"I ran for president because I was tired of the so-called trickle-down economy," wrote President Joe Biden. "We now have a chance to build on a historic recovery with an economy that works for working families. The most important thing we can do now to transition from rapid recovery to stable, steady growth is to bring inflation down."
In his Wall Street Journal op-ed, Biden outlined a three-part plan to lower costs for US citizens.
First, the US president pledged to not interfere with the Federal Reserve, unlike his predecessor Donald Trump who "demeaned the Fed." "[T]he Federal Reserve has a primary responsibility to control inflation," Biden noted.
Second, the president called for taking every practical step "to make things more affordable for families during this moment of economic uncertainty" and to "boost the productive capacity of [the US] economy over time."
To that end Biden urged lawmakers to "help right away by passing clean energy tax credits and investments." He also insisted that US congressmen and women should take up his Housing Supply Action Plan to make homes more affordable. Biden further advocated reducing the price of prescription drugs and working to lower the cost of child and elder care. He emphasised the need to fix broken supply chains, improve infrastructure and crack down on "exorbitant fees that foreign ocean freight companies charge to move products.”
Third, the president noted that the US must "keep reducing the federal deficit," which, according to him, would "help ease price pressures."
"My plan would reduce the deficit even more by making common sense reforms to the tax code," promises Biden.
As such, he proposed increasing funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); improving tax laws to keep companies from leaving the US; and ending "the outrageous unfairness in the tax code that allows a billionaire to pay lower rates than a teacher or firefighter."
While outlining his plan, the US president took the opportunity to blame Russia for the on-going global inflation. US mainstream media, however, claims that the "root causes for inflation are complex", and just 25% of registered voters in the US believe that Russia has anything to do with skyrocketing prices.
At the same time, Biden acknowledged that US and EU sanction policies are to blame for higher energy prices because "Russian oil, gas and refining capacity are off the market". Still, neither Washington nor its partners plan to backpedal on the embargo, claiming to have to "punish" Russian President Vladimir Putin. Economic observers report that soaring gas and oil prices will further fuel inflation, while the US president’s "largest release from global oil reserves in history" is unlikely to halt rallying energy costs.
Biden's message came as his approval rating reached a new low earlier this month, fluctuating between 41% and 34%.
At the same time, a number of surveys indicated that inflation is now the primary concern for US voters. A staggering 95% have said that inflation is a "serious" issue for them, according to the latest Harvard CAPS-Harris poll. To complicate matters further, inflation is likely to dominate the upcoming November midterms, according to researchers behind the GenForward project at the University of Chicago.