Instead, before he had even stepped on the plane, the President was once again confronted by an avalanche of alarming news that encapsulated how his inability to solve the nation’s most pressing problems is deeply worrying to Democrats seven months before the midterm elections.
And while the Iowa trip, in theory, offered the President a chance to celebrate the bright spots in the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, such as the dramatic drop in unemployment, he was dealt a blow by a crushing inflation report released Tuesday.
The GOP is already wielding inflation as a sledgehammer to weaken Democrats heading into the midterm elections as it argues that Biden and congressional Democrats aggravated the problem with the huge injection of pandemic-related stimulus funds into the economy in 2021.
“The Federal Reserve and the Administration failed to act fast enough,” the West Virginia Democrat said in a statement Tuesday. “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.” One piece of the solution, he argued, was for Biden and members of Congress to adopt an “all-the-above” energy policy to lower the price of gasoline and energy in order to make America energy independent from Russia and “other terror-sponsoring countries.”
Biden seeks to shift blame to Putin for gas price hikes
“It’s not going to solve all our problems, but it’s going to help some people,” Biden said, acknowledging that E15 is currently available at only a few thousand pumps. “I’m committed to (doing) whatever I can to help, even if it’s an extra buck or two in the pockets when they fill up.”
With a focus on rural America — even standing on a hay-covered stage to illustrate his message — Biden also touted improvements made possible by the bipartisan infrastructure bill that will shore up structurally deficient bridges, expand access to high-speed internet and “help connect entire towns and regions to new opportunities.”
He ended with a plea for optimism, noting that America is the only nation on Earth that has “come out of every major crisis stronger than when we went in,” and asked his audience to go out and help “spread the faith.”
A struggle to fulfill other campaign promises that affect Americans’ daily lives
But polls have consistently shown that many Americans do not share the President’s optimism at the moment and are likely to be in a punishing mood when they go to the polls in November.
While inflation and crime are their top concerns this election season, Biden continues to face frustrating challenges in other areas that he had pledged to fix, from America’s escalating crisis with drug overdose deaths to the unpredictable trajectory of the pandemic.
The White House had also hoped that the Covid-19 pandemic would be in the rearview mirror long before this point. But Biden is facing a mixed picture on that front as cases are rising again in 25 states, while falling in 16 and holding steady in nine others.
But those views have raised concerns that more Americans may let their guard down even though the virus remains a threat. And Biden’s experience from last July Fourth — when he said he hoped the nation could soon celebrate independence from the pandemic — drove home the hard lesson that even amid a strong desire to turn the page, the President may always be one new variant away from being drawn back into an intractable crisis. It remains to be seen whether voters will give Biden the credit he seeks for progress in rolling back the pandemic — or how much that issue will even matter by the time the election rolls around.
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