US President Joe Biden reacted to Friday’s Consumer Price Index report revealing continued high inflation, promising that fighting inflation is his “top economic priority” while also blaming the continued high prices on Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
“Even as we continue our work to defend freedom in Ukraine, we must do more—and quickly—to get prices down here in the United States,” Biden said in a statement.
After releasing the statement, Biden made remarks at the Port of Los Angeles, where he was pausing from a regional summit to address inflation.
“Even as we continue our work to defend freedom in Ukraine, we must do more — and quickly — to get prices down here in the United States,” Biden said in a statement.
“Today’s inflation report confirms what Americans already know. Putin’s price hike is hitting Americans hard,” he said.
Biden used similar language in a released statement:
“Putin’s Price Hike hit hard in May here and around the world: high gas prices at the pump, energy, and food prices accounted for around half of the monthly price increases, and gas pump prices are up by $2 a gallon in many places since Russian troops began to threaten Ukraine,” according to the statement.
He also called out oil and gas companies in the statement and urged them not to take “excessive profit.”
“Prices at the pump are a major part of inflation, and the war in Ukraine is a major cause of that. The United States is on track to produce a record amount of oil next year, and I am working with the industry to accelerate this output. But it is also important that the oil and gas and refining industries in this country not use the challenge created by the war in Ukraine as a reason to make things worse for families with excessive profit taking or price hikes,” Biden said in the statement.
And after he concluded his speech in Los Angeles, Biden went after major US oil companies for not helping bring down the price of gas.
“We’re going to make sure everyone knows Exxon’s profits,” he said. “Exxon made more money than God last year,” he said.
He criticized the companies for not using the thousands of acres of land where they already have leases to drill more oil.
“They’re not drilling,” he said. “Why aren’t [they] drilling? Because they make more money not producing more oil. The price goes up, number one. And number two, the reason they’re not drilling is they’re buying back their own stock, buying back their own stock, and making no new investments.”
Biden also asked Congress to pass legislation to help Americans struggling with higher prices.
“I call on Congress to pass a bill to cut shipping costs this month, and get it to my desk, so we can lower the price of goods,” Biden said in the statement.
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