This is from the 2022 American Family Survey:
I wonder what Republicans really think about this? If they're serious about the cause not being spending bills passed by Congress (stimulus, CHIPS Act, infrastructure, the Inflation Reduction Act), what exactly is left to blame on "Biden administration policies"? It is a mystery.
Only 2% of Republicans think it was TFG Administration policies? Like COVID response had nothing to do with it?
The Kool=Aid is strong with those folks.
Republican voters believe what Fox News tells them to believe
Current headline on Fox News web page:
“Arrested looters in Lee County were in US illegally, says sheriff: 'Not tolerating it”
They just heard "Biden" and their brain synapses stopped firing and they gurgled "that one" to the pollster. I wouldn't take it too seriously. This is the group that most strongly thinks the president is a king and the entire government exists to do his bidding.
"thinks the president is a king"
Well, only if his last name is Trump.
The 10% of all Americans (21% of independents!) who said "none of the above" are the true know-nothing voters. I mean, Jesus. Everybody and their mother has been talking about inflation for the last year, and you have no opinion whatsoever about what caused it? Comatose patients have more awareness of the world around them.
i watch this every election cycle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAG37Kw1-aw&ab_channel=SaturdayNightLive
Some of the "none of the aboves" may be very smart people who know that "for every question there exists an answer that is neat, plausible, simple, and wrong". You can put me in the "none" category too. Economics generally, and inflation specifically, is far too complex for the simple answers to have any value. Further, the list of choices is far from exhaustive.
It don't see "Corporations raising prices because they can" on that list, so maybe that's what NOTA is reflection.
Also, I like how the responses excluded "Corporations are earning higher than normal profits by gouging consumers." I mean, that theory is just as valid in some sectors seeing record high profits lately... but of course, no survey conducted by Brigham Young University (or really any pollster that wants future work to come in) is going to impugn capitalism in any way.
I kinda wish we'd get a mean, snarky journalist once in a while. The copy that accompanies this stuff is always so anodyne and pointless, why not spice it up a bit?
"77% of the nation's fascists say they blame Biden. 11% blamed Obama, 7% blamed fractional reserve banking, and 3% ate the survey."
How to out yourself as an imbecile or political cult sheeple?
Blame Biden for inflation.
So it looks pretty accurate for 70% of the GOP.
How is Biden most responsible, in their view? By existing, by wearing a D, by continuing to pretend he's president, by not being trump.
Nobody who sees that litany of policy errors could deny it.
It's a waste of time talking to Republicans about any policy issues. They don't care about such things. If inflation disappeared tomorrow morning, they'd hate Biden & every other Democrat for some other reason.
I'm puzzled by this. First of all, I was personally shocked that the economy was able to absorb the trillions thrown at it by Bush, Obama, and Trump without significant inflation. Especially with what seemed like artificially low interest rates in the midst of decent economies. So, I personally wouldn't blame only Biden as he's just following course.
However, you guys can't really be confused as to why Biden is being blamed by Republicans, can you? Many had pointed out that dousing more money on the economy would be a bad thing (not saying they were right, not saying anything other than that they were saying it) as inflation was already rearing. So, the idea that they'd blame the fact that inflation has gotten worse AFTER more money isn't shocking, is it?
Also, and I know my opinions aren't appreciated, but you've gotta be honest with yourselves. Many people on this site have been arguing that inflation isn't coming, isn't here, is leaving now... I mean, it's been a slow motion train wreck of recognition for some of you.
I get that some of you are extremely well versed in economics (much more so than I am) and that your charts say this and your theories say that, but it's all irrelevant to facts. And facts are inflation is a thing. No amount of reasoning will change that. Economics is theory, not science.
Inflation is happening world wide, so it seems to me that blaming it on one country's fiscal policies is a stretch. The cause of the current inflation appears to be really simple; it was covid.
I hear what you're saying. My counter to that (although, honestly, whatever. I don't pretend to be an economist) is that we're the BSD, so what we do will impact others, but not necessarily the other way around. Also, I wouldn't pretend to know the fiscal policy of other countries, but my knee jerk reaction is that they were also very, very loose.
The US, as far as I'm aware, was the only major country to basically send everyone a no-strings-attached check to support them during Covid, in *addition* to the PPP loan program, which was probably the most fraud-riddled boondoggle in American history, even as it no doubt helped a lot of small businesses. What most European countries did was essentially some version of our PPP loan scheme -- essentially pay businesses to keep people on the payroll even if they were locked down at home. But they still got nailed by supply chain issues and the energy shock from the Ukraine war.
"PPP loan program, which was probably the most fraud-riddled boondoggle in American history"
I think we have common ground! haha.
The Euro block is, economically, bigger than the US.
To clarify. Totally agree on "it was covid" with the caveat being that we needed to be loose, but were probably too loose with money during (and after) covid. Also, we were so low on interest rates pre-covid that we were always in for a reckoning when we inevitably raised them - I'm sure that we can both agree that was definitely Biden's fault.
😉 haha.
quick,
As law pointed out, world wide inflation points to something other than US fiscal policy.
I actually think your opinions are appreciated. But one problem for any conservative these days is that official conservative policy, via Trump and Fox News and whomever else, is basically that the election was stolen and liberals are evil. Anyone who doesn't believe that is a bit touchy these days, for good reason.
