Joe Biden at the White House in Washington on June 28, 2023 (AFP/Jim WATSON)
Launched in the race for his re-election in 2024, American President Joe Biden has bet everything on the solidity of the American economy and the revival of its industry, the fruit, according to him, of his “Bidenomics”, a name he gave Wednesday to his reforms during a speech in Chicago.
The American president took credit for this economic recovery after the shutdown caused by the pandemic and then the disruption of global supply chains.
“The + Bidenomics + is the will to completely rebuild the economy along three fundamental axes: to make smart investments, to strengthen the middle class through education, to help small businesses in order to strengthen competition”, declared Mr. Biden.
The choice to place the economy at the heart of his campaign is however bold and potentially risky for Joe Biden, while the world’s largest economy could still experience recession in the second part of the year.
And associating his name with it in this way, by promoting his “Bidenomics”, is even more so, thus placing himself in resonance with “Reaganomics”, a reference to the economic boom of the 80s under the presidency of Ronald Reagan and which remains the reference for Republicans.
Before leaving Washington for Chicago, the American president had already been provocative, explaining to the press that he heard “every month that the recession is forecast for the next one” whereas now the consensus is “that we will not experience the recession”.
– “Bidenomics” versus “Reaganomics”? –
For the moment, the speech has some difficulties to be heard, mainly because of the persistent inflationary pressure in a country accustomed for decades to a weak rise in prices.
A May poll for ABC and the Washington Post even placed former President Donald Trump 18 points ahead of Joe Biden on who was managing the economy better.
But the White House stresses that inflation is on the downward slope, albeit slowly but persistently and that “Bidenomics” are changing the rules of the game, to the benefit of the middle class.
The major investments voted by Congress during the first two years of the president’s mandate have poured in hundreds of billions of dollars for the energy transition, semiconductors but also infrastructure, for which no less than 550 billion dollars are planned.
According to Lael Brainard, director for the National Economic Council, Joe Biden is using public finance as a catalyst to “create a boom in private sector spending on building factories” where economic policy under the Reagan era had driven the abandonment of industrial cities under the effect of relocation and the abandonment of ambitious infrastructure projects.
According to her, the financing of high-speed internet throughout the territory is thus a reminder of the massive electrification effort carried out under the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt in order to modernize the country in the 1930s.
As for whether voters end up buying into the “Bidenomics” argument, it will largely depend on whether they actually see the effect of spending close to home, deputy spokeswoman Olivia Dalton told the press. of the White House.
“We are seeing the diggers in action, private investment coming back into our country, we are seeing millions of jobs being created. Now it is all about, with all these successes, carrying the president’s message and showing Americans that all of this is the fruit of +Bidenomics”, she explained.
“And this is only the beginning of their effects,” Ms Dalton insisted.
© 2023 AFP
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