ICYMI: Bidenomics in Action: Lowering Costs for Families, Creating Jobs, and Growing the Economy

President Biden is focused on building our economy from the middle out and the bottom up. Over the past week, the American people have heard directly from senior Biden-Harris Administration officials about how our economy has added more than 14 million jobs since the President took office, inflation has fallen by nearly two thirds from its peak, retail sales rose in November, and workers' wages and household wealth are higher now that they were before the pandemic, adjusted for inflation.

The President knows that prices are still too high for too many families, which is why he is fighting every single day to lower costs for hardworking Americans and give them more breathing room. That's a stark contrast with Congressional Republicans, who don't have a plan to lower costs and instead want to hand out trillions in giveaways to the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations.

Read more below:

CNBC: NEC Director Lael Brainard: The trend on inflation is reassuring, and what we wish to see

BRAINARD: The trend on inflation is very reassuring. It's exactly what we would wish to see. Inflation has come down by nearly two-thirds. It's clearly trending down from here. Inflation has come down at a time when unemployment has remained under 4%- for the longest stretch in fifty years, against a backdrop of really solid growth.

CNBC: Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Jared Bernstein on CNBC

BERNSTEIN: We are moving in the right direction. We are doing it with some speed but we've got more work to do. As you correctly pointed out, we've got the tailwind of a very strong job market behind the American consumer and we have a 70% consumer economy so if you have a tight labor market, if you have easing inflation, down two thirds off of its peak and now we seeing actual price declines from eggs to apples from TVs to toys, sporting goods, airfare, car rentals, lower prices in those areas. More work to do, but on the right path.

Scripps: Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Joelle Gamble

GAMBLE: This is a great jobs report. We saw that the U.S. economy added 200,000 jobs in October. That means that there's been 14 million jobs added since the President took office. Wages are higher than they were before the pandemic when you adjust for inflation, and all of that is happening while inflation is falling, it's fallen more than 60% from its peak. So, when you see a report where jobs are still growing at a steady rate and prices are in some cases falling and inflation is falling overall, you see a lot of strong headwinds in the U.S. economy.

Gray TV: Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Daniel Hornung

HORNUNG: "We are seeing wages growing faster than prices so that means at the end of the month, purchasing power is now higher than it was a year ago, it is now higher than it was before the pandemic – so that is a very good thing."

Bloomberg: Brainard Hails US Recovery, Says Biden's Top Focus Is on Costs
[Josh Wingrove, 12/12/23]

President Joe Biden's top economic aide says rising wages and easing inflation will help the bottom line for American households, potentially easing the disconnect between a robust economy and voter angst weighing on his reelection bid. Lael Brainard, the former Federal Reserve vice chair who now leads Biden's National Economic Council, outlined the case for a rebound in sentiment in a memo Tuesday while saying Biden's top focus is on costs.

Axios: The White House's 2023 economic year in review
[Neil Irwin & Courtenay Brown, 12/13/23]

As analysts, commentators, and journalists look back at the economy in 2023, the White House is out with its own offering, emphasizing that — contrary to many predictions 12 months ago — activity has remained robust while inflation has fallen sharply. Driving the News: On Tuesday, the Biden administration released a year-in-review memo from Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council.

Yahoo Finance: White House says Americans 'need to see some improvement' on housing affordability
[Alexandra Canal, 12/12/23]

Housing affordability is still a major issue — even as inflation moderates, according to the White House. "Housing is one of those areas where we really need to see some improvements on affordability," Lael Brainard, National Economic Council director at the White House and former Federal Reserve vice chair, told Yahoo Finance Live on Tuesday. "We are seeing some reduction in rents, particularly in new rents, so that is encouraging. But we still need to see a much greater supply of houses that are affordable to bring those rents down," she added. Brainard said the Biden administration is "pushing very hard" for tax credits and other incentives to make housing more affordable. "But we also want to make sure that first time homebuyers really have a chance to buy their first home, so we're very focused on down payment assistance and other ways to bring costs down for those first-time homebuyers," she said.

