Washington, Jun 28 (EFE).- The president of the United States, Joe Biden, this Wednesday put the economy at the center of his electoral campaign for 2024 with a speech in which he outlined his vision to improve the lives of the working class with support for unions and taxes on the rich, an idea dubbed “Bidenomics”.
This attempt to provide Biden with a fresh message ahead of the 2024 election marks the biggest effort to date by the White House to convince the public that the president’s economic policies have helped the country recover from the pandemic and continue to growing.
The task is not easy, since only one third of Americans believe that he is doing a good job with the economy and his approval ratings are at 43%, according to Gallup.
Biden introduced Bidenomics
Biden chose the old Chicago Post Office as the setting for his big speech: a high-ceilinged space with marble walls, with huge American flags and big blue signs reading “Bidenomics” on the stage.
In front of an audience of 200 people, Biden took the podium to define this new idea of ”Bidenomics.”
“Bidenomics is about the future. “Bidenomics” is another way of saying that we are going to restore the American dream”, said the president, who said that the economists were the ones who had invented that term, but that he has now appropriated it because: “’Bidenomics’ is worked”
Under that term of “Bidenomics”, the White House has included a large number of ideas, from infrastructure investments to tax incentives to grow the manufacturing sector in the US to more populist policies, such as ending commissions hidden charges charged by airlines, banks and other sectors.
Breaking of “Reaganomics”
According to the White House, “Bidenomics” represents a fundamental break with the economic theory of “Reaganomics” (reaganomy, in Spanish), the neoliberal economic vision promoted by former President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) to promote free markets and reduce taxes. .
Although that neoliberal vision is associated with Reagan, Biden linked it directly to former President Donald Trump, whom he did not call by name and referred to only as his “ancestor.”
Indirectly, Biden criticized Trump, with whom he could face again in the 2024 elections, for the policies he implemented to benefit the richest in the US, while appealing to the disenchantment of the working class with globalization.
“This is the moment. American families are finally going to get relief,” Biden said.
More taxes for the rich
The president promised to carry out some of the biggest social reforms that he championed during his campaign for the 2020 elections and that were stalled because the Democrats do not have enough votes to pass them in Congress.
Biden, in fact, used his speech to make it clear that he intends to continue fighting for higher taxes for the rich and a great reform that allows children between the ages of three and five to access free education, in addition to lowering the high costs that Americans pay for college.
With Biden’s arrival at the White House in January 2021, the US economy recovered after the drop in GDP during the pandemic and unemployment rates fell to 3.7% last May.
However, the economy has shown its worst facet with inflation, which rose to all-time highs in 40 years, reaching 9.1% in June 2022, although it has been receding and stood at 4% in May.