Bidenomics is no success story
Published 10:48 am Friday, September 29, 2023
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Bidenomics. It’s a term that has become eerily familiar ever since President Biden’s operatives trotted out the phrase in June. While Biden sells his economic plan as one that will “rebuild our economy from the middle out and the bottom up,” this is a patent falsehood. Here is a proper definition of Bidenomics: reckless spending, runaway inflation, and corporate welfare for green energy companies. Ultimately, this translates to Americans having less money in their own pockets.
This administration’s misguided economic policies, grounded in their far-left Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives, demonstrates how they put politics before the interests of hard-working Americans. Ever since he assumed the Oval Office, Biden has blown out the federal deficit through myriad wasteful policy initiatives. This includes the $1.9 trillion “COVID relief” bill which was an unnecessary blue state bailout that directed only 9% of its funding toward public health causes to combat COVID. Then there’s the Inflation Reduction Act which did the exact opposite of reducing inflation and instead shoveled corporate tax credits toward green energy companies.
In 2019, the federal government under President Trump spent $5.1 trillion. Meanwhile, in 2022, under Biden, the government surged spending to $6.3 trillion. Overall, Biden’s policies are estimated to add $4.8 trillion to deficits between 2021 and 2031, and his proposed spending will reach a $7 trillion threshold by 2025. In fact, for the first time ever, under Biden, the national debt has surpassed $33 trillion. The president is leading our country toward an economic disaster.
Bidenomics led to what was the highest inflation in 40 years in 2022. Americans have been feeling the impact of this through higher costs – last month, costs rose once more, up 3.7% year-over-year and up more than 17% since Biden became president. Americans can see this reality when they look at their monthly bills: since Biden took office, gas prices have skyrocketed 64.6%, energy prices have risen 43.38%, and grocery prices have ballooned 20.5%. Today, the price of bacon is 11.5% higher than it was in 2021, and year-over-year cereal prices are up 14.2%. That’s Bidenomics in action.
Under Bidenomics, families are struggling to even support their children’s needs. Parents will spend an average of $890 on back-to-school shopping, which is $100 more than when Biden assumed office. Notebooks and folders cost 48.5% more than last year, and crayons and highlighters are up 18.5% from last year.
Joe lauds Bidenomics as allegedly contributing to a manufacturing boom. Yet, Biden’s chief manufacturing plan has been to funnel hundreds of billions of dollars in federal manufacturing subsidies for green energy companies, which has boosted inflation. Meanwhile, our country is currently facing a United Auto Workers union strike against all three Detroit automakers for the first time ever. The Biden administration’s use of government mandates to force companies to embrace the administration’s radical Green Energy Agenda could put many union workers out of their jobs.
We need to return to fiscal responsibility. This begins with balancing the budget, cutting discretionary spending where necessary, and unleashing American energy. Reigning in spending is a key priority of mine: every Congress, I introduce across-the-board 1%, 2%, and 5% spending cuts.
Biden’s appetite for binge spending is unsustainable. Fiscal sanity must be restored in these chambers. This starts with Republicans showing the American people that we support pro-business, pro-growth, and pro-worker policies. By enacting conservative economic policies, America can steer its fiscal trajectory away from eventual default and toward a balanced budget. Curbing spending isn’t just an option. It’s a necessary remedy that will create prosperous economic conditions for future generations of Americans.
(Marsha Blackburn represents Tennessee in the U.S. Senate)