Bidenomics is lipstick on a pig

Predictably, Joe Biden, along with his advisers, economists, and media mouthpieces, has been embracing what was supposed to be a negative phrase — Bidenomics — and spinning it as something good. But no matter how you try to spin it, portraying Bidenomics as a positive economic force is the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig.

Mark Twain once said (with attribution elsewhere): “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” You can pull up all kinds of charts, graphs, and other amalgamations of numbers to try to prove almost any point you want, but that doesn’t replace reality.

You don’t need charts, graphs, economists, or anything else to see what is going on.

Biden is trying to brand Trump’s presidency as MAGAnomics, saying Trump’s fiscal policy was inferior to his own. If we take out the COVID-19 debacle that was so poorly handled but certainly an exceptional situation to be normalized for, and we ask people if they were better off in 2019 or 2023, what do you think the answer would be?

Never mind the administration’s talking points about job “reclamation” or “creation”; when did people have more fear of losing their jobs — today or 2019?

Looking at personal savings, when did Americans have more in their bank accounts? Notably, the personal savings rate was in the high 8% to mid-9% range in 2019. As of July 2023, it was just 3.5%.

When did Americans have more crushing debt loads, today or 2019? Well, we know the answer to that is today, with credit card debt alone exceeding $1 trillion.

And when did Americans feel as though they were getting crushed by the cost of everyday living, 2019 or today?

You don’t need a degree or a chart to know the reality of these answers.

As writer David Marcus posted on X (formerly Twitter), “Under MAGAnomics, people have more money to buy things. Under Bidenomics, the government has more money to buy things.”

Without a doubt, Biden stepped into a situation where the previous administration made some suspect economic decisions. But he made each and every policy worse, from adding stimulus money to attacking traditional energy sources. These are the issues that have been at the center of creating the worst inflation seen in more than four decades.

Moreover, during his administration, Biden has done nothing to correct course and steer our fiscal ship in the right direction. The debt, deficits, and energy are the main issues that will keep inflation sticky.

The national debt topped $32.96 trillion this month, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, while the federal deficit is projected to be a whopping $2 trillion for the 2023 fiscal year.

On the energy front, just last week the Biden administration canceled “the seven remaining oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”

None of that sounds promising for Bidenomics or America’s fiscal future.

The American people don’t need manipulated statistics or talking points gaslighting them about their lived reality. If Biden wants some economics that work, the only thing he can do is exactly the opposite of everything he has been doing.