Responding to Biden’s Toothless Inflation Plan

As summer begins and there appears to be no end in sight to rising costs, President Biden finally believes it might be time to focus on inflation. But his approach is slow, narrow and ineffective.

All eyes have been on the White House for months, hoping that the president would issue some kind of indication as to what he plans to do to bring prices under control and bring vital assistance to American consumers. This week, President Biden penned an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal outlining his plan to tackle inflation and bring down consumer burdens and costs, but it will come as no surprise to many that the plan lacks substance and more critically, fails to acknowledge his direct implication in the current economic situation.

The White House has faced strong opposition so far to its strategy of simply shifting blame for declining economic conditions. For months we have been hearing terms such as “transitory” and “short-lived” as well as solutions such as ‘buy electric.' The excuse most recently used, has been the ‘Putin Price Hike' a heavily debunked hypothesis that inflation, is a direct result of Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Biden doubled down on this favorite deflection technique from the beginning of his op-ed, stating; “Inflation is elevated, exacerbated by Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.”

Americans have been feeling the pinch for months and need action, not words, but it seems that tumbling poll numbers heading into the midterm elections have the White House scrambling for a new messaging campaign. The Biden administration claims to be commencing a month-long campaign to try to “communicate on our accomplishments to date on the economy” Yet, still, the Federal Reserve set out to counter inflation this month by announcing an interest rate hike that will be the largest in more than two decades — an achievement that few will celebrate.

Biden suggests that the best approach will be to distance himself from weighing in on actions by the Federal Reserve and that he won't attempt to influence the decision-making process while calling on Congress to “help right away by passing clean energy tax credits and investments” and cutting down the federal deficit to ease pressure. While he is not wrong, the federal deficit is a major contributor to economic woes, experimenting with tax credits within the clean energy sector simply will not do enough to turn the economic tides.

If President Biden truly cared about helping out Americans, there are various tools at his disposal to do so — and most all are more effective than a Wall Street Journal op-ed. Back in April, it was reported that the state gas tax holiday, implemented by the Republican governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan had caused an immediate drop in prices. Speaking to The Washington Post, AAA Mid-Atlantic Spokesperson Ragina Ali stated “The impact was immediate.” The tax holiday was responsible for reducing gas prices by 30-40% when compared to neighboring Washington, D.C. and Virginia.

Action is needed and action works. As the midterm elections approach, it is clear that the White House is in panic mode as it tries to address the issues most pertinent to voters ahead of November. However, progress is slow and words are cheap. It remains to be seen just how effective Biden's month-long economic campaign will be, but the outlook isn't good.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.