Biden Responds to Soaring Inflation, Orders Economic Council to ‘Reduce Energy Costs’

The Epoch Times ^ | 11-10-21 | Jack Philliphs

[MNJohnnie]

Following a Department of Labor report suggesting that inflation hit a three-decade high in October, President Joe Biden released a statement that he directed the National Economic Council to reduce energy costs.

“Today’s report shows an increase over last month. Inflation hurts Americans pocketbooks [sic], and reversing this trend is a top priority for me,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday. “The largest share of the increase in prices in this report is due to rising energy costs.”

The president said he would direct the National Economic Council to attempt to “further reduce these costs,” regarding energy prices. Furthermore, he asked the Federal Trade Commission to deal with “market manipulation or price gouging in this sector.”

High inflation is eroding wage gains, adding to political risk Biden, whose approval rating has been falling as Americans grow more anxious about the economy, according to a number of recent polls. Broadening inflationary pressures could also complicate the Federal Reserve’s communication, with top officials saying it’s “expected to be transitory” in recent public comments.

The Federal Reserve and White House have maintained inflation will drop as supply chain bottlenecks are fixed. For example, the Marine Exchange that monitors container ships coming from Asia reported Tuesday that 111 of such ships are now sitting outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

“Risks are clearly shifting toward U.S. inflation remaining elevated longer than previously thought, but that doesn’t mean that it’s permanent,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “The Fed could face a situation where higher consumer prices begin to weigh on consumer spending, reducing GDP growth.”

Later in his statement, Biden urged Congress to pass his “Build Back Better” agenda, coming after the House approved a Senate-passed $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill last week. A larger, $1.75 trillion social spending bill is still being debated in Congress.

However, a key senator, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), signaled on Twitter that he may be loathe to pass the larger bill anytime soon. Previously, Manchin has said that he fears the bill would add to the national debt.

“By all accounts, the threat posed by record inflation to the American people is not ‘transitory’ and is instead getting worse,” Manchin wrote. “From the grocery store to the gas pump, Americans know the inflation tax is real and DC can no longer ignore the economic pain Americans feel every day.”

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Tuesday released a statement saying lawmakers will have to wait longer for a full score on the social spending bill.

The consumer price index jumped 0.9 percent last month after climbing 0.4 percent in September, the Labor Department said. The largest gain in four months hoisted the annual increase in the CPI to 6.2 percent. That was the biggest year-on-year rise since November 1990 and followed a 5.4 percent advance in September.

Food prices advanced 0.9 percent, mostly driven by meat, eggs, fish, vegetables, cereals, and bakery products. It also costs more to eat away from home. But prices for alcoholic beverages fell.

[MNJohnnie]

Yeah Bear Shelves Biden, that is really going to work. Just order it done and it will be done. NO CLUE at all of how your bad polcies got us here

[CatOwner]

If only one father who saw this nutjob touch his daughter inappropriately had taken him out ...

[wiseprince]

Um...maybe ask Trump?

[Signalman]

How do you reduce the concept of supply and demand?
The left thinks a government edict can.

[wiseprince]

Sorry, President Trump

[rfp1234]

Here come the energy ration cards.

[fhayek]

RED FLAG ALERT. Paying blue ribbon bureaucrats to solve problems that the free market would solve for NOTHING.

ol' Poopy Pants should crack open a book on economic history once in a while...

[eyeamok]

Maybe he needs to print more money to fix the problem, you know, so we don’t run out...

[MNJohnnie]

No surprise the US Democrat Marxist wants to destroy one of the key building blocks of US Economic prosperity with no viable alternative ready to take its place.

And no fantasy land dreamers, “green energy” will not be viable alternative any time in the next 3 decades. It will never be able to replace all the other things Oil is used to manufacture and lubricate

[max americana]

diaper head can still speak?

[metmom]

Here’s an idea.

Open up the pipelines that gave us energy independence just last year.

[fightin kentuckian]

Kinda like Hitler telling the Jews that he will do something about the skyrocketing death rate among them.

Biden and everyone controlling him is a real piece of work.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

King Canute-Biden orders the tides to stop.

NOTE: This apocryphal anecdote illustrates the piety or humility of King Canute the Great. Canute demonstrated to his flattering courtiers that he has no control over the elements (the incoming tide), explaining that secular power is vain compared to the supreme power of God. The story usually misrepresents Canute as believing he had supernatural powers, but the story actually relates the opposite.

King Canute-Biden is just too STUPID to know that he caused the high energy prices and that he has NO POWER to command prices be reduced.

[DJ MacWoW]

Please Support FR
Click The Pic To Donate.

[JennysCool]

Um...maybe ask Trump?

We had one of the leading businessmen of the 20th and 21st centuries working day and night for us, creating a roaring economy and donating his salary to charity.

Democrats, however, seem to favor a senile, doddering, flatulent old gasbag.

Democrats are amazingly stupid.

[blackdog]

He’s met his enemy and it’s himself.

[blackdog]

When do we get a lecture from the echo chamber that we are too irresponsible to know how to best use energy?

[Tallguy]

The “National Economic Council”? Seriously, Joe. Since when does an advisory board have any power in regulating the economy or stabilizing wholesale energy prices? Just because your ‘order it’ doesn’t mean it will happen.

Joe Biden, King of (Hot) Air.

[DAC21]

Did JoeK Poopy Pants also bang his shoe on the podium with his proclamation to the proletariat of how he will make their peasant lives better?

[wardamneagle]

From energy independent to this……in 10 months. You created this mess.