During Monday’s press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that President Biden will “absolutely” discuss inflation during his first State of the Union address.
A reporter noted that Biden administration officials said earlier that day that Biden will be discussing his Build Back Better plan during the address, but that the officials were “hesitant to use the word ‘inflation’ or say whether that would be addressed directly in the President’s speech.”
“So can you say whether the President will be addressing any new policies — not necessarily new domestic programs but policies that would address inflation directly?” the reporter asked.
“The President will absolutely use the word ‘inflation’ tomorrow, and he will talk about inflation in his speech. Of course, that is a huge issue on the minds of Americans,” Psaki responded.
She then discussed actions the Biden administration believes will help alleviate the inflation crisis, including passing Biden’s Build Back Better plan.
“So I would expect that you will hear a lot, the American people will hear a lot about how he’s going to lower their costs, how he’s going to build — continue to build a strong economy over the long term,” Psaki concluded.
Last month, annual inflation hit 7.5%, the highest level in 40 years. This resulted in the real wages of Americans decreasing by 1.7% from January 2021 to January 2022.
Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin (WV) effectively killed Biden’s Build Back Better Act in December after announcing his concerns over the cost of the $2 trillion bill. Manchin later explained that the bill would worsen the inflation crisis.
Manchin said that inflation is “draining the hard-earned wages of every American” and “causing real and severe economic pain that can no longer be ignored.”
“It’s beyond time for the Federal Reserve to tackle this issue head on, and Congress and the Administration must proceed with caution before adding more fuel to an economy already on fire,” he added.
