Biden Responds to Rough Inflation Report: Admits Numbers Are 'Unacceptably High,' Offers Excuses
President Joe Biden admitted that the June Consumer Price Index was “unacceptably high” but said that the figure was “out-of-date” in a White House press release published just after the CPI data was released Wednesday morning.
Biden argued in the release that gas prices have come down substantially since mid-June.
He said that today’s prices have provided “important breathing room for American families.”
“It is little comfort to Americans to know that inflation is also high in Europe, and higher in many countries there than in America. But it is a reminder that all major economies are battling this COVID-related challenge, made worse by Putin’s unconscionable aggression,” Biden wrote.
Biden issues a lengthy statement on the latest CPI data, arguing that while it’s “unacceptably high, it is also out-of-date.” pic.twitter.com/ma9G7cavug
— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) July 13, 2022
Biden noted that tackling inflation is his top priority and laid out a three step plan to address it.
The first pillar: bring down gas prices.
Biden intends on doing this by pressuring gas companies to lower prices at the pump, pointing out that the price of oil has come down faster than the price for gasoline that consumers pay.
“Oil and gas companies must not use this moment as an excuse for profiting by not passing along savings at the pump,” Biden said.
Some, however, have cast doubt on claims about corporate price-gouging.
“It’s utter nonsense that oil and gasoline prices move in a 1:1 relationship,” E.J. Antoni, research fellow for Regional Economics at The Heritage Foundation, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“There are other bottlenecks and factors that go into the sticker price of gasoline like transporting it to a refinery and sourcing other chemicals that go into the final product, as well as general lags in a supply chain,” Antoni said.
Biden’s other two stated measures to bring down inflation included urging Congress to act “to reduce the cost of everyday expenses” and opposing “any efforts by Republicans … to make things worse by raising taxes on working people.”
Even with his added dig at Republicans, Biden couldn’t earn unified support by his party.
Some Democrats remain unconvinced that COVID and Putin are the major contributors of America’s economic crisis.
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, an important swing vote for any potential vote on President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, had a different tone than Biden when addressing inflation: excessive government spending.
“No matter what spending aspirations some in Congress may have, it is clear to anyone who visits a grocery store or a gas station that we cannot add any more fuel to this inflation fire,” Manchin said in a statement.
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