‘Too many things unaffordable:’ Biden fires up price wars as inflation cools
‘Too many things unaffordable:’ Biden fires up price wars as inflation cools
Inflation grew more slowly in November than October, according to the Fed's Consumer Price Index.
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He amplified his crackdown on soaring prescription drug costs, hidden fees for cable and air travel and corporate “price-gouging.” He also promised to “keep fighting to bring down costs.”
Following the links the above quote, the CNBC articles suggests we can expect progress on the first two items (prescription drug costs and hidden fees), but there's nothing I read in the linked article about dealing with price gouging other than some stern words. Maybe something is indeed in the works, but it wasn't obvious to me at the least.
Instead of taking a routine victory lap, the president doubled down on the war, pledging to do himself what the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes have not: Make things cheaper.
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It is a marked tone shift from the president’s typical reactions to positive inflation data.
I do appreciate this narrative shift—transitioning from tone-deaf/gaslighting to acknowledging that key issues still aren't addressed.
He's trying to thread the needle, and to me it's kinda working. He won't be effective on most of it, I'm sure, but I've given up hope of effective government and just like it when it makes nice sounds.
I feel like the biggest reason he won’t be effective is that he’s against pure obstructionists in the GOP. They have no desire to govern and somehow won the House.
That and the biggest donors, on both political sides, have everything to lose from following through on stopping price gouging.
If they don’t, The golden goose will disappear forever
have everything to lose
You mean they won't profit as much.
Nothing they lose will be so much that they have to change their lifestyles over it.
Unless they've taken on lots of liability with the assumption of profit
Oh yeah, it's totally the GOP's fault. 100%. Just like the last 40 something years since Reagan. Which is why I've given up hope.
Note: I am not being sarcastic. The GOP broke our government.
You are massively underestimating the role of Democrats in getting us where we are today. It's not like industry consolidation slowed down when Democrats were in power.
Anti-trust is the real answer, at least within the scope of what neoliberalism will embrace. Biden has never been good on anti-trust. He's made some noise on that front recently, but it doesn't seem to have slowed down consolidation of every single industry.
What was the reason when Biden had the House and Senate?
Manchin and Sinema?
The reason inflation and price gouging continues under Biden? Inflation got better. And 40 years of deregulation and corporate mergers that never should have happened... That's pretty difficult to tackle in a 4 year term.
You mean a super slim majority with two "moderate" democrats holding every vote hostage?
This is the same shit we heard before when Obama was president. Republicans somehow manage to pass a ton of their shitty legislation, so maybe it's just that Democrats don't really give as much of a shit about the people as they say.
Because not all Dem senators have the same electorate base whereas republicans (although lately we're seeing a shift away from this) tend to fall lock step in line. Sinema and Munchin come from very purple states so their seats were never secure. It's not enough to have a slight majority. Also, the Senate is being held hostage by republicans right now with ever more polarization. I don't have an answer but to just pin it on the president is asinine. We need to show up to local elections and midterms.
Oh man that's right...
Too bad we didn't elect the guy with decades of Senate experience who.promised he'd be able to get Republican senators to vote for the Dem platform when a Dem Senate seemed impossible....
What's that?
That guy did get elected? And then as soon as he took office he did a 180 and said as president there's nothing he could do to change their mind and immediately gave up on the bulk of his campaign promises?
Huh...
You might remember that because of the filibuster, 41 Senators can block a bill from advancing, and despite that, quite a lot of bills got passed 51-50. Mitch McConnell could have stopped any and all of those bills if he wanted. It's probably not a coincidence that those passed and that Biden and McConnell have had a generally cordial relationship for decades.
The margin was so slim that he effectively didn't. If one or two democrats held out (and there were a few specific people who always did) then the votes would fail.
That would make sense...
If Biden hasn't spent the entire primary expecting a Republican Senate and telling everyone he was the only one to get Republicans onboard and that's why he should be president...
It's four years later. He wouldn't even try to get democrats onboard, he publicly said their choice is their choice and it would be wrong to try and change their mind.
So why is he running again?
Because he's the incumbent? It doesn't matter that as soon as he was elected, he said the reason he was elected just isn't possible?
Like, maybe if he had tried I could see letting him keep trying. But he immediately gave up. Do people get nearly think he'll start trying if he gets the second term? What's the excuse for not trying now?
Let's not forget how hard Biden worked to rehabilitate the anti-Trump Republicans. He has more Republican speakers at the DNC than progressives. All the worst shit Trump did had been Republican agenda items for decades. He should have hung Trump around their necks. Instead, he nearly handed them congresss.