Yahoo Finance: Strong wage growth gave Americans a $1,000 spending boost in 2023
[Rebecca Chen, 12/14/23]

Americans had more money to spend in 2023, a new US Treasury report shows. US real wages — wages adjusted for inflation — have risen 0.8% over the last 12 months, according to the Treasury Department's recent research "The Purchasing Power of American Households." The growth is 0.2% percentage points higher than the average annual real wage growth in the 10 years before the pandemic. That income growth brought along increasing consumer purchasing power. In 2023, the median American worker can afford the same goods and services they did in 2019 — and still would have $1,000 left. Thanks to a strong labor market, US household income is rising faster than consumer products and service prices, the report says. Workers are benefiting from pay raises that outpaced inflation, and they can buy or save more in return.

Associated Press: Older Americans to pay less for some drug treatments as drugmakers penalized for big price jumps
[Amanda Seitz, 12/14/23]

The White House unveiled a list of 48 drugs — from chemotherapy treatments to growth hormones used to treat endocrine disorders — whose prices increased faster than the rate of inflation this year. Under a new law, drugmakers will have to pay rebates to the federal government because of those price increases. The money will be used to lower the price Medicare enrollees pay on the drugs early next year. "For years, there's been no check on how high or how fast big pharma can raise drug prices," President Joe Biden said Thursday, speaking in a lab at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. "Let's call this for what it is – it simply is a rip off. They're ripping off Medicare. They're ripping off the American people. We're now fighting back."

USA Today: Biden touts prescription drug savings for older Americans
[Ken Alltucker, 12/14/23]

"It's about giving folks just a little more breathing room," said Biden, flanked by doctors and scientists. "For too long, Americans have paid more for prescription drugs than any advanced nation on Earth." For the first time, the federal law has empowered the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, to negotiate lower Medicare drug prices. The Biden administration has named the first 10 diabetes, heart disease and cancer drugs that Medicare will negotiate, but the price changes on those drugs won't take effect until 2026. Over the next two years, another 30 drugs will be selected for negotiated prices that take effect in 2027 and 2028.

Reuters: Biden administration to impose inflation penalties on dozens of drugmakers
[Manas Mishra and Mrinmay Day, 12/14/23]

The Biden administration will subject dozens of drugmakers to inflation penalties, the White House said on Thursday, in a move that would reduce out-of-pocket costs for Medicare recipients. President Joe Biden's signature Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes a provision to penalize drugmakers for charging prices that rise faster than inflation for people on Medicare, a government program for those age 65 and older and the disabled.

The Wall Street Journal: Strong Holiday Spending Adds to Signs U.S. May Beat Inflation Without Downturn
[Austen Hufford & Sarah Nassauer, 12/14/23]

A surprise increase in November retail sales dispelled lingering pessimism about the economy and reinforced growing sentiment that the U.S. will beat inflation without paying the price in significantly weaker growth. Signaling a strong start to the holiday season, retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in November from the month before, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That was a rebound from October's downwardly revised 0.2% decline and a surprise to economists who had expected sales to fall again last month. The data extended a week of positive readings for the U.S. economy. The unemployment rate fell in November, inflation cooled and the Federal Reserve pivoted Wednesday away from raising interest rates and toward considering when to cut them. The good tidings have ignited a rally on Wall Street, pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a record high and caused yields on the 10-year Treasury note to fall below 4% on Thursday.

Reuters: US economy still resilient as retail sales beat expectations, layoffs stay low
[Lucia Mutikani, 12/14/23]

U.S. retail sales unexpectedly rose in November as the holiday shopping season got off to a brisk start amid deep discounting, likely keeping the economy on a moderate growth path this quarter and further alleviating fears of a recession. The rebound in retail sales reported by the Commerce Department on Thursday underscored consumers' resilience, thanks to a strong labor market, and cast doubts on financial markets' expectations for a rate cut as early as next March. The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday and signaled in new economic projections that the historic tightening of monetary policy engineered over the last two years is at an end and lower borrowing costs are coming in 2024.

