Although I normally try to discuss important national issues separate from the personalities involved, the 2024 presidential election campaign is now shaping up.  What the candidates are doing and saying has taken center stage and so becomes the focus of attention.  I have previously discussed Bidenomics, but now let’s focus on it more directly.

Consider:

• There is little dispute that it was the $5 trillion Covid stimulus spending that tripped off the latest round of inflation starting in March of 2021.  In fact, the last $1.9 trillion of this stimulus, the so-called American Rescue Plan, was signed by President Biden, right after he took office.  The attached chart clearly shows inflation taking off at this time.

  

• National Debt. From the attached chart, it is easy to determine that during 2017 – 2020, the four years of Trump, the total national debt was about $5.7 trillion.  For Biden’s four years, 2021 – 2024, using the CBO projection of $1.6 trillion for 2024, the total new debt will be $7.5 trillion.  Both of these debt totals are excessive.  But Biden’s last $1.9 trillion of Covid stimulus was worse than Trump’s $3 trillion, because by March 2021 the U.S. economy was already starting to recover from the pandemic slowdown.
  The deficit of $1.7 trillion in FY 2023 (see attached chart) was way too large with no recession or other emergency, such as a pandemic.

  
  Furthermore, the Congressional Budget Office is now projecting additional deficits totaling $20 trillion over the next ten years (see the attached chart).

  

• Interest Rates. The Federal Reserve has raised short-term interest rates to the highest level in years to fight inflation.  Of course, this means much higher interest payments on our exploding national debt.  In addition, home sales in 2023 were at a 28-year low (see attached chart), because of high mortgage rates.

  

• Average Income. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that real (inflation-adjusted) average wages have fallen during the Biden administration (see the attached chart).

  

Conclusion.  It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Bidenomics is a disaster.  The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in early 2021 tripped off inflation which is having many harmful effects.  Continued reckless deficit spending will keep inflation higher longer. This not only hurts millions of Americans right now, it endangers our country’s future by making a new financial (debt) crisis more likely in the near future.  President Biden brags about all the money he is spending and therefore lacks any sense of fiscal responsibility.

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