Democrats know all they have to do is say the right things and people will keep voting.
Biden has no intention of doing anything meaningful on inflation.
Do you think Trump would?
He surely wouldn't but for those of who don't belong to either mainstream party your question is annoying AF. As long as we keep electing people from the same two pools of corporate backed idiots NOTHING is going to change.
None of us like it but most of us, eventually, learn what a trap third party voting is the way the system is set up. When you're young, naive and a bit idyllic it seems like an easy choice. "I'm standing up for change!" you think to yourself. Or perhaps the old "We gotta start somewhere, let's get that 5%!" nugget.
Then you get older and the shit you used watch from the sidelines on TV actually starts to affect your lives. Health care, education, retirement and other life issues show up and that naivety falls away rapidly as you learn that A) it'll take a revolution of sorts for any meaningful change and B) our lives are too short to hope for said revolution. Do we still want that change, absolutely. However, sometimes in life, you really do need to choose between the douche and the turd sandwich.
Then you get older...
Then you get even older and realize that choosing the douche or the turd sandwich ends up with you holding a douche or a turd sandwich.
At 52 I'm done with these games. Its too important to my children, my nation, and the actual environment I live in.
I don't think these people will ever get it. It's the same mentality that keeps climate change raging on, "I can't change anything on my own, so I'll just keep doing the same thing until someone else fixes it."
Fair to be fed up, but I feel that was more a concern when the two sides of the coin were very close to being the same. I'm not much behind you on age but I can still see that only one option TODAY is trying to blatantly and openly destroy most of the progress we made in your 52 years. I'd rather hold the douche and have a chance at getting out clean than hold the turd and assuredly end up covered in shit.
...but I can still see that only one option TODAY is trying to blatantly and openly destroy most of the progress we made in your 52 years.
They both are, one is just more open about it and willing to get there a bit faster on some issues. Yes, the bulk of Conservatives are somewhere between "Awful" and "JFC this person needs to be beamed into outer space!" but the Authoritarianism and Stupidity are running just as rampant among the so-called Liberals.
I’d rather hold the douche and have a chance at getting out clean than hold the turd and assuredly end up covered in shit.
You know what a douche is for, right? That's the point of that skit, it's a Hobsons Choice. It"s amazing to me people continually bring that skit up without understanding what it really meant.
Of course I know what one is for, the point I was making is that what SEEMS to be the same to you and what may have been is no longer the case.
You've clearly already checked out and, at best, listen to mainstream media if you're still in the "they are the same" or "one hides it better" camp. Lost cause.
I tried to ask an honest question ... no snark intended.
And I happen to agree with electing the insane same old-same old expecting different results.
Someone once explained representative democracy this way: Choosing a candidate is like riding a bus. None of them are going to come directly to where you are and none of them are going to drop you off at your exact destination. The best you can do is choose the one that gets you as close as possible in the shortest amount of time. Sometimes you're not even gonna get that close and you'll still have a long walk to your destination, but at least you'll be closer than where you started. Sometimes you have to take one bus then transfer to another to get to your final destination.
When the alternatives are buses that are traveling the opposite direction, your best available choice becomes very clear.
The place where this analogy falls apart is that by not taking either bus, you may actually lose ground and get further away from your destination. So I guess when the alternative is a bus that stands less than a 5% chance of arriving, you ultimately end up being shoved onto the bus that the majority of people are riding.
This person gets it.
The 'their guy sucks too' defense doesn't inspire much confidence.
Better to at least support whichever candidate is less likely to destroy the country while we wait for a better one to come and save it.
Ah, the "just wait til next time to vote for the person you want" argument that we see repeated every two years ad nauseam. That'll surely fix things.
I agree with the spirit of what you are saying, but if you live in a swing state there is definitely an argument to be made about pragmatic damage control. I don't judge either way, if you don't feel like someone has earned your vote it isn't your fault that they haven't earned your vote.
I also agree that voting for the slightly less shitty candidate isn't going to fix anything in the longterm, but sometimes the best choice for the well being of people is damage control. Damage control isn't a strategy, but sometimes it is the best tactic within a broader strategy. That being said, fuck all that noise when people get upset at you for voting third party. You aren't the person that created a rigged system that doesn't provide meaningful choices for you to choose from. Someone can disagree with you on how best to fix that, but getting angry at you for choosing a different approach is just people taking out their anger on you for the system being rigged and broken.