In March, inflation jumped 8.5%, the biggest spike since 1981. Economic growth is expected to slow. Voters are expected to be angry. Yesterday, press secretary Jen Psaki warned, “We expect March CPI (consumer price index) headline inflation to be extraordinarily elevated due to Putin’s price hike.” Today, her future employer, NBC, reported: “Inflation hits 40-year high of 8.5 percent due to war in Ukraine, rent hikes.” The Washington Post says much the same. President Joe Biden’s senior adviser for communications at the National Economic Council, Jesse Lee, went even further, accusing those who blame Biden for inflation woes of being “fully in lockstep” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The main problem with this transparently silly talking point is that most voters will surely recall that inflation concerns predated the invasion of Ukraine. I’m not sure what Putin’s position is on American inflationary pressure, but if that’s it, he would be correct — murderous dictator or not.
The Biden administration, in fact, spent a year downplaying inflation fears despite the warning signs, contending that inflation was only “transitory,” claiming that “nobody” was “suggesting there’s unchecked inflation on the way — no serious economist,” dismissing price spikes as a “high-class” problem, and arguing that higher prices might actually be a good thing. (Let’s just say Psaki isn’t cracking jokes about “the tragedy of the treadmill that’s delayed” anymore.)
Like most presidents, Biden wants credit for every decimal point of positive economic news but blame for nothing. Considering that we are seeing the return of jobs initially decimated by state-imposed COVID lockdowns, the president’s boasting is even more misleading than usual.
Inflation is a complex, multifaceted problem that, of course, isn’t entirely any one person’s or event’s fault. Yet easy monetary policy and lots of federal spending during a recovering economy were probably bad ideas, as it turns out. Democrats threw $2 trillion into an overheating economy, on top of the $3 trillion bipartisan COVID-relief bill that preceded that bill. With an assist from some Republicans, Democrats approved another $1 trillion-plus infrastructure bill. The Biden administration wanted to pass another $5 trillion in social spending despite inflationary concerns.
Setting aside today’s numbers, Biden policies often demonstrate the unseriousness, incompetence and partisanship of the governing class. Even as energy prices spike, for example, Democrats continue to indulge in their clean-energy fairy tales. The first item on the White House’s fact sheet, “President Biden’s Plan to Respond to Putin’s Price Hike at the Pump,” instructs Americans to drive pricey, unreliable electric cars and rely on niche, ineffective, highly subsidized “clean” energy sources.
It should not be left unsaid that Democrats want to artificially drive up the price of fossil fuels — which account for 80% of our energy — as a means of constricting usage. This is the intent of almost every climate-agenda proposal. On Inauguration Day 2021, the average price of gas in the U.S. was $2.37 a gallon. Between that day and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden signed an executive order pausing all new government leases on public lands, shut down the Keystone XL Pipeline and stopped pursuing drilling in the Gulf of Mexico over concocted “social cost of carbon” externalities. Russia provided less than 8% of all oil imported into the U.S. World communities are fungible, but Democrats want to prepare for the next gas-price shock by ignoring the abundant availability of reliable energy and retrofitting the entire economy to the tune of tens of trillions of dollars.
You might also recall that before “Putin’s price hike” became the go-to talking point, Democrats spent months trying to convince us that, after 30 years of low inflation, corporations had suddenly conspired to stop competing and began reckless gouging. These ham-fisted efforts to deflect anger over the mismanagement of the recovery are unlikely to work with anyone whose memory goes back even a couple of months.
David Harsanyi is a senior writer at National Review and author of “Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent.” To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
Just remember Joe, “Putin’s price hike” is all your doing, because you have colluded with Russia, China, Iran and Venezuela to destroy the United States of America. Traitor Joe, a criminal who is bringing about the destruction of the United States.
Like always, its SOMEONE OR something else, to blame.. LIBTARDS never ever take responsibility for their OWN actions!
This treasonous, destructive, socialist Democrat Party actually believes that the U.S. citizens are STUPID enough to believe the Democrat Party’s Lies, Con and Deceptions.
The Democrat Party wins most of their followers because they are ill-informed and/or low intellect, uneducated.
Democrat’s propaganda or narrative works on an emotional level, not on the intellect level.
Good morning, Scruffy! Unfortunately, if you look at the Twitter comments, (I can only look as I’ve been banned) you’ll see there are quite a few “ill-informed and/or low intellect, uneducated!” So frustrating!
Why do you think leftists LOVE Pushing Tictok and the like.. BECUASE IT MAKES stupid voters!
From Russia Collusion to Putin Price Hike—the Democrat Party obsession with Russia is almost laughable.
People need to be reminded the many in the Biden administration were part and parcel to the Obama administrations push for $4.00 gasoline in order to drive consumers to use other fuel source vehicles. Losing Congress killed that idea then but it came roaring back in 2020. the alternate vehicles haven’t yet become practical for most people and expensive for those who have them. They are trying to create a demand for something that doesn’t exist. Those who tout this ‘new’ age of transportation however have not curbed the use of their SUVs and jets, certainlt not their other wasteful habits in energy consumption.
You cannot blame a puppet for what the puppeteer does. Current puppet’s string have been pulled since a decade ago and continues. Why was only “a black female” nominated for SCOTUS – cause the strings were being pulled to gain more control of the government. The Jan 6th fiasco was not planned in detail but what is going on now has been planned and implemented years and years ago.
YES We can blame Biden!
Only a blithering idiot believes these are “Putin’s Price Hikes”, which is exactly why all the brain-dead dem-rats believe it.
Biden’s “performance” during the 1991 Senate confirmation hearings for SC Justice Clarence Thomas was hideous. Beyond lousy. No executive-level talent/ability on display at age 48, at the time, yet the Dems incrementally moved him into more senior leadership positions. Biden and his cronies (AOC and her pals) push “green energy” and electric vehicles without noting that the vast majority of nickel and lithium is extracted in lands very far away from the USA. A sorry state of affairs.