The Republicans are quick to lay the blame for the bad economy on Biden. After all, the exploded inflation happened during Biden’s “watch” and most Americans believe that the economy can switch on and off in a momentum’s notice.
He DID become POTUS on January 20, 2021. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republicans-blame-biden-inflation-are-they-right-2021-11-01/ .
While Democrats struggle to pass President Joe Biden's social and climate change agenda, Republicans have been pelting them with the repeated accusation that his policy initiatives are driving up inflation and making life costlier for Americans.
"There's no relief in sight. It's a direct result of flooding the country with money," Mitch McConnell told reporters, "The last thing we need to do is pile on with another massive, reckless tax and spending spree."
Consider the opinion article in the New York Post, https://nypost.com/2022/04/04/new-fed-study-shows-biden-owns-our-economic-disaster/ .
Are the Republican claims factual?
The main Republican argument against Biden is that his multitrillion-dollar legislative agenda makes inflation worse by flooding the economy with government spending, and promising much more.
His agenda includes the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan - the only plank so far enacted - and a yet-to-pass $1 trillion infrastructure bill. After that will come his "Build Back Better" social and climate spending package, which is anticipated to cost around $1.75 trillion.
But the annual inflation rates for dozens and dozens of goods routinely purchased by American households - including food - were already at their highest levels in a decade before Biden entered the White House early this year.
That's in large part because of the COVID-19 relief spending enacted under Republican Donald Trump's administration with overwhelming Republican support in the Senate. It exceeds what Democrats have allocated so far by roughly $1 trillion.
The New York Post claim is based on Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco https://www.frbsf.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/el2022-07.pdf. The author assumes the reader won’t read the article which says,
Specifically, the two peaks in U.S. disposable personal income reflect the CARES Act, signed into law on March 27, 2020, and the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021, signed about a year later. Both Acts resulted in an unprecedented injection of direct assistance with a relatively short duration.
Do any Republicans accept those causes?
Who's Really To Blame for Inflation? Here is a good explanation that never politicians want to accept. https://reason.com/2022/04/20/whos-really-to-blame-for-inflation/
No matter how you slice it, no one person or policy is solely to blame for surging inflation.
Just as no one person caused our current predicament, it's unlikely any one person can solve it. Inflation will only abate when the pandemic ends, central banks roll back easy money policies, the private sector increases production, the supply chain stabilizes, and, yes, governments finally undertake more responsible levels of spending.
I guarantee that I can share these facts and
most will turn a blind eye.
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