Pennsylvania U.S. Rep. Susan Wild has a warning for her fellow Democrats about the word “Bidenomics.”
Skip it.
“If you use the term’ Bidenomics,’ but somebody can’t afford their groceries, then they’re like, ‘Yeah, Bidenomics isn’t working for me,’” Wild recently told The Washington Post. She thinks it is better to talk about individual policies like the Inflation Reduction Act to convince voters that things are going all right. “These are tangible, real wins.”
And Democrats here in the Keystone State and across America appear to be following her example. Five months after the White House’s formal embrace of ‘Bidenomics,’ congressional Democrats have ‘disappeared’ the word.
The term is nowhere to be found on the New Democrat Coalition’s social media pages, and it hasn’t been mentioned on its website since July. House Majority PAC and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) haven’t used the Bidenomics term for months.
Even its namesake now only occasionally uses it on social media, and President Joe Biden has all but stopped using it in speeches (The White House denied that Biden will no longer use the term, however).
It is a sign Democrats realize the Bidenomics term isn’t as popular with the American public as they’d like.
Democrats struggled to sell the ‘Bidenomics’ phrase from the get-go. Polls consistently showed that it did nothing to buoy the president’s record-low approval ratings. A new CNN poll found just 33 percent of voters approve of his handling of the economy, and just 35 like his approach to helping the middle class.
There was also trouble within the Democratic congressional caucus. While some initially embraced the “Bidenomics” moniker (Rep. Tony Cárdenas, D-Calif., called Biden “very brave”), others grumbled that it focused too much on an issue where Republicans have an advantage over Democrats. Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told NBC News he didn’t like it because Biden supporters “don’t deal with ‘economics.’ They deal with day-to-day issues.”
Congressional Black Caucus chair Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) told Politico Biden shouldn’t have made it about him but about “the people who are benefitting” from his policies. He saw it as a framing issue that people didn’t understand. Other top Democrats, like DCCC Chair Rep. Suzan Del-Bane (D-Wash.), haven’t used the term at all, while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries D-N.Y.) used it once in July.
Even Congressman Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.), who represents Biden’s hometown of Scranton, said that Bidenomics isn’t a go-to phrase. “I have used the statistics, which are for the most part very, very nice,” he said before pivoting to high price concerns. “To crow about prices not going up too much more – that’s not something I would lead with.”
Delaware Valley congressional Democrats seem more interested in discussing the individual policies of what they believe is Bidenomics instead of the name.
“We’re not interested in labels, but we’re proud of the strong recovery we’ve seen since the end of the pandemic,” Tim Mack, communications director for Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Montgomery), told DVJournal. “We’re very proud of the Inflation Reduction Act…All of those things take time, and we’ll see the results of that. I think with low unemployment and inflation cooling, we feel like the things that we’ve done are working.”
The offices of Reps. Chrissy Houlahan and Mary Gay Scanlon declined to comment.
Biden continues to struggle in Pennsylvania polls. A new Redfield & Wilton Strategies/The Telegraph poll found him trailing Donald Trump 44 to 37 percent, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. taking 7 percent. Nearly 40 percent of the state’s voters say the economy is the most important issue, the top choice by far.
Republicans say the problem isn’t the wordplay; it’s the policies.
“House Democrats know their extreme policies hurt families,” said National Republican Congressional Committee National Press Secretary Will Reinert. “[T]hat is why they refuse to remind voters they were the ones to vote to implement ‘Bidenomics’ now that polling shows it’s radioactive.”
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