Bethany Blankley (The Center Square)
With inflation costs hitting a 40-year high under the Biden-Harris administration, President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other administration officials have repeatedly blamed corporations, cattle ranchers, grocers and oil and gas companies for soaring prices.
At the same time, a record number of companies closureThe Center Square Corp. has declared bankruptcy and laid off hundreds of thousands of employees, citing rising costs due to inflation. In a recent report, nearly half of small businesses said they could not survive a second term under Harris, higher costs and higher taxes. Reported.
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Nevertheless, Harris has said she plans to implement price controls, raise taxes on corporations and let the 2017 tax cuts lapse, creating a $6 trillion gap between her plan and that of former President Donald Trump, The Wall Street Journal reported. Reported.
As Americans struggle with rising food prices, including meat prices, producers face rising fuel, feed, grain and hay costs, raising operating costs that are then passed on to consumers, according to multiple reports. In response, the White House National Economic Council announced in 2021 that it would Condemned High meat prices due to “dominant companies exploiting their market power in an uncompetitive market.”
U.S. Chamber of Commerce I do not agreeargued that market concentration in the meatpacking industry had changed little in those 25 years, and asked the question, “If rising prices were the result of corporate greed, why did these ‘greedy’ companies wait 20 years to raise their prices?” Clarified The increase in meat prices was driven primarily by supply and demand, as well as general inflation, caused by rising federal spending and debt.
As costs rose across the board, some companies responded by selling fewer products at higher prices. This is called shrinkflation, and Center Square First reported But Biden and Harris slammed businesses after Democratic activists advised them they were to blame for rising costs, The Washington Post reported. Reported.
“What we said was, ‘You either have a villain or you need to explain. If you don’t explain, the voters will fill you in. The right is explaining, which means we’re spending too much,'” a Democratic activist told The Post. “That finally convinced the people in the White House.”
“And so they started to falsely blame employers for the high prices,” said Neil Bradley, vice president of the chamber. The report stated He cites an example of the White House “falsely blaming companies for rising prices.”
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Biden also has a 2022 chance. Publicly criticized Container companies are blaming rising shipping costs, with news reports pointing to supply chain issues caused by labor shortages, changes in customer spending that have resulted in more cargo arriving at ports than they can handle, and port fines and fees contributing to the rising costs.
The chamber noted that the price increases were “due to consumers shifting spending from services to goods during the COVID-19 lockdown,” which led to increased demand for cargo. “The increased demand led to backlogs at ports, driving prices even higher. As supply and demand normalized, prices fell.”
By 2023, the president will be back Publicly criticized The U.S. oil and natural gas industry is seeing a surge in demand as gas prices reach their highest level in seven years. 200+ Actions Regarding the U.S. oil and natural gas industry, the U.S. House of Representatives Democrats The bill was submitted This would add a 50% tax on every barrel, with the U.S. Treasury proposing a $110 billion tax increase to the industry. Center Square Reported.
But the industry doesn’t control the market; it’s just affected by it like everyone else, said Ed Longanecker, president of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association. The Biden-Harris administration could have lowered costs by expediting permitting, lifting the federal leasing ban and creating a “more stable regulatory environment that provides certainty for producers and investors,” he told The Center Square. “Excessive regulation, higher taxes and anti-oil and natural gas rhetoric” have exacerbated high energy prices and driven up costs for consumers, he said.
The administration has also repeatedly sued Texas and its industry, which leads the U.S. in manufacturing, exports and energy creation, and Texas Governor Greg Abbott has argued that he has fought aggressively to protect Texas industry from Biden administration policies.
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And in 2023, the chairman of President Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers said margins in the grocery sector were “rising” and needed to be “passed on” to consumers. Earlier this year, President Biden again Claimed“There are still too many companies in America scamming people through price gouging, junk pricing, greedflation, shrinkflation, and more.”
The Chamber of Commerce refuted these claims, citing federal data, arguing that “higher food prices are the result of inflationary pressures throughout the supply chain and fundamental supply and demand trends,” explaining: Department of Agriculture and Government Accountability Office Economist.
Biden and Harris’s claim that blaming corporations for high prices is “completely outdated,” Bradley said. “The truth is that the Administration’s own fiscal and regulatory policies are driving inflation, and American consumers are paying the price.”
Distributed with permission From Centre Square.
