State Policy Network
As Biden dithers, states are enacting meaningful inflation policy

This op-ed by SPN Senior Messaging Strategist Erin Norman first published at The Hill.

Last week, President Biden laid out his plan for fighting inflation in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal. But most of the president’s plan is simply a repackaging of his progressive agenda in a way to make it seem related and responsive to inflation and the economic hardship many Americans are facing.

Biden uses the first third of his 1,100-word piece to tell the American people how good things are right now. He relies on technical reports to paint a picture of a strong and prosperous nation.

But reports not cherry-picked for Biden’s article show that employment rates have dropped 8.4 percent since January 2020 and have fallen a dramatic 23.9 percent among those earning less than $29,000 a year. Biden attempts to get in front of this fact by asserting that if monthly job creation falls to one-third of its current level, it will be a sign of success.

Additionally, there is no mention of government data showing a 1.5 percent decline in real GDP in the first quarter of 2022. Amid a crumbling economy, Biden and his team are desperately trying to use ambiguous and incomplete data to convince the public not to believe what’s in plain view.

The American public’s views on the economy show that what they see is bleak. A recent CNN poll finds 77 percent of Americans rate economic conditions today as poor. More specifically, more than half of the country believes Biden’s polices have caused those poor economic conditions.

Read the full piece at The Hill here.

Organization: State Policy Network