An Inept Response to Inflation

President Biden recently alleged that there wasn't much he could do about inflation since the problem is due to factors beyond his control (Putin's war, supply chain problems, Covid, etc.). Well, according to The Federalist's Christopher Jacobs, that's just not true.

Jacobs writes that there are two things the Biden administration could do that would help to reduce inflation.

The first is repeal the $1.9 trillion "Covid stimulus." Jacobs notes that,

Press reports have listed some of the many wasteful projects that governments funded using the $1.9 trillion “stimulus” measure Democrats passed last March under the guise of “Covid relief.” The extravagant pork-barrel spending goes from coast to coast, from irrigation systems at a golf club in Colorado Springs to upgrades to a minor league baseball park in New York.

But the Congressional Budget Office notes that chunks of that spending have yet to go out the door. CBO estimates the bill will increase the deficit by $529 billion in the current fiscal year (which ends September 30), $114 billion in the upcoming fiscal year (which begins on October 1), and $59 billion in the fiscal year after that.

In his speech, Biden said that “reducing the deficit is one of the main ways we can reduce inflationary pressures.” Repealing last year’s “stimulus,” and rescinding any amounts not already obligated, would do just that.

The second thing the President could do would be to encourage more oil and natural gas production. This would bring down the cost of almost everything and have an almost immediate effect:

In his speech, Biden also claimed Republicans “have no plan to bring down energy prices today.” That claim is false.

Republicans have proposed numerous ideas to would bring down energy prices....Because oil and natural gas operate in “spot” markets, any announcements signaling an expansion of American energy would bring down prices almost immediately, well before any new oil or gas wells come online.

But leftist climate warriors don’t want to increase energy exploration activities, which explains why the Biden administration recently canceled oil and gas sales in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.

Inflation hits everyone, but it crushes those who live on the margin. The Democrats say they care about the poor, but they're refusing opportunities to demonstrate the sincerity of that concern because they don't want to stop the pork train or put on hold their plans to destroy the fossil fuel industry.

Meanwhile, all Americans are paying for their fecklessness, and the poor are suffering most of all.