President Joe Biden warned that job creation in the U.S. is set to plummet over the coming months as Americans grapple with rapidly rising inflation along with exorbitant gas and food prices.
Biden played the blame game once again, saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was responsible for the troubles facing the U.S. economy.
“The global economy faces serious challenges. Inflation is elevated, exacerbated by Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Energy markets are in turmoil. Supply chains that haven’t fully healed are causing shortages and price hikes,” Biden wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal.
“Americans are anxious. I know that feeling. I grew up in a family where it mattered when the price of gas or groceries rose. We felt it around the kitchen table. But the American people should have confidence that our economy faces these challenges from a position of strength.”
While Biden has taken credit for a rebound in job creation after the COVID-19 shutdowns, he said in the Journal piece that it’s now time to “transition” to a phase that will produce lower job creation in order to reduce inflation.
“I ran for president because I was tired of the so-called trickle-down economy. We now have a chance to build on a historic recovery with an economy that works for working families,” Biden wrote.
“The most important thing we can do now to transition from rapid recovery to stable, steady growth is to bring inflation down.”
“During this transition, growth will look different. We will likely see fewer record job-creation numbers, but this won’t be cause for concern. Rather, if average monthly job creation shifts in the next year from current levels of 500,000 to something closer to 150,000, it will be a sign that we are successfully moving into the next phase of recovery — as this kind of job growth is consistent with a low unemployment rate and a healthy economy,” Biden wrote.
The president has refused to accept any blame for America’s financial struggles – instead, he has maintained that Putin and, more recently, “Ultra-MAGA” Republicans are to blame.
He also claimed, “I’ve done what I can on my own to help working families during this challenging time — and will keep acting to lower costs where I can — but now Congress needs to act too.”
Biden called on Congress to “help right away by passing clean energy tax credits and investments” and urged lawmakers to move on his proposals to lower the cost of housing, prescription drugs and child and elder care.
The Democrat also met with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell “to show that he is serious about inflation,” American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Desmond Lachman said.
The two officials were also joined by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who served as Fed chair before Powell began his first term in 2018.
“He’s wanting to show that he’s fully supportive of the Fed’s move to hike interest rates to deal with inflation,” Lachman, a former International Monetary Fund official, added. “From Powell’s point of view, this is a good meeting.”
“It’s obvious that Biden realizes inflation is the key political problem,” Lachman added, saying that the president was really just looking to cover his back on the issue. “He’s making sure that nobody blames him for having produced the inflation.”
