden’s presidency. Trump hit an all time low in February of 2020 with an unemployment rate of 3.5% which we haven’t seen since 1969. It was the lowest it’s ever been for the past 50 years and then something unprecedented happened. The COVID-19 pandemic struck causing a massive unemployment rate due to the entire world shutting down to avoid potential illness which was originally placated as something extremely deadly.
Once COVID hit our planet from the Wuhan lab leak, the unemployment rate jumped from 3.5% to 14.9% in April of 2020 with many Americans being laid off until further notice or furloughed. Now Trump had some important calls to make and Biden had some difficulties which he inherited from the pandemic. Trump dropped the unemployment rate to 6.4% before he lost the election and then Biden put Bidenomics into play.
In January 2023, Biden was able to drop the unemployment rate to 3.4% which is miraculous. However, some people discredit this by stating of course he lowered it from everyone being unemployed and not working for years. The need for social interaction and money cannot be overstated which means people definitely helped him achieve this goal. Others state that of course unemployment is lower during Bidenomics because most people need 2 or 3 jobs to survive. Side hustles and passive incomes are also on many articles showing the severity of what people need to do to survive.
High Cost
One thing is a bit more difficult to defend for Bidenomics and that is the high cost of goods and services today. It doesn’t matter if the inflation rate has been reduced to 3% if consumers and Americans still cannot afford housing, groceries, and transportation. We’ll discuss a few of the increases of costs here to understand how much more things cost for the average United States citizen. Here is a list of a few increases from July 2022 to July 2023:
- Groceries increased by 20%
- Fast food increased by 18%
- Energy costs increased by 38%
- Oil costs increased by 45%
- Gasoline increased by 52%
- Natural gas increased by 20%
- Electricity increased by 26%
- Rental costs increased by 15%
- Used vehicles increased by 35%
- New vehicles increased by 20%
- Construction materials increased by 29%
- Manufacturing increased by 23%
- Industrial chemicals increased by 22%
- Domestic shipping costs increased by 29%
- Packaging costs increased by 41%
- Refrigerant and HVAC costs increased by 36%
- Wholesale food increased by 17%
- Animal feed increased by 19%
- Fertilizer increased by 28%
- Business utilities increased by 31%
- Casualty insurance increased 8%
- Health insurance increased by 6%
- Leasing a business vehicle increased 44%
- Leasing a commercial space increased 7%
- Labor/Worker costs increased 11% to 13%
Around 50% of Americans state that the United States is too expensive to live in with many of these costs affecting their ability to survive. Around 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck including many who earn up to $100,000 a year. Around 20% of Americans don’t have savings and around 30% have less than $5,000 in emergency funds. Savings rate of Americans also hit a low of 3.4% in September 2023.
Now it’s essential to state that Bidenomics was not the main culprit of this issue, but the overall larger issue is the pandemic in 2020. People will also try to save Biden and Bidenomics by stating it was Trump’s policies that led America to what it is now. This is also inherently untrue and the main culprit is again the worldwide lockdowns caused by COVID-19. The reason for increased costs of goods is a quick heavy increase in demand with little to no supply from the Coronavirus times. Additionally high inflation rate also kicks off high costs by just making things more expensive.
Conclusion
As we dissect the intricacies of Bidenomics, it becomes apparent that the economic landscape is marked by a series of challenges, achievements, and divergent viewpoints. The claims and counterclaims from both sides paint a nuanced picture, reflecting the complexity of economic policies in the wake of unprecedented events, most notably the global pandemic.
The Democratic narrative applauds the reduction in inflation, decreased unemployment rates, and an infusion of funds into infrastructure and manufacturing. On the flip side, the Republican perspective emphasizes the surge in costs for goods and services, escalating debt levels, and concerns about the trajectory of the economy.
Analyzing the data unveils a historical context that extends beyond the current administration. The trajectory of U.S. debt, inflation rates, and unemployment figures reveals patterns that span presidencies, each facing unique challenges and contributing factors. Bidenomics, entangled with the aftermath of the pandemic, showcases a delicate balance of economic recovery efforts.
The real question arises when we scrutinize the tangible impacts on everyday Americans. Rising costs for essentials, increased debt levels, and ongoing economic uncertainties pose significant challenges for citizens navigating a landscape shaped by the repercussions of the pandemic.
In the quest for a comprehensive understanding, it’s crucial to acknowledge that economic dynamics are rarely black and white. While certain indicators may portray improvement, the lived experiences of individuals grappling with the high cost of living paint a contrasting picture.
As we traverse the ongoing journey of Bidenomics, with its successes and pitfalls, it remains imperative for policymakers, economists, and the public to engage in informed discourse. Beyond partisan lenses, a collective effort to address the root causes and foster resilience will be essential for steering the nation toward a more stable and prosperous future.