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Responding to the worst inflation in 40 years, the US chief has caught with blaming Russia
US President Joe Biden on Friday blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the document fuel costs and 40-year-high inflation at present rocking the US. Amid dismal polling figures, Biden insisted that his administration is trying to curb runaway prices.
Talking on the Port of Los Angeles, Biden touted his administration’s efforts to ease supply-chain backlogs and known as on Congress to crack down on world delivery corporations that he claimed had unfairly jacked up their costs for the reason that Covid-19 pandemic.
Nonetheless, his speech got here hours after the Bureau of Labor Statistics launched a grim report exhibiting that shopper costs soared 8.6% in Could from 12 months earlier, the best fee of inflation since 1981. Meals and gasoline costs rose by considerably greater than 8.6%, with fuel rising by almost 50% since final yr, and reaching document highs in June.
Biden tried responsible Putin for these prices specifically.
“Immediately’s inflation report confirms what People already know. Putin’s worth hike is hitting America arduous,” he declared. Insisting that the US job market is “the strongest it’s been since World Warfare II,” Biden repeated “we’ve by no means seen something like Putin’s tax on meals and fuel.”
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Regardless of Biden’s assertions, the US inflation fee has risen sharply since Biden took workplace final January, hovering from a median of 1.4% in December 2020 to 7% in December 2021, two months earlier than Russia’s army operation in Ukraine started. Gasoline costs additionally rose from a median of $2.28 per gallon in December 2020 to $3.40 a yr later.
Biden’s conservative critics have blamed his administration’s aggressive spending for driving inflation upwards, and his anti-fossil gas insurance policies – together with bans on new drilling leases and a shutdown of the Canada-US Keystone XL pipeline throughout his first week in workplace – for elevating gas prices. Biden has additionally embargoed Russian oil and fuel imports, which accounted for a small share of the US’ imports.
Some 71% of People disagree with Biden’s dealing with of inflation, in keeping with an ABC Information ballot launched final weekend. Moreover, the ballot discovered that inflation and the economic system rank highest among the many points voters think about “extraordinarily essential,” and that inflation is the “single most essential problem” for extra voters than some other problem.
Biden stated on Friday that his administration’s efforts to decrease prescription drug costs and high-speed web prices would save working households some cash, though the president conceded that these financial savings wouldn’t make up for elevated gas prices.
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