Bidenomics
Strong Post-Pandemic Recovery
- Job growth: Over 13 million jobs were created in Biden’s first two years, largely due to the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic but also fueled by federal stimulus and infrastructure spending.
- Unemployment rate: Fell to historically low levels (around 3.5–3.8%), reflecting a tight labor market.
- GDP growth: The U.S. economy grew steadily, avoiding a recession that many economists had predicted for 2023
2. Major Infrastructure and Investment Bills
Bidenomics focused heavily on long-term public investment:
- Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (2021): Allocated $1.2 trillion to roads, bridges, broadband, clean water, and energy grids—aiming to modernize the U.S. economy and create union jobs.
- CHIPS and Science Act (2022): Invested over $50 billion to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing and reduce dependence on China.
- Inflation Reduction Act (2022): Directed $369 billion toward clean energy, lowering prescription drug costs, and reducing the federal deficit.
These laws are designed to spur private investment, create manufacturing jobs, and decarbonize the economy.
3. Manufacturing and Clean Energy Boom
- Reshoring trend: Bidenomics encouraged bringing jobs back to the U.S. — especially in semiconductors, batteries, and EV manufacturing.
- Clean energy investments: Solar, wind, and battery plant construction reached record highs due to tax credits and subsidies.
4. Focus on Workers and the Middle Class
- Wage growth: Real wages (adjusted for inflation) began to rise again after falling during the 2021–2022 inflation spike.
- Union support: The administration backed pro-labor policies and appointments, including strong support for union efforts at Amazon, Starbucks, and auto companies
5. Tackling Inflation
- After peaking at 9.1% in June 2022, inflation declined steadily to below 4% by mid-2024.
- The Federal Reserve played a key role with interest rate hikes, but Biden’s policies helped reduce energy and healthcare costs, and improve supply chain resilience.
Those were all wishes.
While a limited number got going, after 2 years this is all that happened.
Civil Engineers reported:
Unlike past infrastructure bills, where the goal was strictly economic stimulus, the IIJA funding has not been funneled directly to “shovel-ready” projects. President Obama’s infrastructure spending push was driven by the goal of getting people back to work and the economy moving. The optics of having construction crews hard at work on roads and bridges, although not the only point, was a key consideration at that economic moment. President Biden has the luxury of a relatively good economy, easing inflationary headwinds and strong employment numbers. His administration can make sure it is spending the money wisely to maximize the legislation’s impact.
Despite some initial lag in getting money moving and dirt flying, there has already been a very substantial distribution of IIJA dollars. State highway funds have received over $125 million for 30,000 projects, nearly 3,000 bridge repair or replacement projects have been funded, and $9.9 billion has been committed by states for 10,000 new highway and bridge projects. State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are still working through the process of navigating the IIJA, where a large portion of the funding is in the form of grants. It’s not as easy as pressing a button and receiving federal funding for a project. Sifting through the legalese of the
1,000-plus page document isn’t the easiest process for state and local agencies.
Although the Biden Administration isn’t as hard pressed to see immediate action on its infrastructure spending, the lag in turning dollars into new roads and bridges shouldn’t be allowed to continue much longer. IIJA funding is first allocated in a broad sense—for example, $4.2 billion for California bridges—then is obligated to specific projects before it is ultimately released in outlays. Barely more than 10 percent of the DOTs’ IIJA funding for 2022 was actually turned into outlays, according to Arkansas Representative Rick Crawford.
Every year that passes without fully spending the allocated funding effectively decreases the value of the allocation due to inflation. In the meantime, thousands more potholes and hundreds of additional structurally deficient bridges are added to the list of needed repairs every year. On a small scale, that’s less problematic, but when trying to replace 3,000 bridges, 6 months or a year of inaction could mean that hundreds of fewer projects get built.
Real Progress Is Being Made
The criticism of the IIJA rollout makes many legitimate points, but that shouldn’t take away from what has been accomplished in the 2 years since its passage. The White House tracks projects that have already been funded, and the
map of America is dotted with thousands of projects that are underway.
If massive, sexy projects are more your thing than simple-span bridge replacements, such as a local road in rural South Dakota, the IIJA has that too. There is a $5 billion mega grant program to make sure large, complex projects that fall outside the realm of traditional funding methods can be constructed. These are the types of projects, like the Golden Gate Bridge or Hoover Dam, that weren’t getting off the ground in recent years due to the difficult nature of funding them.
