When Should the United States Go Red? An Analysis Based on the 2016 Inflationary Budget Report by Halpin at the Center for American Progress
When elections break, they usually break in one direction. And right now, all the indicators on my political dashboard are blinking red — as in, toward Republicans.
John Halpin, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, recently wrote that inflation was a political problem for governments around the world. Why should the United States be different?
The conditions that helped Democrats gain in the summer no longer seem to be in place, as suggested by the latest New York Times/Siena poll.
Communication mistakes along the way were costly. Last spring, administration economists were insisting that inflation would be “transitory.” Republicans don’t let voters forget the assessment proved to be wildly optimistic.
When the war in Ukraine drove a fresh jump in prices, Democrats deployed the phrase “Putin’s price hike” to try to mitigate the damage. There were also scattershot attempts at whacking Corporate America for “price-gouging” — meatpackers and oil companies being among the main villains — although some liberal economists questioned the logic.
In remarks on inflation in May, Biden tried out a new phrase: “the ultra-MAGA agenda,” referring to a plan by Senator Rick Scott of Florida that would require Congress to reauthorize spending for Social Security and Medicare. Scott is one of the Republicans that distanced themselves from the idea.
Democrats could not possibly argue that the Inflation Reduction Act would solve rising costs for families. The legislation included price caps for insulin and provisions allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs, for instance. In isolation, those policies were overwhelmingly popular, polls showed.
But that sentiment may have been an illusion: Polls also indicated that only a third of voters had heard of the new law and that the majority did not believe it would reduce inflation.
Inflation is top issue in this weeks-midterms: How did Biden and his Party win the 2008 November Midterm Election?
Biden has spoken about the economy in speeches far more often than any other subject; he has made 22 appearances since August for midterm-related events, according my count. Even so, progressives complain that Democratic candidates neither put significant resources or energy into promoting those achievements, nor do they adequately punish Republicans for their own positions.
Nearly half the voters surveyed in the NPR poll say Republicans would do a better job of controlling inflation, compared to just 27% who think Democrats would be more effective. While Republicans have capitalized on voters’ frustration over rising prices, they’ve offered few concrete prescriptions for bringing inflation down.
Consumer prices are climbing at near the fastest pace in four decades, as the election comes. Inflation in September was 8.2%. The 9% rate in June was the highest in 33 years.
Inflation was of little concern when President Biden first took office. The cost of living was not going up very much despite isolated price increases for things like lumber.
The incoming administration was more concerned about jobs — fearing a repeat of the sluggish recovery that followed the global financial crisis. The unemployment rate in January of last year was 6.2%, a huge drop from the early months of the Pandemic. The economy had lost 115,000 jobs in the month before Biden was sworn in.
Congressional Democrats quickly passed a $1.9 trillion economic relief bill, which included direct payments of $1400 to most adults, along with expanded unemployment benefits and a new child tax credit.
It was a success. Since Biden assumed office, employers have added more than 10 million jobs. Republicans claim that the relief bill caused runaway prices.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1134832876/inflation-is-top-issue-in-this-weeks-midterms
Inflation is top-issue in this weeks-midterms-so what we’ve learned from a Republican Sen. Scott
High inflation can be blamed on the effects of Russia’s invasion ofUkraine and the effects of the swine flue. Inflation has been more in the UK because of higher energy costs than in the U.S. due to the war in Ukraine.
“Now the bathtub is overflowing,” said former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who had cautioned his fellow Democrats about just such an outcome. The easiest way to stop a bathtub from spilling water is to get the water back.
The Federal Reserve had assumed that prices would go down on their own, once the supply chain was back to normal. The central bank expected inflation to be lower but it proved to be more stubborn. The Fed began raising interest rates in order to bring prices under control.
“Step one, we’ve got to do in government what families do. You live within your means,” said Scott, who chairs the Republican Senate Campaign Committee. We have to figure out how to produce energy safely in this country.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1134832876/inflation-is-top-issue-in-this-weeks-midterms
Gasoline Price Increases in the U.S. In the Light of Russian-Prussian Intergovernmental Relations and the Bound on New EPA Measurements
The average price of gasoline in the US hit a new high of $5.01 a gallon in June because of sanctions against Russia. According to the organization, gas prices have fallen to about $3.80