Sen. Romney, in his weekly letter to constituents, blames Biden for ignoring inflation. Inflation is currently a world-wide problem, caused by a combination of factors: COVID-19 and its deleterious effects on the global supply chain, Russia’s war on Ukraine which has disrupted gas and wheat supplies, rising consumer demand as our economy improves and employment has risen to pre-pandemic levels, corporate consolidation which offers consumers fewer choices and gives corporations the power to raise prices, with impunity, even when there is no reason to do so, except greed.
During the pandemic, refining companies reduced their capacity. Now they are upping their capacity, at Biden’s urging, but demand still exceeds supply. The president is releasing, for six months, one million barrels of oil daily from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. He signed legislation aimed at cutting overseas shipping prices. But the president has limited options; the bulk of the work is up to Congress. Biden has urged passage of legislation to lower prescription drug and health care costs, to help farmers boost domestic food production, to lower the costs of child care and long-term care and to invest in building affordable homes via tax credits. Unfortunately, in large part due to GOP intransigence, such bills are not being passed.
Biden is not ignoring inflation, as Romney disingenuously states. He is doing what he can – although he could better use the bully pulpit. Meanwhile, Romney and GOP senators offer no plan, that I can see, to address the causes of inflation. Sen. Romney, what are your proposed solutions?
Rochelle Kaplan, Cottonwood Heights
