With President Joe Biden’s efforts to pin the blame for inflation on Russia failing, Democrats are trying to blame it on Republicans for opposing the massive Build Back Better spending package.
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Cedric Richmond, an adviser to the Democratic National Committee (DNC), on Tuesday if Biden bears at least “some responsibility for how bad things are.”
“No, Jake, if you look at the president’s three-pronged plan, in the beginning, it was to pass the American Rescue plan so we could get shots into arms, get schools back open, get the economy open and not shut down again, which all happened,” Richmond responded.
He continued, “Then it was to go do the bipartisan infrastructure deal so that we could finally start investing in American infrastructure, creating jobs right here in the United States, jobs that pay well. And then the third prong was to reduce those household costs — the cost of healthcare, the cost of eldercare, the cost of childcare — and continue to bring household costs down.”
Richmond then claimed that “all of the economists” said passing the Build Back Better Act would bring costs down.
“What you have is Republicans purposely obstructing it and keeping it from happening, then at the same time saying inflation is high,” he said. “But the Republican opposition just for the sake of opposition to legislation that would bring household costs down is what’s continuing to spark [inflation].”
Every economist has not said that the bill would bring costs down. Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, told CNN, “Maybe on the margin, it adds a bit to inflation next year, the year after.”
“Maybe on the margin, it reduces inflation in the longer run, but taking a step back, it does not have a meaningful impact on inflation,” he added.
Meanwhile, analysts at the Tax Foundation, the Tax Policy Center, and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget agree that the bill would at least lead to a modest bump in inflation in the short term.
Watch the video below:
DNC adviser @RepRichmond: Inflation crisis is Republicans’ fault for not passing Biden’s $6 trillion Build Back Better bill pic.twitter.com/M0yeoIS2Mr
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 15, 2022
But stepping back from the issue of whether the bill would ease price increases, wasn’t inflation Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fault, according to Biden?
Now it’s Republicans’ — who, by the way, were powerless on their own to stop Build Back Better from passing — fault?
Democrats still control both chambers of Congress, and with the budget reconciliation process, they do not need to worry about the 60-vote threshold.
All they need is for all 50 Democrats in the Senate to vote for the bill and have Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote.
And yet, they are one vote short as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has announced his opposition to the package.
If Democrats can’t even get all their members on board for a bill, why should Republicans be expected to vote for it?
Now that economists are saying that Biden’s American Rescue Plan helped fuel inflation, Republicans have an even better argument for voting against Build Back Better — or whatever name they want to slap on that package.
Richmond’s comments appear to be another attempt to deflect blame for inflation, which Americans tell pollsters is a top concern, to try to save the party’s chances ahead of the midterm election. But unfortunately for the Democrats, the polls also show that more Americans blame Biden’s policies for inflation rather than Russia’s war in Ukraine, greed, or the country bouncing back from the COVID-19 pandemic.
