• @[email protected]
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    11 months ago

    The rate of increase is slowing rapidly: In December, prices for food consumed at home were up by just over 1 percent, according to the Labor Department. But administration officials say Mr. Biden is keenly aware that prices remain too elevated for many families, even as key items, like gasoline and household furnishings, are now cheaper than they were at their postpandemic peak.

    And yet there is a general belief across administration officials and their allies that there is little else Mr. Biden could do unilaterally to force grocery prices down quickly.

    “It’s hard to figure out what the short-term policy response is in this situation,” said Bharat Ramamurti, a former economic aide to Mr. Biden and an author of a report on grocery-price inflation that the progressive Groundwork Collaborative in Washington published on Friday.

    I think we can expect Biden to be loud about grocery prices and grocery store profit margins, because the price of almost everything else has stabilized or gone down. He can issue executive orders that do little to directly influence prices, but any more would require legislation, and, well, the party that controls the House wants higher prices.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/us/politics/biden-food-prices.html

    • @Cryophilia
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      11 months ago

      And yet there is a general belief across administration officials and their allies that there is little else Mr. Biden could do unilaterally to force grocery prices down quickly.

      I wish I could just slap the shit out of every Democrat in charge of any sort of media relations. They’re so terrible.

      IT. DOES. NOT. MATTER. WHAT. YOU. DO. Good deeds do not sway voters. Spin sways voters. Media sways voters. You can literally fuck up the economy and blame your opponents for it and people will believe you if you message it right.

      Democrats should work to help people not because it will win them votes but because it’s the right thing to do. Democrats need to understand that words and deeds are two entirely separate things. Deeds help people. Words sway voters. The two are not related.