Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Let’s get into name calling about economic plans from both parties, and what they actually accomplished.

The latest slur from the GOP is Bidenomics to Republicans, “Bidenomics” is a slur they can deploy. It’s a philosophy of government spending and anti-oil policies that they say fueled a spike in inflation last summer to a four-decade high. But is the current economic plan doing all the harm that the Republicans are crying about?

Bidenomics—is rooted in the recognition that the best way to grow the economy is from the middle out and the bottom up. It’s an economic vision centered around three key pillars:

• Making smart public investments in America
• Empowering and educating workers to grow the middle class.
• Promoting competition to lower costs and help entrepreneurs and small businesses thrive.

The current administration was handed an economy that was in free fall after COVID19 and poor management of the previous administration. Many Republicans want the public to believe that the U.S. economy is a disaster although many economists agree that the U.S. is, for now, not in a recession. The most recent gross domestic product report published last week showed the U.S. economy grew by 2.9% in the fourth quarter of 2022, following growth of 3.2% in the quarter before. In fact, the U.S. financial picture looks far better than all other G7 nations.  The United States has, by far, the largest gross domestic product (GDP) of the G7 countries. Moreover, while the GDP of the other six countries fluctuated between 2000 and 2022, the U.S.’ grew almost constantly, reaching an estimated 25 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022.

So based on these numbers and unemployment being a record low, it appears that the GOP slur of Bidenomics is completely invalid.

For those of us that lived through the 1980’s you will remember the phrase Reaganomics. The pillars of Reagan’s economic policy included increasing defense spending, balancing the federal budget and slowing the growth of government spending, reducing the federal income tax and capital gains tax, reducing government regulation, and tightening the money supply in order to reduce inflation.

What the plan actually did was deregulate industries and cut taxes for the wealthy, “If the wealthy receive tax cuts it will benefit everyone,” was what we were all led to believe. Cutbacks in income transfers during the Reagan years helped increase both poverty and inequality. Changes in tax policy helped increase inequality but reduced poverty. These policy shifts are not the only reasons for the lack of progress against poverty and the rise in inequality.

The results of Reaganomics are still debated. Supporters point to the end of stagflation, stronger GDP growth, and an entrepreneurial revolution in the decades that followed. Critics point to the widening income gap, what they described as an atmosphere of greed, reduced economic mobility, and the national debt tripling in eight years which ultimately reversed the post-World War II trend of a shrinking national debt as percentage of GDP.

Historically the debt has gone up under Republican Administrations since after Eisenhower and no Republican President has balanced a budget. Their policy of tax cuts for the top of the economic scale has always led to budget shortfalls. The GOP solution is to cut spending on social programs at affect more people than their tax cuts benefit. They also compare the national budget to a household budget a by saying that the best way to save is to cut services while continuing to spend no thought of increasing revenue. Sorry that shit don’t work!!!

I, just like President Biden, am taking Bidenomics as a complement and moving forward with it. This administration is proving that bottom up, middle out method of economic growth actually works. Reaganomics, piss on the poor and tell them it raining, system has put us in the economic predicament we are in, time to throw it out.

Thanks for suffering through another rant.