As we approach the four-month mark of the Biden administration, we are beginning to see the initial results of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda. Suffice to say, the results of Bidenomics so far have been lacking.
Although Bidenomics is not easily explained, it seems to be predicated on three key pillars.
First, reverse the Trump administration’s crowning achievement of energy independence.
The Biden team accomplished this by terminating the Keystone XL pipeline, halting oil and gas leasing on federal lands, rejoining the Paris climate accords, demonizing fossil fuels daily, putting a huge emphasis on unreliable and unaffordable renewable energy, and making climate change a central priority throughout the federal government. The results have been disastrous — unless you enjoy gas shortages and skyrocketing energy prices.
According to the April Consumer Price Index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Energy prices were up 25.1 percent over the past 12 months. Gasoline prices rose 49.6 percent over the last 12 months, the largest 12-month increase since the year ending January 2010. Natural gas prices increased 12.1 percent, and electricity prices rose 3.6 percent over the year. Over the January 2020–April 2021 period, energy prices increased 7.5 percent, with prices for gasoline up 11.3 percent.”
Although Bidenomics is not responsible for all of that bad news, the administration’s anti-fossil fuel posture is surely a contributing factor to the epic rise in energy prices throughout the nation.
Second, Bidenomics is about increasing government dependence.
Since taking office and signing the American Rescue Plan into law, Biden has sent a clear message to the public: You don’t have to work because Uncle Sam will take care of you.
This element of Bidenomics manifested in a disastrous April jobs report, in which only 266,000 jobs were created when economists forecast at least 1 million jobs would be created. Adding to the bad news, unemployment increased to 6.1% even while the United States set an all-time record high of 8.1 million jobs available.
Maybe increasing those $300 per week federal unemployment bonus payments until September, on top of the generous unemployment offered by states, was a bad idea after all. Maybe sending those $1,400 stimulus checks wasn’t a brilliant idea either.
Yet Biden seems undeterred. After the horrendous April jobs report was released, Biden said, “There’s been a lot of discussion since Friday’s report that people are being paid to stay home rather than go to work. We don’t see much evidence of that.”
Look again. The evidence is overwhelming.
The third and probably most perilous aspect of Bidenomics is the embrace of Modern Monetary Theory.
Boiled down to its most simple terms, Modern Monetary Theory claims the federal government can literally print money to no end. It also claims, wrongly, that inflation can be micromanaged by all-knowing bureaucrats, which it cannot.
Although the Biden administration has not instituted Modern Monetary Theory in its full form (yet), it has definitely nibbled at its edges. To date, Biden has signed a $2 trillion Modern Monetary Theory-style COVID-19 “relief” bill. And the administration has proposed two more mega spending bills, the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan, which total $4 trillion.
So far, Biden’s embrace of Modern Monetary Theory-esque policies has sent inflation soaring. Referring to the BLS April report again, “The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.8 percent in April on a seasonally adjusted basis after rising 0.6 percent in March. … The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.9 percent in April, its largest monthly increase since April 1982.”
So, if you like higher prices and long lines at the pump, more people on the government dole, skyrocketing inflation, and trillions more added to the $28 trillion national debt, you are going to love four years of Bidenomics.
Chris Talgo ([email protected]) is the senior editor at the Heartland Institute.
