OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A top Republican senator has demanded that Joe Biden step down amid record-high food, gasoline, and diesel fuel problems, all of which are the result of sky-high inflation in the 16 months since the president took office.
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri railed at the president after the latest inflationary statistics were posted by Jacki Kotkiewicz, director of policy research for the GOP.
“Overall CPI: +8.6% since last year, Gas: +48.7%, Fuel Oil: +106.7%, Meat, Poultry, & Fish: +13.1%, Milk: +15.9%, Eggs: +32.2%, Coffee: +15.3%, Used Cars: +16.1%, Airline Fares: +37.8%, Real Average Hourly Earnings: -3%,” Kotkiewicz noted.
“Wow – inflation off the charts. Joe Biden’s destruction of the middle class continues,” Hawley noted on Twitter.
Wow – inflation off the charts. Joe Biden’s destruction of the middle class continues https://t.co/w7BJQnsSPj
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) June 10, 2022
“Joe Biden’s war on American families continues. His policies have pushed inflation to generational highs, and he still won’t take any responsibility,” Hawley added in an interview with Fox News.
“If he can’t do the job, he should step down now,” the former Missouri attorney general added.
In an op-ed for Fox News back in October, Hawley wrote:
Long a land of abundance, the United States has become a land of scarcity under President Joe Biden.
Store shelves are increasingly empty, the cost of basic goods is soaring, supply chains are failing, foreign imports are backlogged at our ports, and a government-induced energy crunch has driven up prices at the pump to seven-year highs.
American families are bearing the brunt of this crisis.
Rather than address the underlying causes of scarcity by bolstering American production and enhancing the nation’s energy independence, the Biden administration has embraced this era of want.
For his part, Biden is continuing to blame others for his economy, especially Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing his invasion of Ukraine.
“Putin’s Price Hike hit hard in May here and around the world: high gas prices at the pump, energy, and food prices accounted for around half of the monthly price increases, and gas pump prices are up by $2 a gallon in many places since Russian troops began to threaten Ukraine,” he said this week.
“Even as we continue our work to defend freedom in Ukraine, we must do more—and quickly—to get prices down here in the United States,” Biden added.
“My Administration will continue to do everything we can to lower prices for the American people. Congress must act urgently as well.”
On Friday, a House Republican who is a member of the powerful tax-writing Ways and Means Committee said he doesn’t think most Americans believe the Biden administration’s inflation figure.
Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) told Fox Business’ “Mornings with Maria Bartiromo:” “First of all, the American people don’t believe that inflation is only 8% as you’ve said this morning on your show. Everything is up double-digit. Gas has doubled already. It’s almost $5 a gallon nationwide, as you’ve listed all of the different commodities out there, how high they are. The American people are feeling much higher, I expect 8.3 or higher as we see today.”
“The president is doing all of the gimmicks to do things, releasing a million barrels a day, oil that we put in petroleum reserve at $50 a barrel and we’ll have to replace $150 a barrel. I mean, just economic disaster after disaster,” the GOP lawmaker added.
“Now he’s talking about removing tariffs in China. He wants to go easing on China now to bury the idea that he caused anything to do with inflation,” the congressman added.
“This president and the administration have got to get spending under control. I just released a budget yesterday, the first budget, it’s been done this year,” he continued.
“We did the budget last year as well and the Republican Study Committee that Chairman Jim Banks leads, and, you know, it’s the only responsible budget that we’ve seen in the four years that I have been in Congress,” said Hern.
“President Biden released one in March, early April that never balances. It never balances. It adds some $20 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years,” Hern added.
He went on to say that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is correct that there is a supply-and-demand issue “but we gotta ask why it started, and her predecessor Lawrence Summers said that it was because of the $2 trillion spending that they initiated when they got in office last year, and she admitted finally, last month that she had gotten it wrong, and she’s talking about competition being eliminated.”
