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The White House on Tuesday launched a new push to contain the political damage caused by inflation after President Biden complained for weeks to his aides that his administration was not doing enough to publicly explain the fastest price increases by about four decades.
In an effort to demonstrate to the public that he was responding to his concerns, Biden met with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. Powell at the Oval Office and wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on inflation and sent major contributors to major networks to boost them. economic message from the administration.
The boom in activity comes after Biden protested privately in front of top White House officials about the administration’s handling of inflation, expressing frustration over the past few months that helpers have not done enough to address the issue directly, two people familiar with the president’s comments said. speak on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
A flurry of movements reflects a new urgency in the White House, as it faces the growing likelihood that high inflation will spread during the midterm elections, overshadowing Biden’s agenda and undermining its ability to promote his achievements, and that Biden may be able to do little. about this.
With price increases of 8 percent in April, pressure seems unlikely to ease soon in the midst of the aftermath of the war in Ukraine, coronavirus blockages in China, and a rise in gas prices that is likely to be seen. aggravated by the summer driving season, all factors beyond the president’s control.
Fuel prices hit a record high on Tuesday, with a gallon of gasoline now costing $ 4.62 on average, up 52 percent from last year, according to AAA, after the European Union announced progress on an agreement to ban Russian energy imports.
How policymakers repeatedly misjudged inflation
This makes it difficult for Biden to show that he at least understands that Americans are suffering and is doing what he can.
On Tuesday, top economic officials of the administration spread through cable news channels and appeared in the White House press conference room to underline their efforts to fight rising prices.
While not announcing any new measures to fight inflation, the White House insisted that the US economy is in a strong position for the Federal Reserve to tame high prices, for high growth and low unemployment create a buffer against future interest rate hikes.
Appearing with Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen in the Oval Office, Biden said he and the central bank share a “laser approach” to tackling inflation. “My top priority … is to address inflation to move from a historic recovery to steady growth that works for American families,” Biden said.
But the message was complicated, because while the president sought to show that the Fed is well positioned to deal with inflation, he also stressed that he is not interfering in its policies, as President Donald Trump accused him of doing. .
Biden said his inflation plan “starts with a simple proposal: respect the Fed and respect the independence of the Fed, which I have done and will continue to do.… I will not interfere in its critical work.”
The new activity comes after Biden complained to helpers that they were not doing a good job explaining the causes of inflation and what the administration is doing about it. A White House spokesman declined to comment on Biden’s instructions to his aides on inflation.
An NBC News poll released earlier this month found that 33 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, while 23 percent approve of its cost-of-living management.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll in early May found that more than 9 in 10 Americans are worried about at least the inflation rate, which has been hovering for 40 years for months. . That included 44 percent who say they are “many” because of the problem.
In what could be worse for the president and his party, 68 percent said they disapprove of Biden’s handling of inflation, compared to 28 percent who approve.
The White House has struggled unevenly on how to respond to this threat since it emerged last summer. Initially, the administration downplayed the problem, saying it would be “temporary.”
When price hikes persisted, the administration turned last fall to acknowledge that inflation was real, but argued that the legislative agenda for better reconstruction of Democrats was best suited to respond to cost pressures from the Democrats. families.
Since Build Back Better collapsed after opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin III (DW.Va.) and Republicans in late December, the White House has struggled to find new answers to inflation, highlighting its actions to improve supply chain bottlenecks and their investments. through the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
The White House has also highlighted all the ways in which the U.S. economy is recovering rapidly, as the unemployment rate plummets and gross domestic product rises. But this is also a complicated message, as the administration is simultaneously trying to celebrate a booming economy and recognize that people are suffering.
White House messages have also been inconsistent in part because their attention has been drawn to such powerful events as Russia’s aggression and a couple of horrific gun killings. However, relentless inflation threatens to undermine a central part of Biden’s political identity: that he knows and understands the problems of the American working class.
This week, the White House is making a “concerted effort” to “communicate our achievements so far on the economy,” while emphasizing Republican economic proposals that the administration believes will help create a favorable contrast, according to one official. of the White House, which described the administration’s planning on condition of anonymity to disclose internal deliberations. Democrats argue that Republicans accept low taxes for the rich while paying little attention to the needs of ordinary Americans.
Leading economic officials in the administration, including Yellen, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo, will appear on television this week as part of that push. These appearances began in earnest on Tuesday.
In recent weeks, Biden and his allies have had a particular focus on Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Who leads the Senate Republican campaign arm, and his 11-point Conservative political platform. which includes the language that White House officials say could increase. taxes on all Americans.
“It’s the ultra-MAGA agenda,” Biden said in a speech in early May.
Biden’s aides are also stepping up their Capitol Hill push for an economic bill that would address the high cost of prescription drugs, childcare and other items, remnants of Biden’s previously expansive Build Back Better agenda. . The bill would probably only get the support of Democrats, and party leaders believe this would allow them to argue that they are fighting to help Americans while Republicans are in arms.
But even those close to the administration acknowledge that the messaging changes may not be enough to address voter unrest, and some in the White House orbit are pushing for more dramatic actions.
The White House played openly with the adoption of a federal tax party on gasoline to relieve motorists of the bomb, but eventually abandoned that idea. Internal debates have erupted among administration allies over whether to adopt a more comprehensive populist message and blame corporate greed for higher inflation.
Although Biden has occasionally criticized the consolidation of industries such as meat packaging, he has never felt comfortable with a strongly anti-corporate stance and has largely shunned the rhetoric of such liberal leaders as Senator Elizabeth Warren. (D-Mass.).
The White House has taken some action to ease inflation, such as a major release of the country’s oil reserves and a waiver of ethanol standards to generate more fuel supply. These steps do not seem to have materially altered the trajectory of high prices.
But much of the response has been rhetorical. Biden has come to call the rise in the cost of fuel “Putin’s price increase,” for example, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin and pressure on gas prices from the Russian war in Ukraine.
“They seem to have stopped doing anything and have decided to find out what is best to say,” said a person in close communication with senior White House economists, speaking on condition of anonymity to reflect conversations. private. “There is almost more debate about the right narrative than the right political position.”
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said the Biden administration “is doing as good a job as possible”. But rising prices are “psychologically debilitating” for Americans, he added, and the White House must be persistent in explaining to the public why inflation is so high.
“People are using inflation as a political fight, so it’s only difficult for people to understand what’s going on,” Zandi said. “But I think the American people understand that this is the number one financial problem. They won’t feel good about anything until inflation is more comfortable.”
Republicans have argued that the Biden administration lost credibility on the issue of inflation some time ago, when it initially ruled it out as a “transient” effect of the reopening of the economy after the pandemic, just because high prices it becomes a lasting and stubborn problem.
Conservative economists and many centrist experts also argue that Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion stimulus plan last year exacerbated inflation by overstimulating the economy and increasing demand. And GOP economists rejected the idea that Biden’s promise to stop …