Top Democrats are looking to navigate the news of inflation hitting a 40-year high as Republicans continue to attack over a softening economy ahead of November’s midterm elections.
The consumer price index increased 9.1% from this point a year ago, with rising prices expected to be a leading issue for voters. Republicans are within striking distance of winning majorities in the House and Senate.
Following the news, President Joe Biden argued that “it’s the peak of the crisis” and suggested the numbers are outdated and don’t reflect the current state of affairs, citing a dip in gas prices. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) echoed Biden’s sentiment that inflation may have reached its peak.
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“I think we’re peaking. I think we’re going to be going down from here,” Pelosi told reporters on Wednesday.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) asserted that the party is concerned about the impact it is having on families and feels progress is being made in bringing down commodity prices.
“I think that on the commodity side, there’s been actual decreases, but we recognize the nature of the challenge and what it does to people, in particular, low income,” Neal told the Washington Examiner.
And House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told reporters that they are committed to seeking policies to address the problem.
“Our focus really is to make America as affordable as it can be for American families and everyday Americans,” Jeffries said after House Democrats met. “And we’ve taken legislative step after legislative step to do that.”
But the news of the sky-high increase in goods and services has sparked concerns that could alter the party’s plans to move forward with a budget reconciliation bill to address climate, allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, and unwind parts of the GOP’s landmark tax reform bill. Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who played a pivotal role in halting a larger party-line bill last year over concerns about inflation, sounded the alarm on Wednesday on passing legislation that would significantly increase spending.
Manchin said that he remains supportive of the language on drug pricing but will do everything in his power to have “input on scrubbing everything humanly possible that could be considered inflammatory.”
“For more than a year, leaders in Washington have ignored the serious concerns raised by myself and others about the rising cost of inflation,” Manchin said in a statement. “While Washington seems to now understand this reality, it is time for us to work together to get unnecessary spending under control, produce more energy at home, and take more active and serious steps to address this record inflation that now poses a clear and present danger to our economy.”
While Manchin argues that anything that could be inflationary should be scrapped from the bill, liberals argue legislation that addresses a broader range of issues is necessary to combat the problem.
“We need child care if we truly want to bring down inflation in this country — how about putting more than a million people back to work? Who can’t go to work right now because they don’t have access to childcare,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said shortly after Manchin made his position on a larger spending bill known. “There’s so much we need to do. But we do as much as we can get 50 votes for, and I will celebrate what we can get done and work harder than ever for the parts that are still important.”
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Republicans have made inflation a central part of their messaging strategy as they look to regain control of both chambers, arguing that voters feeling its impact will drive them to the polls this fall.
“If you try to go to the gas station, you might need to fill up your car, and maybe you can’t make it because gas prices are so high they’ve more than doubled since Joe Biden took office — that is a kick to the gut to low and middle-income families,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) said on Wednesday. “They’re the ones hit the hardest by these policies, and these are Joe Biden’s policies.”