Business Insider: Inflation slows again as gas prices tumble to earth
[Madison Hoff, 12/12/23]

The Consumer Price Index increased 3.1% over the year in November, according to Tuesday's publication from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The non-seasonally-adjusted rise in the CPI was expected to be cooler than October's 3.2%. The forecast for November's 12-month percent increase was 3.1%, which is what it ended up being per the Tuesday news release from BLS. One of the big drivers in the slowdown for headline inflation was a dramatic drop in energy prices. Per the report, gas prices fell 6% over the month and are down nearly 9% from a year ago.

CNN: Inflation is slowly coming down and no longer outweighing Americans' wages
[Alicia Wallace, 12/12/23]

Sometimes boring and predictable can be good things. The latest Consumer Price Index report wasn't flashy by any means: The inflation gauge that measures price changes for a basket of goods and services ticked down slightly to 3.1% for the 12 months that ended in November, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Tuesday. Stripping out the more volatile components of food and energy, the core index held pat at a 4% year-over-year growth rate, staying at its lowest level since September 2021.The latest CPI report largely came in exactly as economists had expected and served up another piece of evidence that high inflation is (very) slowly, but surely, abating. That's welcome news for the Federal Reserve and for Americans, who are finally starting to not have their earnings completely eaten away by rising prices.

NBC: Inflation slows to 3.1%, signaling continued moderation of consumer price increases
[Marley Jay, 12/11/23]

The U.S. government said that prices for consumers inched higher in November, but that the pace of inflation continued to slow from last year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its consumer price index Tuesday morning. It said that overall prices for urban consumers rose 0.1% in November compared with October. The agency said gasoline prices fell sharply and, overall, energy prices are down 9.8% over the last year. But in November, that was canceled out by greater costs for shelter. Those prices are up 6.5% in the last year. "The best news for consumers right now is on gas prices, which have fallen in late 2023 as domestic oil production hit a new record high," said Bill Adams, chief economist for Comerica Bank, told NBC News. "The biggest sore point for consumers is food, which is at a record high, and shelter prices, where inflation is high as measured by CPI." The results were similar to expectations. Economists had projected the data would show that overall prices were unchanged in November compared with October. The government said that excluding the volatile costs of food and energy, "core" prices rose 0.3%. That matched economists' estimates.

CNBC: Wholesale prices held flat in November, providing another encouraging inflation signal
[Jeff Cox, 12/13/23]

Wholesale prices were flat in November, providing a leading indicator that inflation is easing, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. The producer price index, which measures a broad range of prices on final demand items, was unchanged for the month, following a 0.4% decrease in October but less than the Dow Jones estimate for a 0.1% gain. On a year-over-year basis, headline PPI accelerated just 0.9%, after peaking above 11.5% in March 2022. Excluding food and energy, the index also was unchanged against an estimate for a 0.2% increase. Excluding food, energy and trade services, PPI increased 0.1%, posting a sixth straight increase and good for a 12-month gain of 2.5%. The release comes a day after the Labor Department said its consumer price index rose just 0.1% in November and 3.1% from a year ago. The PPI gauges the prices producers receive for what they produce while CPI measures what consumers pay and is considered a leading signal for prices in the pipeline.

CNBC: Here's where deflation was in November 2023 – in one chart
[Greg Iacurci, 12/13/23]

Inflation has been falling gradually across the U.S. economy. This process, known as disinflation, means prices for consumer goods and services are rising but at a slower pace than they had been. However, inflation has actually turned negative in some sectors, like energy. Deflation, as this dynamic is known, is the opposite of inflation: when prices are going down, not up. Largely, deflation is happening on the "goods" side of the U.S. economy, or the tangible objects that Americans buy, economists said.