Anyway, I think this round of inflation is actually due to (a) gasoline prices, which went up and are now down, of which no US president can do much other than get the fleet electrified as soon as possible, and (b) the by now two year stretch of wage increases, which of course was caused by people dropping out of the workforce due to covid and some not coming back.
Neither of which can be addressed by any politician.
No stimulus package, either by itself or cumulatively, was anywhere near enough to cause any person to change their spending habits enough to drive 8% year on year inflation.
Only in economic theory.
@Yikes
I appreciate the comment in more ways than one. haha. Personally, I draw a big distinction between conservatives and Republicans, what what're ya gonna do?
It is funny to hear you say "the election was stolen and liberals are evil. Anyone who doesn't believe that is a bit touchy these days" because I feel the same way about some of my beliefs. haha. It's such a lazy argument to say that people are "evil" and leave it at that. I feel like it's pretty common on both sides of the aisle (and everywhere else) nowadays.
I patiently wait for the middle to unite and cast away the extremes on both wings. We'll see... haha.
And I hear what you're saying about no stimulus package being enough to change spending habits, but prices change on the incremental, marginal change. If one person is selling a Mickey Mantle card, the prices inflate. If thousands are selling a Mickey Mantle card, the prices deflate. If money's quits moving, it doesn't take much for inflation.
My thought is if Elon Musk tried to liquidate. No way he'd actually get 250 billion (holy smokes, had no idea it was that high! haha) because he'd flood the market with Tesla stock and the price would drop like a rock. There's not $250 billion on the other side of that transaction. However, if only a small sliver of the pie gets sold, there's enough on the other side to make the entire pie look like it's worth that much.
It wasn't but a couple of years ago that they were literally paying people to take oil so they wouldn't to store it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/business/oil-prices.html
The totality of oil didn't have a negative worth then and the totality of oil probably isn't worth what we're paying marginally now, but that's how price is set. I REALLY don't think I'm explaining myself well, but I think I know what I'm trying to say? haha
The deficit has gone down since Biden has been President. Republicans will tell you deficit spending causes inflation except of course during Republican Presidential years. One can argue that the last stimulus package had an inflationary affect. It probably had a small affect but as Kevin's charts show the affect of that has since evaporated. Yes inflation is real but that doesn't mean that just any explanation for continuing inflation makes sense.
Rampant Republican spending is one of the reasons that I haven't voted for a Republican since I can't remember when...
"Yes inflation is real but that doesn't mean that just any explanation for continuing inflation makes sense." I agree with this statement, but the only real reason I can think of is the money supply increasing. My overly simplistic view of life tells me:
We had a bunch of people sitting at home for a long time and getting money for it. You can't create something from nothing and the bill is eventually going to land somewhere. To me, it looks like inflation is eroding our "worth" to pay for it. (As you might guess, I have no proof for my hunch. haha)
It's quite simple. It's part of the standard talking points. Always be campaigning.
"Joe Biden's policies are the reason for ".
I meant to say: reason for "insert bad thing".
With a little help from his bestie Snowball, of course.
The person in office gets the blame / or takes credit for the economy, regardless of any policies which may have contributed to such events. It would be nice to hear some GOP policy ideas to fix the problem, besides more tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, all unfunded. Perhaps they should try good old fashion wage and price controls, just like Nixon tried in the 1970's. I'm sure the current MAGA infested GOP would just love that.
Biden could have lifted Trump's tariffs, but didn't. Hard to see a lot more Biden could have done about inflation, so I guess that must be why Republicans blame him.
I’m pretty sure Inflation was caused by:
1) spending on handouts for caravans of (eventual-liberal-voting) immigrants
2) middle eastern wars caused by Democratic cowardice (Bengazi 4ever!) or our cut-n-run in Afghanistan/Iraq/whateverStan
3) welfare queens in Cadillacs buying lobster with food stamps?
4) crime wave due to BlackLivesMattering
If we asked low-information “liberals,” what light we get? Inflation caused by global warming, racism and sexism?
I guess that means all Republicans are low information?
I wonder how they think he caused 10% inflation in the EU and the UK?
Congress passed the spending bills Biden asked them to pass. In fact Biden wanted more spending. So why doesn't it make sense to believe that the Biden administration was the most responsible?
"...what exactly is left to blame on 'Biden administration policies'?"
Everything.
They stubbed their toe, Biden's fault.
It's raining, Biden's fault.
They'd praise Trump for the sun and blame Biden for the moon.
Plus I'd offer an opinion that "Biden policies" is vague enough for them to map any grievance onto. It would have been good to follow that up with "which ones?"
There's really no other conclusion: Republicans are terminally stupid, ill-informed, envious dweebs. Who are usually also polite, for some reason.
Sigh. 'Inflation' is a reification; not a thing in and of itself. Do doctors treat the 'heats'? Of course not. While recognizing the symptom they also justifiably classify it as an epiphenomenon; fever could be the result of poisoning, animal bites or stings, viral/bacterial infection, etc.
That's my rant for the day, and incidentally, why the social science of economics is still in its formative stage: it has yet to identify the true primitives, which are almost certainly not earth, air, fire, and water.