President Joe Biden wants the public to know that he understands what it is like to face financial pressures as people feel the pinch of record inflation before this fall’s midterm election cycle.
Biden conveying empathy as well as repurposed spending proposals have become central pillars of his plan to contain inflation. But critics contend that the president’s ability to connect with voters will not be enough to boost his poor polling and his party’s prospects before November.
BIDEN CONDEMNS PUTIN AND SWIPES AT TRUMP IN STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
Biden touted record employment numbers and higher wages during his State of the Union speech but described “getting prices under control” as his “top priority” of 2022.
“Too many families are struggling to keep up with their bills,” he told roughly 38 million people, according to TV ratings. “Inflation is robbing them of gains they thought otherwise they would be able to feel. I get it.”
The White House was quick to correct reporters earlier this week who believed Biden would avoid using the word “inflation” after officials relied on the phrase “price increases” during a background briefing call.
“How people experience it is what it means for their pocketbooks, for their budgets, for their bank accounts, and how they’re paying for things,” press secretary Jen Psaki said. “That’s why a lot of what you’re going to hear about … is how he’s going to reduce costs.”
That message is important for Biden to relay as an average of roughly two-thirds of respondents tell pollsters he is leading the country in the wrong direction and almost three-fifths disapprove of his economic management, according to RealClearPolitics. And the approach has become more urgent given Republicans’ average 4-percentage-point advantage over Democrats on a generic congressional ballot.
Biden’s strategy underscores his checked presidential power to counter inflation unilaterally, according to former Republican operative John Pitney.
“The only genuine ways to fight inflation are raising interest rates and cutting spending,” he told the Washington Examiner. “Both are politically painful, and neither is under the president’s direct control. The [Federal Reserve] has influence over interest rates, and Congress has the power of the purse.”
Pitney, now a Claremont McKenna College politics professor, dismissed “wage-price controls” as “a quack cure,” adding that Nixon tried them in the 1970s but later admitted they were “a mistake.”
“So Biden’s approach is to offer symbolism and hope that inflation rates start to come down as businesses work out their supply-chain problems,” he said.
Biden’s empathy dependence is ironic because he has lashed out at reporters who have asked him about inflation, according to Republican strategist Whitney Robertson, a spokeswoman for the political action committee America Rising.
“If the White House is banking on Joe Biden’s empathy to address inflation, they should go back to the drawing board,” she said. “Americans are looking for a leader who will meet the moment and tackle America’s pressing challenges — not just meaningless words and Band-Aid responses.”
Some Democrats, such as onetime Secretary of the Treasury and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers, advised Biden that his spending agenda may make inflation worse. But the president argued during the State of the Union that he could curb inflation by capping and negotiating prescription drug prices as well as making Affordable Care Act premium tax credits permanent.
Biden also pitched energy bill savings by encouraging green home and business improvements, investing in clean energy production, and incentivizing the purchase of electric cars. Another component was subsidizing childcare and eldercare, including by introducing universal pre-K, even housing.
“Instead of relying on foreign supply chains, let’s make it in America,” Biden said to chants of “USA! USA! USA!”
Pitney countered, “There may be good arguments for specific new programs, but they won’t help with inflation.”
“Prescription drug pricing reform may be popular, but it won’t do much to bring down overall inflation,” he said.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told Congress this week that the Russia-Ukraine war had “highly uncertain” economic consequences, but the central bank is still prepared to up interest rates.
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West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who blocked Biden’s Build Back Better legislation, indicated this week that he was willing to talk about a revised social welfare and climate bill, funded by tax and drug price adjustments, if it dealt with inflation and the deficit.
