Breitbart Business Digest: Unchecked Inflation Is Shattering the Biden Coalition

It was almost a year ago that President Biden said there was no one “suggesting there’s unchecked inflation on the way, no serious economist.”

This was not true at the time. By the time Biden made that declaration, Larry Summers had been warning for months that the Biden administration’s policies risked bringing on high inflation by overstimulating. Summers—who had been the Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton, director of the National Economic Council under Barack Obama, chief economist of the World Bank, and president of Harvard University—presumably counted as a serious economist.

Now there’s no more room for denial. The most recent poll from the Economist and YouGov is indicative of just how big of a problem inflation is for Biden and the Democrats. Sixty-six percent of people say rapidly rising prices are a very important issue. Another 24 percent say inflation is “somewhat important,” making this a rare 90 percent consensus view.

A deeper dive into the demographic breakdown of this 90 percent shows why, as the New York Times reported Wednesday, inflation has “Mr. Biden and his colleagues on the defensive as officials discover that there is no good way to talk to voters about inflation.” Seventy-two percent of women say inflation is a “very important” issue, with another 22 percent saying it is “somewhat important.” Seventy percent of college educated white women, a group that gave 59 percent of their vote to Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, say inflation is “very important.” Sixty-three percent of blacks and 63 percent of Hispanics are in the “very important” column. Fifty-six percent of Democrats say it is “very important,” as do 67 percent of independents.

The Economist/YouGov survey also asked “How serious a problem is inflation in the U.S.?” Phrased this way, 63 percent say it is a “very serious” problem, and 22 percent say it is “somewhat serious.” Fifty-five percent of blacks see inflation as a “very serious” problem, as do 60 percent of Hispanics. Forty-eight percent of Democrats say it is “very serious” and another 33 percent say it is “somewhat serious.” Sixty-eight percent of college educated white women are in the “very serious” problem group. In short, the coalition that put Biden in the White House is alarmed over inflation.

Weirdly, however, the Biden administration still appears to regard this mostly as a messaging problem. “The administration has at times splintered internally over how to discuss price increases and has revised its inflation-related message several times as talking points fail to resonate and new data comes in,” the Times reports. “Economists within the administration are more sidelined when it comes to setting the tone on issues like inflation than in previous White Houses, another person familiar with the discussions said.”

This approach is not inspiring confidence in the public. Fifty-one percent say inflation will be higher six months from now—a dire forecast considering inflation is already at the highest it has been in four decades. Twenty percent say it will be about the same. Among women, 70 percent say inflation will be higher or the same. Fifty-six percent of blacks and 66 percent of Hispanics see inflation rising or staying the same. This is also the opinion of 59 percent of Democrats, 64 percent of independents, and 57 percent of the people who voted for Biden in 2020.

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish its report on the Consumer Price Index for May. Prices are expected to be up seven-tenths of a percent since April and 8.2 percent compared with a year ago. Core prices, inflation minus food and energy prices, are expected to be up 0.5 percent from a month earlier and 5.9 percent from a year ago. If the forecasts are right, inflation will have slowed down a bit for a second consecutive month. Importantly, however, a slightly slower rate of inflation means prices are still rising, just a little less rapidly. That’s unlikely to do much to improve the public’s perception of the Biden administration’s competence.

Is the public too panicky about inflation? Is it asking too much from the president? Let’s let Biden have the last word.

“My administration understands if we were to experience unchecked inflation over the long-term, that would pose a real challenge to our economy. So while we’re confident that isn’t what we’re seeing today, we’re going to remain vigilant about any response as needed,” Biden said in July of 2021.

Americans just want to see the vigilance he promised us put to effective use.