As US Gas Prices Hit Record High, Biden Says His Plan to Mitigate Costs is Better Than GOP’s

Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden said, “I want every American to know that I am taking inflation very seriously.” However, in outlining his plan to tackle gas prices and the depreciating value of the dollar, the president offered few solutions.

“My plan is to lower everyday costs for hardworking families and lower the deficit by asking large corporations and the wealthiest Americans to not engage in price gouging and to pay their fair share in taxes,” Biden told reporters.

He also pointed to the largest-ever release of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve as part of an internationally coordinated effort to alleviate oil demand. He further claimed US domestic oil and gas production is “approaching record levels,” and noted his administration would for the first time allow the sale of gasoline using home-grown biofuels - a change he announced nearly a month ago.

Apart from that, however, Biden only said that the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, has the most power to reduce inflation.

“[W]hile I’ll never interfere with the Fed’s judgments, decisions, or tell them what they have to do - they’re independent; they’re independent - I believe that inflation is our top economic challenge right now, and I think they do, too,” Biden said. “So the Fed should do its job and it will do its job, I’m convinced, with that in mind.”

Last week, the Fed voted to hike interest rates by their largest single increase in more than two decades in an attempt to rein in inflation and prevent the US economy from burning itself out over the summer, which economists are increasingly worried could happen.

Biden tried to contrast his own plan with the Republicans’, saying the conservative alternative would “increase taxes on middle-class families and let billionaires and large companies off the hook as they raise prices and reap profits at record amounts.”

“The bottom line is this: Americans have a choice right now between two paths reflecting two very different sets of values,” Biden said. “My plan attacks inflation and lowers the deficit … The other path is the ultra MAGA plan,” using the acronym for former US President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

“The MAGA Republicans are counting on you to be so frustrated by the pace of progress they have done everything they can to slow down that you will hand power to them so they can enact their extreme agenda,” he added.

Record-High Gas Prices

Biden’s words come as the American Automobile Association (AAA) reported the highest-ever nationwide average gas prices: an average of $4.37 per gallon for the week starting on Tuesday, with that price varying by nearly a dollar above and below the average in different parts of the country.

He was also speaking a day before the anticipated April report on consumer prices from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The data is used to calculate price differences in consumer goods as compared to the same period last year - the difference, when the price increases, is inflation. In 2022, inflation has trended upward from a 40-year high in January of 7.5%; in its report on March 2022, the BLS found an 8.5% cost increase over 2021.

Two major factors have contributed to rising inflation: cost increases associated with lockdowns and other safety measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, and an increase in oil prices, which is closely related to the first factor. Driving oil prices even higher, however, has been a US boycott of Russian petroleum products in retaliation for Russia’s special operation in Ukraine that began in February. The European Union is debating a similar boycott.

Biden has tried to cast the price increases as the fault of Russian President Vladimir Putin, labeling high gas prices “Putin’s price hike.” However, polls show Americans aren’t buying it.

The most recent survey published by conservative pollster Rasmussen on April 27 found that beliefs about the importance of rising gas prices were essentially unchanged since November 2021, but that a majority (51%) of American voters surveyed held the president responsible for higher fuel prices. Another 26% blamed oil companies for the price hike, while just 15% blamed Putin.