All across America, the success of Bidenomics is well beyond debate

Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023 | 2 a.m.

All eyes will be on Milwaukee tonight for the first Republican presidential primary debate. Despite more than eight years of brazen attacks on his opponents since riding down the golden escalator to announce his candidacy in 2015, Donald Trump has decided to sit out this debate. Unsurprisingly, the twice-impeached and now four-time indicted ex-president is, first and foremost, a swampy politician who won’t risk getting rhetorically pummeled by one of his challengers.

Without Trump’s reality-TV drama in the mix, the Republican candidates will likely try to put President Joe Biden’s economic policies, otherwise known as Bidenomics, on trial instead. But even on their own stage, at their own event and with no opposition, the eight Republicans will have little hope of successfully prosecuting Bidenomics based on facts. That leaves them only hysteria.

As former Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote in an essay last month, Bidenomics “is turning out to be the most successful set of economic policies the United States has witnessed in a half-century.”

Inflation is down, wages and employment are up, consumer spending is solid and the U.S. economy is growing in almost every sector.

Unlike past economic stimulus programs, the success of Bidenomics is not temporary.

Biden’s 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law pumped nearly $1 trillion dollars into repairing the nation’s aging infrastructure. The law is the largest investment in public transit, clean drinking water and wastewater infrastructure in American history and the largest federal investment in roads, bridges and rail in half a century. The bill included $65 billion for bringing broadband internet to rural areas, including right here in Nevada.

Until last year’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, it was also the single largest investment the U.S. had ever made to address climate change. The benefits of these investments will be felt for decades to come, not only because of their impact on local residents but because of their impact on local businesses.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been sounding the alarm on the need for infrastructure investments for 25 years because businesses rely on public infrastructure to power factories and storefronts and move people and goods. Despite Republican claims that they are the party of small business, it was Biden, a Democrat, who finally delivered the long overdue investments the conservative Chamber of Commerce now describes as a “historic victory for the American people.”

Less than a year after passing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Biden continued to invest in America’s future with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. The IRA expands investments specifically related to green technologies such as renewable energy and electric vehicle manufacturing as well as providing powerful incentives to expand manufacturing in the U.S.

Since the bill’s signing, businesses have announced almost 300 new domestic green energy and clean vehicle projects.

E2, a nonpartisan group of business leaders and investors, estimates that these projects have directly resulted in more than 74,000 new jobs and $86 billion in new private investment in the U.S. economy. When adding in the increase in demand for contractors like electricians and plumbers, who may not be employed directly by the project company, some estimates claim the IRA has created as many as 170,000 new jobs and $278 billion in new private investment. Those numbers are expected to continue to grow since many of the programs created by the IRA are designed to last for a decade or longer.

Moreover, Nevada stands to benefit from the IRA more than almost any other state in the country. Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District, represented by Republican Mark Amodei, is already slated to receive $6.6 billion in investments in clean energy from the IRA, leading to the creation of more than 5,000 jobs.

Finally, to solve lingering supply chain problems that were driving inflation, Biden pushed through the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act, which invests in U.S.-based research, development and manufacturing of semiconductors and limits the ability of Chinese manufacturers to manipulate U.S. supply chains. By investing in domestic chip production, Biden hopes to restore the U.S. to its rightful place as the world’s No. 1 supplier of semiconductors and a tap into what is expected to become a trillion-dollar annual industry.

Given that Amodei voted against all three pieces of legislation, residents of Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District may want to reconsider their representation. In fact, Americans represented by congressional Republicans may want to reconsider their representation generally, as their districts are receiving about 60% of all jobs and investments from these three bills, despite near-unified GOP opposition to Biden’s economic proposals.

In Amodei’s district specifically, constituents can thank Nevada’s Democratic congressional delegation for delivering benefits their own GOP representative refused to provide. Indeed, Amodei wasn’t even honest about his opposition to the bills; he claimed they would cost the U.S. jobs, when in fact they have spurred massive job growth.

The complete picture of Bidenomics impact on the U.S. economy and American households will take years to unfold. But according to Reich, Biden’s policies are “changing the structure of the American economy in favor of the bottom 90% ... so that the poor and working middle class get a larger share of the gains.”

Despite this reality, the Republicans debating tonight will undoubtedly engage in flagrant fearmongering and outright lies to attack Biden and his policies. But it’s beyond debate that Bidenomics is helping the vast majority of Americans. Communities across the country are seeing new growth, new investment, new employment opportunities and new reasons for hope.