Beware Bidenomics

Any prospect that Joe Biden would heal America’s divisions has been confounded by his first 100 days in the White House. His domestic policy is every bit as divisive as Donald Trump’s, only from the other direction. However, because his big government, high tax-and-spend approach is favoured by so-called “progressives”, none of the criticism aimed at his predecessor has come his way from that normally voluble quarter. More than 90 per cent of Democrats approve of what he is doing, and just 11 per cent of Republicans, according to the pollsters – an even greater political gulf than at the same stage of the Trump presidency.

In his first address to Congress, President Biden detailed a programme more radical than anything outlined during the election campaign, with tax rises and a $6 trillion spending splurge. It represents an expansion of the state not seen since before Ronald Reagan took over the White House. Already there is talk of “Bidenomics”, a return to big government and soak-the-rich rhetoric that the Left would love to see here. It is well advanced in the EU, too, and there have been signs that Boris Johnson’s plans are not dissimilar.

The Government’s “build back better” agenda is not obviously about unleashing private enterprise but more a top-down, high-spending approach funded by tax rises on top of those already in the pipeline to pay for the Covid calamity. Emulating Mr Biden would be a colossal mistake and the temptation to put up capital gains tax, in particular, needs to be resisted. This is a chance for the UK to put some distance between the sclerotic economic nostrums of the EU and, now, the US, and embrace the freedoms Brexit was supposed to offer.