Biden rebrands spending as inflation-fighting, but will voters buy it?
by Christian Datoc, White House Reporter |
| July 30, 2022 06:30 AM
President Joe Biden is on the edge of securing two major legislative wins, but whether they will deliver on their stated aims of controlling inflation or even reassuring voters ahead of the midterm elections is much less clear.
The annual consumer price index rose to 9.1% in June, and on Friday, the Department of Commerce announced that the personal consumption expenditures price index, the inflation gauge closely monitored by the Federal Reserve, hit 6.8%. Both data points mark the highest levels recorded in four decades and prompted the Fed to raise interest rates yet again by 75 basis points Thursday.
The partisan debate over the bills currently being championed by the president is hardly unexpected, yet campaign strategists from both sides of the aisle say that, in voters' minds, the one person in particular who endorsed the legislation matters much more than the actual fiscal impact heading into November
Two Republican and two Democratic strategists all pointed to Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-WV) role in crafting the Inflation Reduction Act as making it especially palatable for economy-focused voters.
"Throughout Biden's entire time in the White House, Manchin has been the lone Democrat to push back on his socialist spending ambitions," one Republican strategist told Washington Examiner. "He's been demonized and attacked by his own party for a year straight, but he's held the line."
"Voters aren't going to sit down and crunch the numbers on this. They'll look at [Manchin] alone and say, 'OK, maybe this thing is getting back on track,'" that person added. "I don't think any hemming and hawing from Republicans will be able to cancel out the simple impact his blessing grants."
A recent poll conducted by the Chamber of Commerce found that a strong majority of the 1,219 respondents are focused "like a laser beam" on inflation. Sixty-four percent said they are concerned with the direction the economy is headed, and 58% said they wanted Congress to focus on legislation lowering prices for consumers over all other issues, with every other issue receiving 7% support or less.
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