Fortune: Surprise: Wage growth has actually outpaced the crushing inflation over the past 2.5 years. 'The economy appears to be doing better than a lot of people might realize'
[Alicia Adamczyk, 12/12/23]

Americans have many reasons to feel confident—including that wage and salary growth are now outpacing inflation, according to myriad government data. From January 2021 to October 2023, national average wages and salaries grew by nearly $15,000, according to an analysis from Democrats on the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC) released Monday. That's over $3,500 more than the increase in inflation during that same time period, the Democrats say.

Dallas Morning News: Dallas gets $21.8 million to improve safety on dangerous stretch of road in South Dallas
[Joseph Morton, 12/14/23]

Money will come from the bipartisan infrastructure law. Dallas has some of the most dangerous roadways in the country, particularly for pedestrians, but one dicey South Dallas stretch will get a safety makeover thanks to a $21.8 million federal grant announced Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation. […] Mitch Landrieu is a senior adviser to the president responsible for coordinating implementation of the infrastructure law. Landrieu cited the Dallas grant money as he spoke to reporters Wednesday about the administration's work to improve the country's infrastructure with an eye toward safety and preventing deaths. "Unfortunately, too many of us know firsthand the pain of losing a loved one in a crash," Landrieu said. "Roadway safety of course is personal to the president, as you know. So this is something that is near and dear to his heart." President Joe Biden lost his first wife and their baby daughter in a tragic crash more than 50 years ago. […] Asked about the effectiveness of improvements in the Dallas project such as a "road diet" that reduces the number of traffic lanes by repurposing them for cyclists, pedestrians or mass transit, Deputy Transportation Secretary Polly Trottenberg said those approaches have worked in other places such as New York. "The statistics often showed a dramatic improvement in safety," Trottenberg said.

Press Herald: White House to highlight Maine for policies supporting direct care workers
[Joe Lawlor, 12/12/23]

Maine is one of the states being highlighted Tuesday by the White House for using pandemic relief funds to benefit direct care workers – the people who provide in-home and community-based care for vulnerable populations. Part of the relief money was used to pay workers bonuses that averaged nearly $3,500, helping to boost an industry with historically chronic workforce shortages, state officials said. […] Joining the governors and senator will be Gene Sperling, a senior adviser to the White House and coordinator of the pandemic relief funds, Xavier Becerra, U.S. secretary of health and human services, and other federal officials. Sperling, in an interview on Monday, said Maine is being spotlighted for using $241 million in pandemic relief funds under the American Rescue Plan to benefit direct care workers – including bonuses that averaged $3,429 per worker – with the aim of helping to recruit and retain workers during a workforce shortage. The bonuses cost the state $121 million. The remaining $120 million is being used for a variety of efforts to support workers, such as training, White House and state officials said.

Spectrum: Home-based care services got a $37 billion boost from American Rescue Plan
[Susan Carptenter, 12/13/23]

The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021 has provided $37 billion to home and community-based care services for seniors and those with disabilities, the White House announced Tuesday.
That's more than double what the administration estimated when it first proposed the $1.9 trillion economic stimulus plan that included funds to expand Medicaid.
What You Need To Know:

1. The American Rescue Plan has provided $37 billion to home and community-based services for seniors and people with disabilities
2. Passed in 2021, the $1.9 trillion economic stimulus program provided billions in funding to states to expand Medicaid programs
3. The money has helped train, recruit and retain workers in all 50 states

The Biden Administration is calling on states to set up care worker registries so people who work in care can more easily connect with the people who need them
"Care work is some of the most important and noble work a person can do," Vice President Kamala Harris said during a briefing about the announcement. "The work is physically demanding and emotionally taxing and it could not be more essential to our nation."

KGOU (NPR Oklahoma): Federal grant awarded to Oklahoma for accessible rural transportation
[Brittany Cordora, 12/13/23]

Mitch Landrieu, President Biden's senior advisor said the Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program is about making sure that communities on rural and tribal lands have transit options by providing ADA-accessible vans. The Biden-Harris administration is awarding a grant to rural and tribal communities in Oklahoma for transportation needs. The money could help people with disabilities and seniors get to where they need to be.

