President Joe Biden touted his economic record amid continuing dissatisfaction among Americans with the state of the US economy, by saying his policies have proven effective.
Mr Biden delivered a fiery speech on Wednesday in Chicago where he sought to flip a term that the Wall Street Journal has used against him – Bidenomics – into a positive.
“I didn’t come up with the name, I really didn’t, I’m not offended by it,” he said. “I’m happy to call it Bidenomics.”
The president, who is seeking re-election in 2024, said that the US economy has largely recovered from the recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Guess what? Bidenomics is working,” he said to applause. “When I took office, the pandemic was raging and the economy was reeling. Supply chains were broken. Millions of people were unemployed.”
Despite low unemployment, many Americans continue to see inflation as a top priority. A survey from the Pew Research Center last week showed that 52 per cent of Democrats and 77 per cent of Republicans say inflation is still a “very big problem.” Mr Biden sought to soothe those concerns by saying he continues to prioritise lowering prices and noted how inflation is less than half of what it was one year ago.
“Bringing down inflation remains one of my top priorities today,” he said. Mr Biden also mentioned the progress that his signature Inflation Reduction Act has made, such as allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
“We’ve been trying to get this done for decades and this time we finally beat big pharma for the first time,” he said.
Mr Biden also touted how the law is aiding red states like West Virginia, the home of conservative Democratic Sen Joe Manchin, who has vocally criticised the Biden administration’s implementation of the law as he weighs whether to seek re-election in a staunchly Republican state.
The president also touted the expansion of rural broadband, specifically naming Sen Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who opposed the measure previously.
“To no one’s surprise, it’s bringing along some converts,” he said. “People strenuously opposed voting against it when we had this going on. This was going to bankrupt America.”
Mr Biden’s speech is one of his first outlining his economic doctrine as he seeks to create a contrast between himself and Republican presidential candidates.
“This vision is a fundamental break from the economic theory that has failed America's middle class for decades: It’s called trickle-down economics,” he said, describing the economic theory that argues that cutting taxes for the wealthiest individuals and corporations would lead to wealth spreading to the middle-class and low-income Americans. “The trickle-down approach failed the middle class. It failed America.”
He also sought to show that he could accomplish what his predecessor and would-be 2024 challenger former president Donald Trump could not achieve by passing the bipartisan infrastructure law.
“Remember infrastructure week? Infrastructure week became infrastructure week and week and week and it never happened,” he said, a reference to the fact that the Trump administration regularly touted “infrastructure week.” “We got infrastructure decade done right off the bat.”
Mr Biden also planned to continue to shore up cash for his re-election effort and shortly after the event, headed to a fundraiser at the J.W. Marriott’s Grand Ballroom that same day.
