Why Is Bidenomics So Unpopular?

The affordability crisis — falling real wages — is the dirty little secret President Biden won’t talk about.

AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta
President Biden speaks at the Abbots Creek Community Center, Raleigh, North Carolina, January 18, 2024. AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta

President Biden is speaking today in North Carolina, going back to all the economic class-warfare arguments sometimes called Bidenomics. He doesn’t seem to ever learn.  

One of the phoniest of the phony arguments is how he created 14 million jobs. The trouble is: he didn’t. He’s double-counting lost pandemic jobs with his modest number of jobs gained.  

In February 2020, before the Covid roof fell in, there were 152 million non-farm payroll jobs. Today there are 157 million. That’s 5 million new jobs.  

The Trump performance, though, starting with 143 million non-farm payrolls in January 2017 and going through February 2020, was plus 9 million.  Nine million is 4 million higher than 5 million. Just saying. 

By the way, it comes to roughly 170,000 a month for President Trump — and 130,000 for Mr. Biden. 

Now, I agree with Mr. Biden that unemployment is historically low under 4 percent, but it was Mr. Trump who first broke that barrier with 3.5 percent unemployment. 

Then, there’s this notion that billionaires are only paying an 8 percent tax rate, according to Mr. Biden.  

This is the phoniest of phony numbers, conjured up by Biden staff using an unrealized capital gains wealth tax that does not exist. That’s how they get to 8 percent.  

This is another one of these Bottomless Pinocchio untruths by Mr. Biden. No one should believe him.  

Meanwhile, if Mr. Biden were re-elected, he would go for a wealth tax as well as sky-high income tax hikes for individuals and large and small businesses.  

Mr. Biden keeps talking about the rich getting richer under Mr. Trump. Which unfortunately is something Ambassador Nikki Haley talks about as well. Not true.  

As study after study has shown — including a recent blue-chip study from the National Bureau of Economic Research by economists from University Chicago, Princeton University, Harvard University, and the Treasury — not only did the Trump tax cuts generate a significant boost in business capital investment along with a $6,400 boost in the real incomes of average families, it also contributed to a jump in productivity.  

The biggest gainers, on a percentage basis, were the middle-income blue-collar working families, with even larger percentage gains for lower-income wage-earners. 

By the way, unemployment rates dropped to historically low levels for African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and women.  

Going back to class warfare. The class warriors saw their state and local tax deduction capped, and all those blue-state Democrats are still bellyaching about that.  

Mr. Biden is a champion big spender, which is why, of course, inflation surged and middle-class affordability plunged.  

Real wages were up by about 7 percent under Mr. Trump, and fell down about 4 percent under Mr. Biden. The affordability crisis is the dirty little secret Mr. Biden won’t talk about.  

As poll after poll shows, this is why Bidenomics is so unpopular.  And why Mr. Trump’s polls continue to soar. 

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business Network.


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