President Biden attempted to shift blame away from his administration for the state of consumer prices on Monday after admitting they were “still too high.”
His comments came during a speech on the supply chain issues facing the U.S. after days of his administration taking a victory lap for lower Thanksgiving meal prices, as a percentage, stemming largely from higher household earnings rather than an actual large scale reduction in the cost of groceries.
“Wages for working families have gone up while inflation has come down 65%, giving families a little more money in their pockets, a little more breathing room this holiday season,” Biden said. “But we know that prices are still too high for too many things, that times are still too tough for too many families. We’ve made progress, but we have more work to do.”
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President Joe Biden salutes while arriving during an event in the Indian Treaty Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Nov. 27, 2023. (Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Let me be clear: Any corporation that’s not brought their prices back down even as inflation has come down, even as supply chains have been rebuilt, it’s time to stop the price gouging. Give the American consumer a break,” he added.
Biden also repeated his administration’s talking point that the cost of making a Thanksgiving meal this year was the “fourth cheapest ever on record,” despite the cost of the meal being 30% higher than in 2020 and 25% higher than in 2019, according to the American Farm Bureau, which has tracked costs associated with the holiday since 1986.
The claim is true considering the slight reduction in the cost of certain common Thanksgiving meal items, including the turkey, along with higher household earnings, but misleading when compared to costs in previous years.
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President Joe Biden, right, speaks after pardoning the National Thanksgiving Turkey, Liberty, during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC on Monday, Nov. 20, 2023. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Biden’s call for companies to lower prices following years of record-high inflation under his administration echoes the tongue lashing he gave oil companies last year amid the then-record-high gas prices plaguing American families.
“We haven’t seen the lower prices reflected at the pump though. Meanwhile, oil and gas companies are still making record profits, billions of dollars in profits,” Biden said at a meeting with the White House Competition Council in Sep. 2022.
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“My message is simple. To the companies running gas stations and setting those prices at the pump: Bring down prices you’re charging at the pump to reflect the price you’re paying for the product. Do it now,” he added.
