Joe Manchin Torches Biden's 'Putin Price Hike' Inflation Excuse in Scathing Statement
At least one Democrat isn’t giving President Joe Biden a free pass for overseeing the worst inflation in 40 years.
Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia issued a scathing statement on the development on Tuesday, rejecting Biden’s attempts to invoke political excuses for the price squeezes on middle-class Americans.
“Let me be clear, inflation is a tax, and today’s historic inflation data tells another chilling story about how these taxes on Americans are completely out of control,” Manchin said.
Manchin directly criticized Biden’s administration for failing to provide solutions to the problem, instead looking for someone to blame.
“When will this end? It is a disservice to the American people to act as if inflation is a new phenomenon. The Federal Reserve and the Administration failed to act fast enough, and today’s data is a snapshot in time of the consequences being felt across the country.”
The Biden administration has been keen to invoke Vladimir Putin’s war as an excuse for the phenomenon, ignoring that inflation was already spiraling way out of control well before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Instead of acting boldly, our elected leaders and the Federal Reserve continue to respond with half-measures and rhetorical failures, searching for where to lay the blame. The American people deserve the truth about why record inflation is happening and what must be done to control it,” Manchin said.
The West Virginia moderate pointed out skyrocketing prices of food and gasoline.
As a solution to the problem, Manchin proposed that the federal government adopt a comprehensive “all of the above” energy policy to meet the fuel needs of the American people.
Manchin also suggested that the Federal Reserve needs to raise interest rates.
“Getting inflation under control will require more aggressive action by a Federal Reserve that waited too long to act.”
“It demands the Administration and Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, support an all-the-above energy policy because that is the only way to bring down the high price of gas and energy while attacking climate change.”
Manchin has criticized Biden’s historic coronavirus stimulus spending as a factor fueling the inflation devastating the American middle class.
White House officials have already put the “Putin price hike” excuse to work, dismissing Republican critics of this historic inflation.
A White House economic advisor accused Sen. Rick Scott of Florida of being “fully in lockstep” with Putin himself for criticizing Biden’s job performance.
The White House is yet to apply the PR tactic to the senator from their own party, with Putin sympathies seemingly stopping at a partisan line.
The annual inflation rate in March was 8.5%.
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