When President Joe Biden visits Pennsylvania on Friday — his first official event of the year, and the 33rd time he’s been to the commonwealth since taking office — the topic will be a familiar one: Bidenomics.
His use of the phrase has been a source of contention among some Democrats since last summer, when the president and his aides devised a strategy of taking more credit for economic gains made under his watch.
But as the economy continues to show signs of improvement – and his most likely Republican rival inches closer to the nomination — there are few signs Biden is retiring the label, even if others in his party avoid it.
On Friday, Biden will fly the Bidenomics banner in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the onetime steel and manufacturing hub that suffered the fallout of deindustrialization, but has seen a revival in recent years, with an unemployment rate the White House says is now at a 30-year low.
While there, he’ll meet small business owners the White House says have benefited from Biden’s policies and tout what the administration calls a “small business boom,” with 16 million new business applications filed since the start of his administration.
Biden’s aides hope Bidenomics will eventually become a rallying cry for Democrats as economic gains finally make their way into American households and psyches, and his investments in infrastructure, technology and jobs begin to take hold. But they acknowledge that shifting public outlook on the economy won’t happen overnight.
“The president’s economic policies are showing great results in terms of real wage gains, real employment gains, real wealth gains,” National Economic Council director Lael Brainard said Thursday, “but we still have work to do on lowering costs.”
Consumer Price Index numbers released on Thursday indicate consumer prices rose 3.4%…
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