Bidenomics: Big Government, Industrial Policy and Centralized Control

With an eye toward the upcoming presidential elections, the White House has launched a new public relations campaign called “Bidenomics,” to define President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.

“I don’t know what the hell that is, but it’s working,” Biden stated at a June 17 union rally in Philadelphia, begging the question: what is Bidenomics, and is it working? 

According to a White House statement, Bidenomics rests on three pillars: massive “smart” government spending on renewable energy and semiconductors, support for unions and domestic manufacturing, and promoting competition. As a result, the White House states, “our economy has added more than 13 million jobs—including nearly 800,000 manufacturing jobs—and we’ve unleashed a manufacturing and clean energy boom.” 

The Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science (CHIPS) Act of 2022 allocates $280 billion in federal spending to bolster U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. The Infrastructure Act of 2021 allocated more than $65 billion for “clean energy” projects. And the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act allocated an additional $394 billion for clean energy in the form of tax incentives, loans, and grants.