‘Bidenomics’ Backfires

In June, the Biden White House pushed all its chips in on a big gamble. The administration took full ownership of the economic status quo with which most Americans were deeply dissatisfied, branding it a product of “Bidenomics.” The administration assumed that conditions would continue to improve into 2024 to such an extent that Americans who at the time associated Biden with an economy they hated would later give him credit for an economy they liked. So far, the gamble has been a failure.

This week, Politico pronounced a grim, albeit preliminary, sentence on “Bidenomics.” The marketing campaign doesn’t “appear to be working,” the outlet said. One White House official, who was granted anonymity apparently only to gratuitously torture a hockey metaphor, insisted that Democrats are playing “where the puck’s going to be a year from now” whereas Republicans are “skating right around where the puck was yesterday.” Democrats believe declining rates of inflation, diminished fears of a coming recession, and job growth will persist, voters will feel the relief in their wallets, and the public will garland the president and his party in victorious laurels. So far, however, voters remain unconvinced.