The White House has adopted an “all of the above” message as it grapples with growing discontent over gas pump sticker shock before the 2022 midterm elections.
President Joe Biden returned to pinning energy inflation on Russian President Vladimir Putin during a trip to Iowa this week after congressional Democrats spent last week accusing oil company executives of price gouging. And at least one poll suggests the public is sympathetic to these arguments.
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Former Democratic consultant Christopher Hahn was adamant the cost of gas was not Biden’s “fault,” but it is his party’s problem politically.
“If prices continue to rise, it won’t matter what the messaging is — November will be rough on Democrats,” Hahn told the Washington Examiner. “Biden needs to do whatever he can to calm the market’s fear of a looming supply shortage due to the war in Ukraine.”
The national average cost of gas recovered this week at $4.10 per gallon, down 20 cents from last month but up $1.20 from last April, according to AAA. The modest dip comes after Biden coordinated with international allies and partners to release more than 1 million oil reserve gallons a day over the next six months. But it coincides with record inflation, too.
Consumer prices increased 8.5% in the 12 months ending on March 31, which is higher than expected. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, reported Tuesday, show inflation is now higher than any other time since December 1981, with gas up 48%.
“The projections from the Federal Reserve and other outside economists continue to be that inflation will moderate by year-end,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in response. “But we are not going to wait for that.”
“One step he’s taking, of course, today … is to lower the cost of gasoline by announcing the EPA waivers that E15 can be available at 2,300 gas stations across the country,” she added, speaking of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Biden announced in Iowa Tuesday that the EPA will issue a national, emergency waiver so the 15% ethanol blend can be used this summer between June 1 and Sept. 15.
But Biden overshadowed his own announcement by condemning Putin’s “genocide” in Ukraine for the first time after avoiding the word last week.
“Your family budget, your ability to fill up your tank, none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide a half a world away,” he said.
Republicans seized on Tuesday’s economic data, including the Republican National Committee, which has started registering voters at gas stations. Biden’s “Putin price hike” rhetoric is “insulting to the intelligence of the American people, and we aren’t buying it,” according to RNC spokesman Tommy Pigott.
“Instead of lying to American families struggling to pay his ‘Bidenflation’ tax, Biden should own up to his mistakes and actually work to reverse his disastrous policies,” he said.
Biden’s average approval is currently net negative 11 percentage points, according to RealClearPolitics, an inauspicious finding before the midterm elections contest. And specifically, more respondents told ABC News/Ipsos pollsters last week that Biden (51%) and Democrats (52%) are responsible for the cost of gas, as opposed to former President Donald Trump (24%) and Republicans (33%).
But at the same time, more than two-thirds blame Putin (71%) and oil companies (68%) for a “great deal” or a “good amount” of the spike.
Democrats complain Republicans have not proposed their own solutions. Meanwhile, Republicans ripped last week’s round of Capitol Hill hearings alleging oil companies are price gouging. Biden had earlier implored lawmakers to pass a “use it or lose it” measure that would penalize them for not using wells on leased public land, rankling environmental activists.
House Energy and Commerce ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington slammed her Democratic-led hearing last week as “a deliberate distraction” from Biden’s failures.
“There are countless other examples of this administration’s war on domestic American energy,” she said. “This radical agenda is hurting our national security. Not only will the Democrats rush to green force America to be reliant on China, it also weakens our geopolitical leadership.”
Today’s hearing is a deliberate distraction from President Biden’s war on American energy that has caused gas prices to skyrocket and America less secure. pic.twitter.com/1BkSW8sFIP
— CathyMcMorrisRodgers (@cathymcmorris) April 6, 2022
Rodgers’s Senate colleague, Alaska’s Dan Sullivan, blasted the House hearing as well, dismissing it as a “show trial” and underscoring Biden and Democrats’ hypocrisy.
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“The subjects of the trial [are] being publicly flogged for being guilty of something that is usually the fault of the very officials conducting the trial,” he said. “They’re saying, ‘You need to invest more in terms of capital.’ Six months ago, these same House members were telling the executives, ‘You need to commit right now to producing less oil and gas.'”
