The White House this week is going all in on a campaign to claim credit for the nation’s post-pandemic resurgence, touting an economic vision that aides see as so central to Joe Biden’s presidential legacy they’ve gone as far as giving it a name: “Bidenomics.” | Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesPresident Joe Biden is tying his political fate to the U.S. economy — recessionary risks be damned.
The question of how strongly to tout the economy has vexed virtually every president running during a time of recovery. Boast too hard and voters may perceive you as out of touch. Stay too quiet and risk the perception of taking hold that times are bleak and getting bleaker. “There’s going to be billions of dollars spent laying out what Joe Biden has done,” said one Democratic national political consultant familiar with the campaign strategy. “All these things are incredibly popular. But people don’t really know about them.”
“The strategy certainly makes sense,” Michael Strain, the director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said of Biden lashing himself to an economy defined so far by rising wages and near record-low unemployment. “The risk is obviously that that will not always be the case — and it’s a pretty long road until 2024.”
But Biden and his top aides have grown increasingly confident they can sidestep a deep recession, encouraged by data that shows the economy continues to add jobs even as interest rates rise and inflation cools. In addition to Wednesday’s speech, Biden is slated to hold several events this week. It is part of an “Investing in America” blitz that will see senior officials dispatched across the country to highlight the on-the-ground impact of the administration’s investments.