For Democrats, Summer Break Is Spent Selling 'Bidenomics' to Anxious Voters

Congressional Democrats are looking to use this summer's five-week recess to cultivate support for President Joe Biden ahead of next year's election by pitching "Bidenomics" to constituents across the country.

But the party faces an uphill battle in promoting this message to a public that is still anxious over the state of America's post-COVID economy and has not yet fully bought into the success story Democrats are selling.

Just 37 percent of respondents to a CNBC All-America Economic Survey released last month approved of Biden's handling of the economy. Yet, the House Majority PAC, a Super PAC tasked with electing Democrats to the House, sent a memo to party members urging them to "go on offense" when talking about the economy this summer.

In a statement sent to Newsweek, the PAC said Democratic accomplishments such as the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Acts serve as evidence of their party's commitment to expanding the middle class by bolstering the nation's manufacturing and construction sectors.

"The results are clear. President Biden and Democrats have created a growing middle class, record job growth, lower costs, and for the first time in 3 years — income is growing faster than inflation," House Majority PAC Communications Director CJ Warnke said in a statement. "Meanwhile, under the leadership of [Speaker] Kevin McCarthy, extremist House Republicans have held the American economy hostage and have repeatedly threatened economic progress."

Selling voters on the party's handling of the economy could make all the difference in determining which party controls Congress in 2024. Democrats looking to retain control of the Senate will defend eight seats in red and purple states. Republicans seeking to hold on to their five-seat House majority face reelection bids in 13 districts deemed toss ups by the Cook Political Report.

Both parties feel they have the advantage. The Democratic message focuses on the party's legislative accomplishments, while Republicans are emphasizing Biden's perceived weaknesses and the great lengths that conservatives have gone to cut government spending.

As Warnke notes, Democrats secured major investments in infrastructure, domestic semiconductor chip manufacturing, green energy technology, and more during Biden's time in office. Unemployment sits at just 3.5 percent, inflation has steadily declined over the past year, and the economy grew stronger than expected over the second quarter. In July, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said his staff no longer predict a recession.

Nonetheless, Republicans argue that while inflation has fallen, the Biden administration has still presided over a historic rise in prices that haven't been coming down. Additionally, House Republicans get to tout the deal they secured in May during debt limit negotiations that almost resulted in a government default. Under McCarthy's leadership, the party reached an agreement with Democrats to support raising the debt ceiling in exchange for spending caps over the next two years which will help reduce the national debt by $1.5 trillion.

While in the past, numbers around the economy have painted a clearer picture of which party had the better story to tell, Wendy Edelberg, director of the Brookings Institution's Hamilton Project, which offers economic policy solutions, said the trends surrounding an unusual economy, born out of the COVID-19 pandemic, paint a more complex picture.

"This is a very, very nutty cycle that has been influenced in a thousand different ways by the pandemic," Edelberg told Newsweek. "Obviously the one big place where things are so frustrating is with inflation, and some of that I'm very confident has to do with what I think is unsustainably strong demand for workers," she added, "and I'm also pretty confident that the strength in consumer spending is creating inflationary pressure."

To respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress injected billions of dollars into the economy, flushing Americans with extra cash. Subsequent policies like the bipartisan infrastructure and microchip manufacturing investments injected further funds into the economy, increasing demand for workers.

In tandem, despite Americans expressing concerns about the economy, they continue to buy goods at rates that Edelberg said are hard to understand. The Commerce Department's Tuesday report on spending data from June to July showed that consumer spending rose by 0.7 percent—a better number than expected.

And while Edelberg said that the high demand for workers is not unexpected, she said she's been pleasantly surprised by the strength of America's overall labor force participation. Simultaneously, year-on-year wage increases clocked in at over 4 percent since mid-2021. That figure did not rise above 4 percent during the three years preceding the pandemic.

Increases in spending, wages, and jobs sound like measures of a good economy, but Edelberg said they also stand as obstacles in the way of lowering inflation. While inflation has been tempered, prices remain high, as does the uncertainty that many Americans feel after living through the economic challenges brought on by COVID-19.

"I think there's still a lot of uncertainty about what lies ahead," Edelberg said. "It's not just about inflation. I think it's also uncertainty about us not knowing how the pandemic and the aftermath of the pandemic will affect the economy and families, fundamentally, for a long time to come."

Viet Shelton, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the chief body on Capitol Hill responsible for getting Democrats elected to the House, believes that his party's focus on the pandemic response and "pocketbook issues" will resonate with voters.

He based this belief on the contrast between the number of policies passed under Democratic control last Congress with the issues of focus this Congress such as conservative-led cultural battles around abortion access, calls to defund the Department of Justice as it investigates former President Donald Trump, and the threat of a potential government shutdown in October as House Republicans seek to cut further spending.

"When in the majority, Democrats delivered real results," Shelton told Newsweek. "Working families want Congress focused on pocketbook issues—not attacking reproductive freedoms, defunding law enforcement, and cheerleading a government shutdown, which have been the hallmarks of the Republican majority."

Congressman Greg Landsman, a Democrat representing Ohio's first congressional district who won his seat in 2022 by beating a 13-term Republican incumbent, is testing the DCCC's messaging strategy this summer.

Issues around democracy, abortion rights, and potential government shutdown are all on Landsman's mind. He also faces the challenge of speaking with voters about the promising aspects of the economy while also acknowledging the issues that still remain and the pain people continue to feel on account of inflation.

His strategy for connecting voters involves meeting with them on the ground, holding town halls, and being prepared to answer questions about what his party is doing to ease their concerns. In his Cincinnati-area district, he focuses on speaking to constituents about how his party's legislative agenda will help drive economic growth for years to come and explaining the positive trends that are already materializing.

One area where he said he sees persisting concerns across the political spectrum, however, is America's increasing national debt.

To this point, Landsman stresses his goal of reforming the tax code, saying such government programs can be paid for by increasing revenue coming from taxes levied on millionaires and billionaires.

"The path forward is not to cut Social Security or Medicare or to take benefits away from veterans to undermine anyone's health care," Landsman told Newsweek. "The path forward is to fix the tax code and to make sure that millionaires and billionaires and everyone is paying all their taxes."

During negotiations around raising the debt limit as Republicans looked to lower the national debt, McCarthy declined to modify the tax code in favor of lower spending levels, much to the irritation of Congressional Democrats.

Drew Westen, a political psychologist with Emory University, said for Democrats to shape perceptions more effectively, they need to show strength by going after Republicans.

Over the past several years, he notes that their party has lost working class voters to Republicans, even if Biden's policies have created economic opportunities that specifically benefit this demographic.

While Biden has spoken less about the pandemic, Westen notes that he has retained the warm style of messaging seen during his 2020 campaign. To reach voters now, Westen said the president and his party must come from a place of strength, go on the attack and show voters that the Democratic platform is strong and worth fighting for.

"Behind the scenes Biden has been one of the strongest presidents we've had since [Lyndon B. Johnson]. You can't pass that kind of legislation otherwise," Westen told Newsweek. "But he doesn't project that strength, and I think it's a reason why people haven't given him credit because he has this quiet way of moving that doesn't call attention to himself, especially compared to his predecessor."