Republicans are playing the inflation blame game

In election season, the game is always to find ways to blame the other party for whatever economic challenges we face. The blaming too often takes precedence over looking clearly at the facts. Today, the Republican strategy is to blame the Democrats for inflation and high gas prices.

Who is really responsible for inflation? The economy is a complex subject, but consider these facts:

Profits for the world’s oil and gas producers are set to double in 2022, to a new high of $4 trillion. President Biden has accused oil companies of keeping gas prices high while reaping windfall profits. Big businesses have taken advantage of the war in Ukraine and other market distortions to squeeze record profits from oil and gas, keeping prices much higher than they need to be.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has also brought a surge in food prices. Big businesses have played a crucial role in this as well. Profits at the world’s top grain traders have soared to record levels, sparking concerns about profiteering.

We lack workers to fill a range of jobs like longshoreman, truckers, warehouse workers, day care workers, senior retirement center workers, and nurses. This has exacerbated supply chain problems, resulting in companies bidding up the price of scarce supplies, and brought inflationary wage effects. Democrats would create a reasonable immigration plan, to help fill job openings and reduce economic distortions. The Republicans’ extreme anti-immigration position is itself part of the reason for the inflation that we are experiencing.

Republicans claim that a key to reducing inflation is to let oil companies drill anywhere they want and seize private land for pipelines. But oil markets are global, and much of such increased oil production would be headed overseas. In any case, oil companies are adept at finding ways to leverage economic conditions to pad their own profits and keep prices as high as they can.

Far from being the cause of inflation, the Biden Administration has taken bold strides to address it. A standout achievement has been the Inflation Reduction Act — which will lower household costs for health coverage, prescription drugs, home energy, and vehicles. This act also bolsters renewable energy, to help wean our nation from dependence on oil, its volatile pricing, and its dangers to the environment. Biden has meanwhile released 180 million barrels of oil from the strategic reserves, and gas prices have fallen significantly.

A Republican victory in Congress in the midterm elections could derail the Inflation Reduction Act and push inflation higher, by eliminating or weakening key provisions of that bill. Other favored Republican policies, like tax breaks for the wealthy, only exacerbate economic conditions for the rest of us.

We must not allow simplified political sloganeering to cloud our vision about our real economic challenges, and the crucial steps of progress that this Administration has set in motion. We must maintain those bold initiatives, for the sake of a better economic future.

Thom Krystofiak is a writer and software engineer in Fairfield. Stephen Harper is an entrepreneur in Fairfield.