Investing in America, the 2024 White House graphic laid out like a film poster

A 2024 White House graphic for the Investing in America agenda borrows the layout of a film poster. President Biden in aviator sunglasses tops a collage of road work, solar panels, an electric car, a locomotive and an excavator, and a "Featuring" block lists twenty names as the cast.

A poster for a film that isn't one

The White House under President Biden issued this graphic for its Investing in America agenda. The archive describes a portrait graphic laid out like a film poster. The president, in aviator sunglasses, sits above a collage: a road-work sign, solar panels, an electric car at a charger, a locomotive and an excavator. The title, a web address and a block of credits complete it.

ROAD WORK AHEAD

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN

INVESTING IN AMERICA

INVEST.GOV

FEATURING

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS

FIRST LADY JILL BIDEN, SECOND GENTLEMAN DOUG EMHOFF

JANET YELLEN, DEB HAALAND, TOM VILSACK, JULIE SU, XAVIER BECERRA,

MARCIA FUDGE, PETE BUTTIGIEG, JENNIFER GRANHOLM,

MIGUEL CARDONA, DENIS MCDONOUGH, MICHAEL REGAN, KATHERINE TAI,

ISABEL GUZMAN, ARATI PRABHAKAR, STEVE BENJAMIN, TOM PEREZ

The format does the framing

The archive tags glittering generalities and transfer. The general phrase is the title. "INVESTING IN AMERICA" names no figure, no project, no place and no cost. The transfer is the format itself: a film poster carries the glamour of a release, a star billed above the title, and a cast. The archive's own summary is that the slogan names no figure or project and the poster format does the framing.

The "FEATURING" block lists twenty people. Four are the president, the vice president, the first lady and the second gentleman. The other sixteen are cabinet and agency officials, named without titles. Public officials administering public money are presented as a cast in a production whose star is the president.

What a reader can ask

The pictures point a citizen toward roads, solar power, electric cars, rail and construction. The sheet does not say how much was spent, on what, or with what result. When a government promotes its own spending, readers are entitled to ask for those numbers, and this graphic does not offer them.

Other White House graphics on this site include the Biden White House card on abortion bans, from the same year, and the Obama White House's House of Cuts. A report that does give numbers, and arranges them toward one conclusion, is the 2019 Council of Economic Advisers summary.