White House touts ‘Bidenomics’ after announcing $1.4 billion for broadband in Washington, $703 million in Idaho

WASHINGTON – In a speech in Chicago on Wednesday, President Joe Biden touted his administration’s efforts to bolster the American middle class by embracing a term coined by his critics: “Bidenomics.”

The address was the centerpiece of a week the White House has dedicated to reclaiming the term, which has frequented the conservative opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal since Biden was a candidate in 2020. The speech followed the administration’s announcements of major investments in broadband infrastructure in the Northwest and nationwide, part of an economic strategy centered around bipartisan legislation to boost U.S. infrastructure and manufacturing.

“This vision is a fundamental break with the economic theory that has failed Americans for the last four decades now,” Biden said. “The trickle-down failed the middle class. It failed America.”

On Monday, the White House announced about $42.5 billion to increase high-speed internet access across the country, allocating over $1.2 billion to Washington and more than $583 million to Idaho. Days earlier, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., joined Treasury Department officials and other lawmakers to announce a separate round of broadband funds, including $196 million for Washington and $120 million for Idaho.

Cantwell, who chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, played a leading role in passing the CHIPS and Science Act, which includes an investment of nearly $170 billion in science and technology over five years, plus $52.7 billion in subsidies to boost domestic production of computer chips.

The money announced Monday comes from the bipartisan infrastructure law that passed in 2021 with the help of all four senators from the two states, while most House Republicans opposed the bill amid negotiations over separate legislation Democrats were seeking to pass along party lines. The other funding, announced Friday, is part of an economic stimulus bill Democrats passed on their own earlier in 2021.

“The COVID pandemic laid bare just how crucial fast and affordable internet access is for all Washingtonians,” Cantwell said in a statement. “But for more than a quarter of a million households in the State of Washington, broadband remains inaccessible.”

Many of those homes without broadband access are in rural areas, especially east of the Cascades. The funding announced Friday includes $3.4 million for the Spokane Tribe, $1.1 million for the Port of Whitman County and $12 million for the Central Stevens County Hybrid Broadband project.

Brodie Ford, network engineer for Sṕq́ńiʔ Broadband Services, the Spokane Tribe’s internet service provider, said the grant will help connect optical fiber networks to homes on the reservation and could also benefit parts of Stevens and Lincoln counties. When residents are connected to high-speed internet, he said, it gives them “an opportunity to not only better themselves, but everybody in the household.”

“It will allow us to build the necessary broadband infrastructure that’s currently lacking within the area,” he said. “Our main goal is to get fast, reliable, affordable broadband infrastructure put into homes.”

In a memo shared with reporters ahead of the president’s speech, Biden advisers Anita Dunn and Mike Donilon argued the administration’s economic approach has helped the United States have the strongest post-pandemic recovery of any major world economy, citing low unemployment and a sharp increase in spending on domestic manufacturing.

“Bidenomics is rooted in the simple idea that we need to grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up,” they wrote, “not the top down.”

Critics say Biden and his Democratic allies in Congress have spent money too freely, growing the national debt and worsening inflation that has wracked the global economy in the wake of pandemic-related disruption. Republicans also have taken aim at the administration’s efforts to restore environmental protections that were eroded during former President Donald Trump’s tenure.

With Congress out of session for an extended July 4 recess, Biden and his allies intend to continue their nationwide tour to highlight investments in infrastructure and job creation. That promises to be a central part of his re-election pitch as the 2024 campaign kicks into gear in the coming months.