Maggie Hassan Gives Inconsistent Reasons for Soaring Inflation Under Democrat Rule

Democrat Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) has not given a straight answer about why inflation has soared under Democrat rule during her campaign against surging Republican Gen. Don Bolduc.

During an NPR segment published on Monday, Hassan distanced herself for fueling inflation by blaming President Joe Biden. “The administration was too slow to recognize the long-term reality of inflation, and they took too long to react to it,” she said.

Last week, she blamed the pandemic and the Ukraine war. “When you talk with economists, they are really talking to us about the things I mentioned — about getting these long-term drivers of inflation back under control. And they really are related to the pandemic and the war,” she claimed.

Hassan has not mentioned that gas prices were already $3.53 two days before Russia invaded Ukraine. On January 20, 2021, the national average gas price was $2.39 a gallon. Moreover, in the last two years, the Biden administration has succeeded in driving up private and public financing costs of oil drilling, halting drilling on public lands, and canceling the Keystone pipeline.

In a tweet last Tuesday, Hassan had a third opinion. Inflation was due to corporate greed, she said. “Bolduc would fight for Big Pharma & Big Oil, not Granite Staters,” she tweeted without presenting any evidence. “I’m working to hold corporate special interests accountable and lower costs on everyday goods.”

Hassan has suggested that Americans are not very interested in soaring costs. During the NPR interview, Hassan claimed women do not want to converse about inflation and instead change the topic to abortion, the number six most important midterm issue.

“You know, as I started to talk with women about inflation, they all change the subject to abortion. They also said to me, but if my fundamental rights are gone, that’s much harder to get back,” she said.

Hassan’s opinion contradicts the data. Polling suggests independents and women voters have shifted their support behind Republicans in large part due to the Democrats’ record-high inflation and specifically soaring costs at the grocery store. According to Pew Research Center analysis, 80 percent of mothers say they are the primary grocery shopper for the household.

Hassan’s opponent, Republican Gen. Don Bolduc, has slammed Hassan for ignoring the top issue of “inflation, inflation, inflation,” which he said was driven by bad energy policies the Democrats created by waging an ideological war on American energy.

“It is only going to get higher,” Gen. Bolduc said, noting the Democrats’ massive spending packages of which Hassan voted in the past two years.

“We got to stop the spending,” he stated.

Hassan has constantly ignored her inflation-fueling voting record. Hassan voted for Biden’s $3.5 trillion budget plan, the $1.9 trillion for coronavirus stimulus, a debt limit increase, and the $3 trillion infrastructure package. She also voted for the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act,” which will cost taxpayers 700 billion dollars. Experts also say the bill will not reduce inflation.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.