He amplified his crackdown on soaring prescription drug costs, hidden fees for cable and air travel and corporate “price-gouging.” He also promised to “keep fighting to bring down costs.”
Following the links the above quote, the CNBC articles suggests we can expect progress on the first two items (prescription drug costs and hidden fees), but there’s nothing I read in the linked article about dealing with price gouging other than some stern words. Maybe something is indeed in the works, but it wasn’t obvious to me at the least.
Instead of taking a routine victory lap, the president doubled down on the war, pledging to do himself what the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes have not: Make things cheaper.
[…]
It is a marked tone shift from the president’s typical reactions to positive inflation data.
I do appreciate this narrative shift—transitioning from tone-deaf/gaslighting to acknowledging that key issues still aren’t addressed.
He’s trying to thread the needle, and to me it’s kinda working. He won’t be effective on most of it, I’m sure, but I’ve given up hope of effective government and just like it when it makes nice sounds.
I feel like the biggest reason he won’t be effective is that he’s against pure obstructionists in the GOP. They have no desire to govern and somehow won the House.
That and the biggest donors, on both political sides, have everything to lose from following through on stopping price gouging.
Oh yeah, it’s totally the GOP’s fault. 100%. Just like the last 40 something years since Reagan. Which is why I’ve given up hope.
Note: I am not being sarcastic. The GOP broke our government.
Democrats know all they have to do is say the right things and people will keep voting.
Biden has no intention of doing anything meaningful on inflation.
Neither of the choices you’d vote for are viable either, unless all you care about is war spending.
I will be voting third party.
He surely wouldn’t but for those of who don’t belong to either mainstream party your question is annoying AF. As long as we keep electing people from the same two pools of corporate backed idiots NOTHING is going to change.
He has no power to do anything really. I’m starting to think more socialism makes sense. I kind of want profit limits on certain essential sectors like food, medicine, probably others.
I’m tired of hearing about how company X made 3 billion more this quarter than last year. It’s one thing to be profitable and make something, it’s another to give it all to the execs and make consumers eat more year after year.
Raising prices to raise profits when you’re still profitable is ridiculous and greedy.
I don’t see how Biden could fix the situation on his own. It needs a massive change.
Exactly. Nothing short of some socialism is going to fix this when companies can increase prices as much as they want. Current generation kids will say “well the fair market means someone will lower prices and everyone else will have to follow or lose customers.” Adults know that all that’s happening is everyone is raising prices across the board since they all win.
“Some” socialism means a minimum wage tied to inflation.
“Some” socialism means industries that provide basic necessities are well-regulated.
“Some” socialism means corporations pay taxes on income.
“Some” socialism means anyone paid in stocks (i.e. CEOs) pays taxes on the value of those stocks when they receive them (as income), and then pays capital gains when they sell them.
“Some” socialism means people pay into the social safety net (SSI, Medicaid, etc.) to the fullest extent of their income.
Continue as necessary.
I’ll never get articles like this. First off, Biden, specifically, is the one creating a price war? Huh, only him. No one else is engaged in any way, shape, or form.
Second, oh, he’s only doing it because of the election. How do you know that? What proof do you have other than timing? Did you read his mind? That’s a guess at best.
Third, why does the president always get all the blame or all the praise no matter what? We don’t have a dictatorship (however much some people want us to). This has always seemed to be such bullshit to me. I hate how people act like the president is to blame for every single bad thing that ever happens that’s even tangentially related to the government and given all the praise when other parts of the government did things that the president has nothing to do with.
Four, there’s so much bias on this article that basically just says “Biden bad even though he’s trying to help. Doesn’t matter. He’s still bad.”
I mean, it’s not anything special to presidency. With concerts, it’s the conductor that gets the praise… with companies, it’s CEOs, with sports it’s usually coaches.
We’re not good in general at remembering the individuals, let alone acknowledging them and their cog in the machine. A flaw to be sure, but a universal one.
That said, I certainly agree with the sentiment, the wrong people do get the praise and blame for those under their authority.
Well, I dunno’ about a universal problem, but it’s definitely a nasty little thing stuck in the craw of the social zeitgeist.
I genuinely blame it on corporate media. They NEVER simply describe events and must sensationalize and narrativize everything. It gives credibility to what would otherwise be judgemental gossip, and people latch on and follow suit because of the sense of formality the “news” gives it.
Well said but 50%-60% of everyone else is fucking stupid. You can’t fix stupid.
I’m not sure what you’re arguing. The authors claim that voters hold Biden responsible for a rising cost of living, but they don’t even write the words “cost of living” or “consumer price index” so they obviously are not good at their jobs. In reality, “inflation” doesn’t tell us anything about the impact on the average person. So I think everyone agrees that the authors need to write better. If that’s your complaint, everyone agrees.
But what about Biden? I believe most people believe that centrist Democrats such as Biden are not serious about limiting corporate greed, because the Democrats have consistently failed to address the issue for the past few decades. Bank bailouts, unchecked private health care costs, train staff strike response, the list goes on. If Biden wants to score points with center-left voters, and certainly if he wants to get votes from far-left voters, he’s going to need to pass some legislation to show that the future will be different from the past.
In other words, if he’s all talk and no action, of course people are going to dump on him for it. He’s the president, and he’s certainly capable of doing something. Or you could argue that he’s powerless because of Congress, but then who cares what his image is, because he’s not doing anything, so good for him but the rest of us have other things to do.
If I may, it’s almost as if…
THE RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH!
Inflation cooling doesn’t mean prices go down.
