Sen. Joe Manchin said Tuesday that President Biden's administration and the Federal Reserve need to step up in the fight against inflation.
The scathing statement from Manchin, D-W.Va., comes after he was the loudest intra-party critic of the Biden administration's handling of the problem for months. But the president and the Federal Reserve haven't done enough to deal with inflation, Manchin said, as it reached a new 40-year high Tuesday with the consumer price index up 8.5% from March 2021 to last month.
"When will this end? It is a disservice to the American people to act as if inflation is a new phenomenon. The Federal Reserve and the administration failed to act fast enough, and today’s data is a snapshot in time of the consequences being felt across the country," Manchin said. "Instead of acting boldly, our elected leaders and the Federal Reserve continue to respond with half-measures and rhetorical failures searching for where to lay the blame.
The White House initially dismissed inflation last year as "transitory" before it continued to surge into late 2021 and 2022. It also said inflation was a sign of a good economy at times. White House chief of staff Ron Klain retweeted a post that dismissed inflation as a "high class problem," although the White House eventually began acknowledging its effect on average Americans.President Joe Biden waves as he exits Air Force One on Oct. 5, 2021, in Lansing, Michigan.
Reached for comment Tuesday, Manchin's office did not detail Tuesday what specific legislative proposals on inflation he could support in Congress this year. Manchin said in an interview with Politico last month he could support a bill that narrowly addresses tax reform, prescription drug reform and climate change.
"The inflation number today is only the beginning unless we take immediate action to address the pain being felt across our nation," Manchin said. "This is one problem facing the American people that one political party alone cannot fix. The American people cannot wait any longer."
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