WLRN: How South Florida is a study in economic contrasts for the Biden administration
[Tom Hudson, 12/12/23]

"The president has a number of proposals around housing and increasing the supply of housing. But we're also doing a lot of things to make it easier to live in places and make it more affordable," Boushey said, pointing to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that has met billions of dollars invested to expand internet broadband, road construction and repair, and investment in ports, such as Port Miami. "[These are] all ways of lowering costs for families in really, really concrete ways," according to Boushey. South Florida has been a leader in having people return to work. The unemployment rate in Miami-Dade County has been below 2% since July. In October, the jobless rate was 1.6%, just off the lowest rate since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking the local unemployment rate in 1990. "I think what this shows us is that this inflation that we were seeing was supply-side driven," said Boushey. She also pointed to more people starting businesses as indicative of economic optimism. About one out of every eight new business applications nationwide have been made in Florida through the end of October, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. "You're seeing this economy not only create good jobs, not only see the pace (of inflation) has come down," Boushey said, "but also creating that economic opportunity."

WVTF (NPR Richmond, Virginia): New "higher speed" rail project to link Richmond & Raleigh
[David Seidel, 12/8/23]

Federal officials have been jump-starting rail improvements this week. The latest project, formally announced Friday, will cut travel time across Southside Virginia. White House advisor Tom Perez admits the U. S. is playing catch up. "You travel to Europe, you travel to Asia and it is what everybody does. But frankly, we've been behind the rest of the world on rail travel," Perez said in an interview with Radio IQ. A new investment of $1.1 billion will bring new higher-speed service between Richmond and Raleigh, North Carolina. Biden administration officials say the 162-mile long project will shorten the trip by about 90 minutes. Amtrak's website says the current trip takes about 3 hours and 45 minutes.

WESA-FM Pittsburgh (NPR Pittsburgh): White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Tom Perez

ANCHOR: The Biden Administration is touting the environmental and safety benefits of its new investment in Amtrak service across Pennsylvania and the northeast. White House Adviser Tom Perez says the upgrades will help get commuters out of their vehicles.
PEREZ: We are committed to a clean energy economy. And the more people you get on trains, you can reduce emissions, reduce roadway crashes.
ANCHOR: Amtrak service between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia is getting nearly 144 million dollars to help launch a second daily round-trip.

Colorado Public Radio (KCFR Denver): White House American Rescue Plan Coordinator and Senior Adviser to the President Gene Sperling

ANCHOR: The White House is convening a meeting with state and federal leaders today to show how American Rescue Plan money has been used to improve home health care and community-based health services. ARP coordinator Gene Sperling says Colorado Governor Jared Polis will speak via video to the group about how the state has used its funding.
SPERLING: He has been one of the leaders in using these funds to raise wages.
ANCHOR: The state boosted home healthcare salaries to $15 an hour in 2022 but it still may not be enough. Colorado is a state with the second fastest-growing 65 and older population in the country. From Washington DC, Caitlyn Kim, CPR news.

WTMJ (Milwaukee, WI): White House American Rescue Plan Coordinator and Senior Adviser to the President Gene Sperling

ANCHOR: Hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds coming to Wisconsin to help fund long-term care workers -$696 million dollars to be precise in American Rescue Plan Act funds to expand home-based care for seniors and disabled people. White House American Rescue Plan Coordinator and Senior Adviser to the President Gene Sperling tells WTMJ.
SPERLING: Wisconsin is really seen as having one of the strongest state plans.
ANCHOR: Under the Governor's plan Wisconsin is aiming to train 10,000 new care workers and -
SPERLING: Have the statewide registry, which makes it easy for the families and the direct care workers to be connected.
ANCHOR: Wyatt Palmer Pooley WTMJ