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Biden Economic Agenda 2021-23

The Biden Economic Agenda, Two Years In

The White House National Economic Council

First published January 2023

Just over two years ago, then-President-elect Biden addressed the nation in a prime time speech to propose his economic agenda: a plan for a strong, worker-centered economic recovery from the pandemic, followed by long-term investments to lay the foundation for more durable, resilient, and inclusive long-run growth.

In those remarks, the President made a series of concrete commitments to the American people about his plan for economic recovery and renewal. This blog post reviews those commitments and progress made in the two years since they were made.

The President refers to his economic strategy as bottom-up and middle-out economics. That strategy starts with the idea that we should prioritize economic policies that help workers and families recover from economic downturns, avoid the scarring that is too often associated with joblessness and other economic challenges, and provide lower-income and middle-class Americans more breathing room by lowering the costs they face.

Building from the bottom up and middle out also means investing in America – in infrastructure, innovation, and clean energy – in ways that rebuild our industrial strength and supply chains, and expand the productive capacity of the economy. This includes making historic, capacity enhancing investments in our physical infrastructure and our people. It means catalyzing and crowding in private investment in high-growth and high-potential industries, including those that are central to our national security, economic security, and climate and clean energy goals. These kinds of investments won’t just enhance productivity and grow the economy over time – but they can also facilitate more inclusive economic growth that improves living standards for workers and boosts a host of economic outcomes in communities that have long suffered from disinvestment.

Two years in, a review of these commitments underscores that President Biden’s economic strategy is working. Economies around the world including the United States have struggled with pandemic-driven price increases. But we have made important progress in bringing inflation down while maintaining a resilient recovery.  In fact, the United States is better-positioned than other major economies to navigate the transition to steady, stable growth with lower inflation and without giving up all the economic gains we have achieved over the last two years. While there is more work to do, and we may face setbacks along the way, the policy strategy we have executed positions us uniquely well to come out of the pandemic crisis stronger, more resilient, and prosperous for years and decades to come.

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