Biden aims for middle-class voters as he discusses economy during Chicago visit

The White House labeled Biden’s speech at the Old Post Office as a “major address” and part of the administration’s second Investing in America outreach tour. The Biden administration is touting an economy in recent years that it says is driven from the bottom up through government investment and contrasting it to tax cuts for the wealthy and the trickle-down philosophy of “Reaganomics” launched by Republican Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

“Today, the U.S. has had the highest economic growth among the world’s leading economies since the pandemic. We’ve added over 13 million jobs, more jobs in two years than any president has added in a four-year term. And folks, that’s no accident. That’s Bidenomics in action,” Biden said in prepared remarks, noting 800,000 of those jobs were in the manufacturing sector.

Biden detailed a 15-year high in the number of people in the workforce, an unemployment rate that dropped below 4% years earlier than predicted following the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing wages and a decrease in the rate of inflation without a major recession.

“Bidenomics is about building the economy from the middle out and bottom up — not the top down by making three fundamental changes,” Biden said in his remarks. “First, making smart investments in America. Second, educating and empowering American workers to grow the middle class. And third, promoting competition to lower costs and help small businesses.”

It was Biden’s first trip to Chicago since announcing in April that he had selected the city to host the Democratic National Convention in August 2024 for his renomination for president. It will be the first time Democrats will bring their every-four-year nominating assembly to the city since President Bill Clinton’s renomination in 1996.

Biden’s last visit to Chicago was in May of last year when he spoke to the national convention of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers at McCormick Place.

While Biden uttered the phrase “Bidenomics” numerous times during his Chicago address, he downplayed it earlier Wednesday.

Before he left Washington for Chicago, Biden contended it was the media that branded the term “Bidenomics” and not the White House — even though his own economic advisers promoted the term for days and his own Twitter account offered a description of the strategy with the statement, “This is Bidenomics, folks.”

“Well, look, you guys branded it. I didn’t. I never called it ‘Bidenomics,’” he told reporters at the White House. “The first time it was used was in The Wall Street Journal. OK? And I don’t go around beating my chest ‘Bidenomics’ so the press started calling it ‘Bidenomics.’ ”

Biden’s arrival came as Chicago was dealing with exceedingly poor air quality as a result of Canadian wildfires. Aboard Air Force One to Chicago, deputy White House press secretary Oliva Dalton said the White House did not consider canceling the event due to the air quality and said the U.S. is monitoring air quality conditions and assisting Canadian authorities in trying to extinguish the fires.

In addition to promoting the nation’s post-pandemic economy under his watch, Biden also is coupling the Chicago visit and other trips with fundraising. After his speech, he was scheduled to attend a fundraiser at the J.W. Marriott in the West Loop and planned to visit fundraising events in New York on Thursday with the close of the second quarter campaign finance period occurring Friday.

Sixteen months before the general presidential election, Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other administration officials are fanning out across the country through July 15 as part of a messaging effort aimed at pitching several White House programs and initiatives dealing with infrastructure, manufacturing and clean energy. The barnstorming comes as Biden’s job approval numbers have averaged below 45% for more than a year.

Earlier this week, the White House promoted a $42 billion investment to bring high-speed internet service to underserved areas as part of a new infrastructure package as well as the CHIPS and Science Act for aiding in the 20-year construction of the nation’s largest semiconductor manufacturing facility in upstate New York.

While the White House acknowledged inflation remained a concerning factor, he noted the inflation rate has fallen and the administration contends Americans have higher net worths and higher real disposable incomes than before the pandemic.

Despite his low job approval ratings, the administration contends there is widespread public support for Biden’s top legislative accomplishments, including infrastructure acts that enhanced roads, water, broadband and the electrical grid.

“If ‘Reaganomics’ was based on the idea that if you cut taxes for the wealthiest corporations, the wealthiest people in the society, and then at some point the remnants of those will trickle down to the middle class and the working class, ‘Bidenomics’ is the exact opposite,” Biden adviser Anita Dunn said during a Monday interview with MSNBC. “Bidenomics says that the way you grow the economy in this economy is you grow the middle class.”

With Biden’s speech carrying campaign messaging overtones, downstate, in Springfield, Casey DeSantis, wife of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, held a fundraising event. DeSantis has finished a distant second to former President Donald Trump for the GOP 2024 nomination in recent weeks of polling.