White House officials are celebrating the latest Consumer Price Index report in a bid to pressure hesitant lawmakers who are concerned about inflation to vote for the $3.5 trillion Democratic reconciliation bill.
The new report, published Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed month-over-month prices increased 0.1% in August. The mark was the lowest since February of 2021 and fell short of the 0.3% increase economists projected for the month.
Inflation for the year remains high by recent historical standards, increasing 5.3% for all items over the past 12 months, but White House officials were adamant Tuesday's report was evidence that President Joe Biden's economic agenda is working.
"The story from today’s data is that monthly price increases continue to moderate: Today’s report showed core inflation below expectations and decelerating this month compared to the last two months — from 0.9% and 0.3% to just 0.1%," one senior White House official told the Washington Examiner of the report.
This person claimed that President Joe Biden's coronavirus stimulus package, the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, provided "the economic and public health tools we need" to continue driving the economic recovery, even amid the emergence of the coronavirus delta variant.
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION UNVEILS ACTIONS TO LOWER RISING MEAT PRICES AMID INFLATION CONCERNS
Another White House official suggested that, contrary to arguments from West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and many Republican lawmakers, the reconciliation package will also ease price pressure on everyday people.
"We also know that the exact sort of investments the president has proposed in Build Back Better and the bipartisan infrastructure bill are going to ease inflation in the long-run," the official explained. "Better roads and trains means companies can get their goods to stores more cheaply, which results in lower prices for you. Better childcare means more parents can work, businesses work more efficiently, and costs go down for you, and so on."
The official pointed out that Biden has stressed that point in recent weeks: "If you’re concerned about inflation, you should back the plans he’s laid out that will grow the economy, keep prices stable, and make our economy stronger in the long run."
The administration largely attributed CPI increases over the summer to transitory supply chain issues and pent-up demand for services disrupted by the pandemic.
One White House official specifically noted to the Washington Examiner that the latest report showed car and food prices, to which the Council of Economic Advisers had previously attributed more than half of the 2021 inflation, actually fell in August.
Still, those figures did not account for production stoppages from North America's "Big Three" auto manufacturers in early September, and the White House conceded that coronavirus unknowns could lead to additional "ups and downs" in the economic recovery.
"But, the broader trend supports what we believe, and what’s been echoed by everyone from the Federal Reserve, to the markets, and private sector forecasters, that inflation is transitory as we recover from the pandemic," one White House official concluded. "We want to lower prices for middle-class families, and the president is committed to using every tool available to do that."
Following the release of the CPI report for May, which saw the United States in the midst of the largest inflationary run since the Great Recession of 2008, the White House slightly shifted its stance on inflation. Though officials still maintained at the time that Biden's economic agenda is necessary to help the country compete economically with China over the next decade, the White House also began actively monitoring the recovery for inflationary blips.
Toward that end, the White House announced in early September a host of actions designed to combat surging beef, pork, and poultry prices, including:
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Addressing illegal price fixing, enforce antitrust laws and bringing transparency to the meat-processing industry
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Providing relief to small businesses and workers impacted by the pandemic
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Providing relief and support to farmers and ranchers suffering from the effects of extreme weather
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Calling Congress to make cattle markets more transparent and fairer
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"All together, these actions will help build a food system that works for the American people above all else," National Economic Council Director Brian Deese wrote in a statement announcing the moves. "They will support families, farmers, and workers while preventing bad actors in the supply chain from lining their pockets and getting further ahead without accountability. This will make the food system fairer and more equitable, more competitive and transparent, and more distributed and resilient against shocks. In turn, it will increase farmers’ and ranchers’ earnings, deliver greater value to workers, and offer consumers affordable, healthy food produced closer to home."
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Tags: News, Inflation, Joe Biden, Joe Manchin, White House
Original Author: Christian Datoc
Original Location: White House reassures infrastructure holdouts about latest inflation numbers
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