BIDEN CALLS INFLATION TOP PRIORITY
President argues Republican policies would make it worse
President Joe Biden tried Tuesday to deflect blame for rising prices with a direct attack on Republicans for pursuing what he called an “ultra-MAGA agenda,” a phrase he has used in recent days as a reference to former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
Biden’s critics have assailed the president for months as inflation has risen to 8.5 percent, the fastest 12-month pace since 1981. A news release from the Republican National Committee on Tuesday accused him of being “desperate to blame anyone but himself for the worst inflation in 40 years,” adding that “the American people know he is responsible.”
Seeking to turn the debate over the economy against his opponents six months before the midterm congressional elections, Biden and his top White House aides insisted that “extreme” policy ideas from Republicans would make inflation worse, not better.
“Look, the bottom line is this: Americans have a choice right now between two paths, reflecting two very different sets of values,” Biden said in a speech at the White House. “My plan attacks inflation and grows the economy by lowering costs for working families, giving workers well-deserved raises, reducing the deficit by historic levels and making big corporations
and the very wealthiest Americans pay their fair share.”
By contrast, he said, Republican policies would help the wealthiest Americans and big corporations while leaving working families to bear the brunt of cost increases.
The president’s message Tuesday was part of an attempt to change the national conversation about the economy in ways that Democrats hope will shield them from a punishing result
at the ballot box in November.
Biden delivered his remarks a day before another economic report was expected to show uncomfortably high prices. While the consumer price index, which will be released Wednesday morning, could show that inflation cooled somewhat from March, most economists still expect the report to show inflation running above 8 percent.
But Biden has seized on a program set forth by Sen.
Rick Scott, R-Fla., chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, called the “11-Point Plan to Rescue America,” which critics have said would impose taxes on millions of Americans who pay none now and phase out programs like Social Security and Medicare after five years.
Other Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, RKy., have repudiated elements of the plan, which
Scott put forward as a platform for the midterm elections. But the White House on Tuesday ignored any disagreement among Republicans, describing the proposal as the only comprehensive economic plan put forth by the party to deal with inflation.
“This is not the last you’ve heard from us about Chairman Scott’s tax plan that will raise taxes,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki promised. She pointed out that Ronna
McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, had praised Scott’s plan, as had some congressional Republicans.
Earlier Tuesday, the president sought to convince Americans that he understood the pain they are feeling from rising prices and that his administration was taking steps to address higher costs for fuel, food and other goods.
“I know that families all across America are hurting because of inflation,” he said. “I understand what it feels like. I come from a family where, when the price of gas or food went up, we felt it.”
He added, “I want every American to know that I’m taking inflation very seriously and it’s my top domestic priority.”
Biden said that his administration was trying to bring down prices by easing supply chain congestion, cracking down on price gouging and releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Yet those efforts have done little to tame inflation, which is running at its fastest pace in 40 years, the result of snarled supply chains that have led to shortages of goods; Russia’s war in Ukraine, which is driving up energy prices; and rampant consumer demand.
While the president’s ability to tackle inflation is limited — the primary tools for fighting increasing prices rest with the Federal Reserve — the rise in costs has become a talking point for Republicans and a political liability for Biden, whose approval ratings have slumped.