Posted on 05/10/2022 12:42:12 PM PDT by Red Badger
President Joe Biden said that cooling prices are his top domestic priority, even as Wall Street braces for another inflation report north of 8%.
The president also said that the White House is in the middle of a review of tariffs imposed against China during former President Donald Trump’s tenure and could opt to drop them.
Wall Street is eager to read the Labor Department’s upcoming report on April inflation , which the government will publish Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m. ET.
President Joe Biden said he could drop some of the tariffs imposed against Chinese imports to help control rising consumer prices in the U.S. — just as Wall Street braces for another inflation report north of 8%.
The White House is reviewing the penalties imposed under former President Donald Trump — which raised prices on everything from diapers to clothing and furniture — and could opt to remove them altogether, Biden said in addressing the nation from Washington on Tuesday.
“We’re looking at what would have the most positive impact,” Biden said, adding that removing the tariffs was currently under discussion.
Trump levied a raft of financial penalties on Chinese goods in a long-running tit-for-tat trade war with Beijing in an effort to bolster American-made goods.
The extent to which removing Trump’s taxes on Chinese products would cool inflation is a matter of debate among economists, but many say easing or removing the tariffs altogether is among the few options available to a White House eager to pull every lever available to ease costs.
The president reiterated that a combination of Covid-19 protocols at home and abroad and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has caused prices in the U.S. to jump at their fastest pace since the early 1980s.
“I want every American to know that I am taking inflation very seriously,” Biden said. “The first cause of inflation is a once-in-a-century pandemic. Not only did it shut down our global economy, it threw supply chains and demand completely out of whack.”
“And this year we have a second cause: Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine,” he added, referring to the dramatic rise in oil prices sparked by Moscow’s attack earlier in 2022.
While West Texas crude futures are well off highs of over $130 a barrel seen in March, oil contracts for June delivery were last seen trading around $100, about $30 above where they began the year.
The president noted that the war has also driven up the prices of contracts for key food products such as wheat and corn, which are up 40% and 30%, respectively, in 2022. Russia and Ukraine together supply more than a quarter of the world’s wheat.
Economists say the combination of the pandemic — especially China’s recent, and severe, efforts to curb rising cases there — and the war in Ukraine are both to blame for inflation’s 8.5% rise over the last year through March, the highest reading since 1981. Wall Street is eager to read the Labor Department’s upcoming report on April inflation, which is scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.
Economists polled by Dow Jones expect that report to show inflation rose 8.1% in the 12 months ending in April.
Biden’s comments the day before the release is the administration’s latest attempt to convince the American public that the White House is exploring all options available to quell rising prices. Dozens of polls have indicated that Americans now believe inflation is the chief issue facing the U.S. and a threat to the economic recovery from the Covid recession.
While some economic measures have staged remarkable rebounds — the U.S. employment rate held steady at a low 3.6% last month — higher gas and grocery bills continue to erode paychecks and spark angst across the country.
Biden has in recent weeks sought to pacify those frustrations through regular speeches.
Last week, he touted sizable reductions in the federal deficit this fiscal year as a key departure from what he characterized as rampant spending by his Republican predecessor and a step toward fiscal responsibility and lower prices.
Republicans argue that the rash of inflation is, in large part, thanks to the Democrats’ ambitious economic policies, including trillions in Covid relief in the American Rescue Plan as well as the bipartisan infrastructure law Biden signed in 2021.
The GOP also points out that federal spending might have been higher, and the expected deficit larger, if Biden and his Democratic colleagues had managed to pass a suite of climate, housing and workforce legislation once known as the Build Back Better plan.
Those attacks pose a political problem for Democrats as they face an uphill battle to retain control of Congress in November’s key midterm elections. The Senate is split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, while the House is divvyed 221-209 in favor of Democrats.
Biden in his recent comments has countered Republican barbs by trumpeting the administration’s efforts to lower prescription drug costs and to raise taxes on only the richest Americans.
“What’s the congressional Republican plan? They don’t want to solve inflation by lowering your costs. They want to solve it by raising your taxes and lowering your income,” Biden said Tuesday. “Their plan is actually going to make working families poorer.”
Biden says White House could drop Trump China tariffs to lower consumer prices as is part of JoeB’s contract with the CCP.
What took him so long?
Her has a plan, he will advise, he will ask Congress ... ALL purity boo jit !
If the GOP doesn’t hit this out of the park, it is because they too are bought off and they don’t want to.
He’s an idiot.
Sure outsource our jobs and prices will fall as nobody will be able to afford to buy them even at the lower prices.
He’s negotiating his cut. That takes time. It’s hard to balance nap time, pudding cup time, Delaware bunker time, and skimming time.
Plus this will please the China First Republicans who hated Trump for harming their CCP donors.
war with Russia, suck up to China.
What a strategy!
My guess is that at least half of the GOP politicos are ecstatic. The yuan will start flowing into their pockets once again.
Biden said. “The first cause of inflation is a once-in-a-century pandemic. Not only did it shut down our global economy, it threw supply chains and demand completely out of whack.”
You overreacted to the flu and have been nothing short of glacially slow in bouncing back to normalcy or even selling “normal”.
In fact, I continue to hear PSA’a on TV and radio, as well as seeing them on billboards and internet ads about the horrors of Covid.
It’s effin nauseating, really...
“And this year we have a second cause: Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine,”
GTFOH
What in the Sam Hill does Russia or Ukraine have the world needs?
Oil? Okay, some.
Metal? None
Baby Formula? None
Meat and Poultry? Nope
Whiskey? Blarney
Scotch? Natch
Wine? At least not Merlot.
You guys are effing everything up like you always do.
Leave us alone...
Lying arsehole. It was the Democrat Fedzilla printing $5 TRILLION out of thin air for no good reason.
I am sure he is sending his coke head son over there ASAP to collect some millions first!
dont forget shutting down drilling and new pipeline construction!
The !
Manchurian President is doing the bidding of his masters.
With these tariff savings, that 10% will add up!
Bidum has always mumbled about cutting the chicom tariffs, he once mentioned 400 items, but congers has gotten to like the huge revenue from them so he may yet run into some resistance to cutting them. Mostly it’s more Trump-is-in-his-head stuff. I have a notion that slojoe is leaving soon so he might do a flurry of stupid stuff on his way out.
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