In response to the Biden White House’s “Bidenomics Tour” targeting swing states with its message of economic success, a small-government advocacy group pushed back with an event of its own.
In New Hampshire — a swing state where Biden won’t be stopping after attempting to strip it of its First-in-the-Nation primary — the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity (AFP) hosted a “Bidenomics BBQ” at KC’s Rib Shack in Manchester last week, part of its nationwide “Bidenomics is Broken” Campaign.
“Joe Biden is going across the country to talk about how great the economy is thanks to his leadership. Anybody buying that?” State Director Greg Moore asked the room. “The big problem he has is that nobody agrees with him.”
The focus of AFP-NH’s event was Bidenomics’ impact on average Americans. “We can see with our own eyes what’s going on,” Moore said. “We know what inflation going through the roof is doing. We understand what high federal interest rates are doing. We understand the impact of spending trillions and trillions of dollars that we don’t have to inflate the economy is doing to the average American. And the average American’s feeling it; the average American is feeling it in a big way.”
Moore pointed to surging credit card debt as a sign that middle-class Americans are struggling to pay their bills. U.S. credit card debt just hit a record $1.03 trillion, even as interest rates sit at a 22-year high.
“Bidenomics is crushing average Americans today. Crushing them,” Moore said. “We’re holding these events across the country specifically for that reason. We want people to know what the real impacts of Bidenomics are.”
AFP-NH State Director Greg Moore speaks at the AFP Bidenomics BBQ in Manchester.
To go with the BBQ theme, AFP had handouts noting that, from January 2021 to June 2023, prices for chicken breasts and lettuce have increased by 29 percent, as well as hot dogs by 42 percent, among other food products.
Since President Joe Biden took office, the national average gas price has risen from $2.40 a gallon to $3.95 a gallon. Home heating oil prices in New Hampshire exploded under the Biden administration from $2.50 a gallon to nearly $6 dollars last November. Heating oil prices are still 50 percent higher than when Biden was sworn in.
Dan Richardson of Nashua was at the BBQ and dismissed Bidenomics as “just a spending program.”
“There’s absolutely no intelligence behind it; just spend, spend, spend on the ideals of the Democrat Party. There’s really no concept of balancing.”
Lisa and John, also of Nashua, called it a failure.
“Because when you look at the economy, everything is high. Mortgages, food, gas, everything,” Lisa continued.
Richardson wants to see a change in energy policy. “Obviously, we need to be able to be energy self-sufficient to have the sovereignty of our country.”
His comment came just as the Biden administration canceled the remaining oil and gas leases from the Trump administration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, blocking drilling on millions of acres in Alaska.
With many state representatives in the room, though, Moore contrasted Bidenomics in D.C. with economic successes in New Hampshire.
“Bidenomics is a great example of what’s happening right now in Washington, and you juxtapose that with what we’re doing here in New Hampshire,” he observed. “It’s what we call the New Hampshire Advantage…. Making it the envy of the Northeast. Doing things like reducing taxes, putting more money in people’s pockets, finding ways to be responsible in spending, avoiding the siren call of special interests coming and saying, ‘Give me a handout.’”
The first of several such events, the “Bidenomics BBQs” are open to the public and seek to engage local communities in tackling Americans’ biggest economic challenges.
