Inflation concerns continue to hamper President Joe Biden and his economic agenda, even as the White House is coming off one of its most successful weeks of his first year in office.
The consumer price index for October clocked in at 6.2%, four-tenths of a point above expectations and the highest rate the country has seen in three decades. Meanwhile, new polling indicates that concern over rising prices in nearly every domestic sector is souring public opinion on the Build Back Better proposal, Biden’s nearly $2 trillion social spending bill that just passed the House this past Friday.
BIDEN TOUTS ECONOMIC GROWTH DESPITE INFLATION FEARS AT FED CHAIR CEREMONY
The November dataset from I&I/TIPP found that 84% of respondents think that “over the next year prices for gasoline, food, and other household products” would continue to increase. Additionally, nearly half of all respondents, 48%, expected prices in 2022 to be “much higher” than the current levels.
Furthermore, a poll published Monday from Politico and Morning Consult showed that 43% of respondents believed the budget reconciliation proposal will specifically increase inflation, compared to just 26% who believe it will slow or reverse the inflationary run. The proposals themselves remain largely popular, with 49% saying they supported the bill in its current form.
Inflation hawks have sounded the alarm on Biden’s economic agenda since before he entered office, and when some supply chain issues proved over the summer to be less “transitory” than the administration previously asserted, White House officials did change slightly in publicly addressing the trend.
Yet these new signals, which come as Democrats must wrestle with centrist holdouts such as Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia to enact the reconciliation plan, have forced the Biden administration to draft new attacks against the public perception of rising prices.
The Washington Post reported over the weekend that the White House could begin publicly pressuring large companies for their role in passing along rising costs to consumers. The president took the first step toward that end last week, when he urged Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan to investigate oil and gas companies for anti-competitive behavior that could be driving up gas prices.
“The bottom line is this: gasoline prices at the pump remain high, even though oil and gas companies’ costs are declining,” Biden wrote. “The Federal Trade Commission has authority to consider whether illegal conduct is costing families at the pump. I believe you should do so immediately.”
BIDEN URGES FTC TO TAKE ACTION ON RISING GAS PRICES
The president will also deliver a speech on the subject from the White House on Tuesday. He effectively previewed those remarks during a nomination ceremony for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Monday.
He claimed that Powell, who if confirmed would serve his second consecutive term as Fed chairman, “is the right person to see us through and finish that effort while also addressing the threat of inflation that it imposes to our families and to our economy.”
“Because so much of the rest of our economy is doing well, because we have created so many new jobs as fast as we have, we’re in a position to attack inflation from a position of strength, not weakness,” the president continued. “We know that high inflation takes a toll on families, especially those less able to meet the higher costs of essentials, like food, housing, and transportation. And we use our tools both to support the economy and a strong labor market and to prevent higher inflation from becoming entrenched.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki echoed Biden’s comments during a gaggle with reporters on Air Force One Monday evening, claiming that passing the reconciliation bill and ending the coronavirus pandemic at large would be the most effective ways of combating rising consumer prices.
“That’s what the president’s No. 1 focus is,” she said. “We also know that getting his agenda passed … as soon as possible will help cut costs for families, and what they’re really looking at is what their pocketbooks, what their checkbooks look like, how they pay for the cost of goods and experience. … That’s what we’re working to do every day. Yes, decreasing costs for families is one of our top priorities.”
