Biden in Chicago: 'Guess What? Bidenomics Is Working,' Then Jokes 'I Turned In All My Notes' (June 28, 2023)

President Joe Biden went to Chicago to sell his economy, and he gave it his own name. “And guess what? Bidenomics is working,” he said [1].

Most Americans did not agree. Only 34% said Biden had handled the economy well, according to a survey by The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, The Daily Signal reported in a fact-check of the speech the same day [2].

The video above shows part of Biden’s June 28, 2023, speech at Chicago’s Old Post Office [2]. Quotes are from the official transcript published by the American Presidency Project [1].

”I Now Claim It”

Biden said he did not invent the label. “I didn’t come up with the name,” he said, as the audience laughed. “I really didn’t. I now claim it, but they’re the ones that used it first” [1].

He said he was “happy to call it” Bidenomics. Then he laid out his case [1].

“13.4 Million New Jobs”

“Today, the U.S. has had the highest economic growth rate, leading the world economies since the pandemic. The highest in the world,” Biden said. Crediting Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., he added: “As Dick said, with his help, we created 13.4 million new jobs, more jobs in 2 years than any President has ever” [1].

The Daily Signal said Biden’s “boasts about job growth are tied entirely to the near-unprecedented economic impact of the pandemic” [2].

E.J. Antoni, an economist at the Heritage Foundation, the Daily Signal’s parent organization, ran the numbers Biden’s way. “Using Biden’s own logic, President Donald Trump added 12.5 million jobs in nine months, averaging 1.4 million jobs per month. Biden has added 12.1 million jobs in two years, averaging 500,000 jobs per month,” Antoni wrote [2].

”Reduced the Deficit by $1.7 Trillion”

“Just in my first 2 years in office, my team and I have reduced the deficit by $1.7 trillion, more than any President has, just in 2 years,” Biden said [1].

The pandemic had sent the deficit to a record, so a drop was expected. The fiscal 2020 deficit “was a record $3.3 trillion,” Heritage analyst David Ditch told the Daily Signal. And a Congressional Budget Office report in February 2023 “showed that the budget deficit under Biden was $319 billion higher than expected when he took office Jan. 20, 2021,” the Daily Signal reported [2].

An analyst at Moody’s Analytics had told CNN: “The actions of the [Biden] administration and Congress have undoubtedly resulted in higher deficits, not smaller ones” [2].

”Caused by Russia”

Biden also took credit on prices. “Today, inflation is less than half—less than half—of what it was a year ago and that inflation caused by Russia and by the war in Ukraine and by what was going on,” he said [1].

The record tells a different story. In January 2021, the month Biden took office, consumer prices “rose 1.4 percent for the 12 months ending January,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported [4]. By January 2022, the rate was 7.5 percent [5], before Russia’s attack on Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022 [8].

Inflation peaked in June 2022, when prices “increased 9.1 percent for the 12 months ending June, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending November 1981” [6]. In May 2023, the month before the speech, the rate was still 4.0 percent [7].

”I Turned In All My Notes”

Biden then turned to China’s Xi Jinping. “I met alone with him, just he and I and a simultaneous interpreter, 68 times—68 hours—68 times, more than 68 hours. By the way, I turned in all my notes,” he said. The audience laughed [1].

At the time, Biden was “under federal investigation by special counsel Robert Hur for possessing classified information from his eight years as vice president and 36 years in the Senate,” the Daily Signal noted [2].

”God Bless His Soul”

There were other slips. Attacking Trump’s tax cuts, Biden began, “My predecessor—if my mom were here,” then added “and God bless his soul,” before starting over: “my predecessor enacted the latest iteration of a failed—the failed theory” [1].

He also mocked Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., who Biden said “strongly opposed the legislation” before welcoming its broadband money. The transcript then records: “At this point, the President made the sign of the cross” [1].

By the Numbers

34%: Americans who said Biden had handled the economy well, in the AP-NORC survey [2].
13.4 million: jobs Biden claimed his policies created [1].
$319 billion: how much higher the deficit was than expected when Biden took office, per the CBO report cited by the Daily Signal [2].
1.4%: inflation in January 2021 [4].
9.1%: the June 2022 peak, the highest since 1981 [6].
68: times Biden said he met alone with Xi [1].

What Happened Next

Voters said they were hurt. In December 2023, a Fox News Poll found: “By a 32-point margin, more voters feel they have been hurt rather than helped by President Biden’s economic policies.” Only 14% said they had been helped [3].

Prices kept rising. For all of 2023, the BLS reported, “The all items index rose 3.4 percent for the 12 months ending December” [9].

Before the speech, Biden told reporters the press had branded the term; see HYGO News’ page on that exchange. For how the Hur investigation ended, see the page on Biden’s “state secrets” joke. For his 17,000 miles with Xi, see the page on that story, and for his first sign of the cross, the Philadelphia page.