Prices for fuel, new vehicles, parts, and food have all gone up far faster than American wages, spurring growing concerns that the nation’s economy could soon go into recession. Alabama’s Republican congressional members are blaming President Joseph R. Biden’s (D) handling of the economy for making inflation worse.
U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) joined Fox & Friends on Tuesday to discuss the impact of rising inflation and other topics.
“I was in Alabama all last weekend going around to restaurants and grocery stores. Inflation's out of control,” Tuberville said. “It's been growing for the last two years ever since he [Biden] took office.”
Tuberville blamed Biden’s energy policies on much of the climb in prices.
“Basically, if you compare it to being a football team, it'd be like playing without an offensive line, what we're doing, by not having fossil fuels," said Biden. "You can't do it. It's impossible to have a strong and growing economy without energy. Everything [in the Biden administration] is about throwing money at something, ‘that’ll fix it,’ but obviously it makes things worse.”
Congressman Mike Rogers (R-AL03) has also voiced his concerns about rising prices and the economy.
“Biden’s inflation means you’re paying a lot more for your 4th of July BBQ.,” said Rogers on social media. “Biden’s inflation is making life harder for all Americans. Inflation will only get worse as Biden continues to ignore the problem and drive up prices with socialist policies.”
Rogers referenced a CNN report showing that US consumer sentiment hit a new record low this month.
"Consumers across income, age, education, geographic region, political affiliation, stockholding and homeownership status all posted large declines," said Joanna Hsu, Surveys of Consumers director, in a statement. "About 79% of consumers expected bad times in the year ahead for business conditions, the highest since 2009."
Some 47% of consumers in the poll answered that inflation has adversely affected their quality of life.
Congressman Gary Palmer (R-AL06) said recently in a committee meeting that he is tired of the Biden administration not accepting the blame for the rising prices.
“I'm tired of the Biden administration putting blame on others for high energy prices,” Palmer said on social media. “Record-high prices are NOT the result of the pandemic, they are NOT the result of Putin, they are NOT the result of profits. These prices ARE the result of failed Biden policies.”
On June 10, President Biden said, “Look, folks, today I’d like to speak about my top economic priority: fighting inflation. I understand Americans are anxious, and they’re anxious with good reason. I was raised in a household when the price of gasoline rose precipitously, it was the discussion at the table. It made a difference when food prices went up. But we’ve never seen anything like Putin’s tax on both food and gas.
“Americans should also understand our economy has unique strengths that we can build on. The job market is the strongest it’s been since World War II, notwithstanding the inflation. We added another 390,000 jobs last month; 8,700,000 new jobs since I took office. An all-time record. Never that many jobs in that period of time. Unemployment rate is near historic lows. Millions of Americans are moving up to better jobs and better pay. And since I took office, families are carrying less debt on average in America. They have more savings than they’ve had. And we’re doing it all while cutting the federal deficit by $1.7 trillion this year and $320 billion last.”
Biden did not accept responsibility for the current state of the economy.
“If I hear one of my MAGA friends once again talk about debt and deficits, I’m going to — anyway — I’m going to be good,” Biden said. “They increased the deficit by $2 trillion. Anyway, that’s another story.”
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandon.moseley@1819News.com.
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