National Review

Op-Ed: Sen. Rick Scott

November 15, 2021

This summer, I heard from a mother of four in Wauchula, Fla. She reached out to talk about the rising cost of groceries and gas and how much trouble she was having. Hearing from this mom made me immediately think of my own mom and how much she struggled just to put food on the table for our family when I was a kid.

Of course, at the same time that I heard from this hardworking mother in Wauchula, the “experts” in Washington, including President Joe Biden and Federal Reserve chairman Jay Powell, were still trying to convince themselves (and the American public) that inflation was just temporary. “Transitory,” they called it. They were wrong. And they have only themselves to blame for the suffering they’ve caused for American families.

Since August, Biden’s inflation crisis has only grown worse. The South Florida Sun Sentinel recently ran an article with the headline: “Gas prices hit their highest level since 2014. When will we get a break?” Government reports show inflation jumped to a 31-year high of 6.2 percent over the year in October. Companies across the nation are warning of even more price increases. And now, we’re seeing Biden’s supply-chain crisis add empty shelves to the problem.

Here’s what’s clear: Biden’s inflation crisis isn’t transitory. It’s sticky. Trends don’t lie. With inflation surging higher every month of Biden’s presidency, we can’t allow the president and his economic advisers to continue ignoring the obvious.

Sticky inflation is dangerous because it has the ability to completely upend the American economy. It has a domino effect. Think about it like this. Frivolous government spending causes prices to go up. Then income doesn’t go as far as it once did. When income stops being enough to afford rent, groceries, and other necessities, you have to ask your employer for a raise. When everyone requests higher wages, companies are forced to raise prices. It’s a cycle. Prices go up. Costs go up. Wages go up. Prices go back up and the cycle restarts.

What I’m describing here is a downward spiral that hurts families and businesses and kills our economy. The buying power of American families, such as that family from Wauchula, is devastated. We know that, even if wages increase, they won’t do so at the same rate as inflation, so the dollar is doing less and less. And it all starts with reckless government spending and burdensome regulations.

Now, in theory, rising inflation should cause people to go back to work to keep up with rising prices. Not in Joe Biden’s America. The president’s failed socialist policies of excessive handouts and unconstitutional vaccine mandates have driven people out of jobs at the very moment when we need employment to rise.

We cannot overstate how disastrous this combination of low employment and high inflation will be for our nation. The White House likes to say that this disaster is just a “high-class problem,” to quote Ron Klain’s endorsement of one economist’s callous assessment. But as someone who grew up in a poor family during a time of rising prices and inflation, I know that inflation hurts poor families the most. I saw my mom struggle with it. Those on low and fixed incomes are the ones who are left hungry — not those on Wall Street, in corporate America, or dare I say, working in halls of Congress or the White House.

Of course, instead of tackling the problem head-on, Biden continues to act like everything is just fine. Even as American families begin to see more and more empty shelves, Biden and his administration do nothing.

When I was elected governor of Florida, I made sure my administration immediately got to work to turn the state’s sinking economy around. That’s how you behave when you take office — you have to actually do something about the problems that families are facing. So far, Joe Biden’s administration has done nothing to change course.

Supposed “leaders” such as commerce secretary Gina Raimondo and transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg need to realize that their position isn’t just an opportunity to be a media pundit — they need to actually do their jobs. I’ve called on them to appear before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee to explain what they’re doing to alleviate this crisis. But I’ve heard nothing in response. The American people deserve better.

If we’re going to find a way out of this problem, America is going to have to change course.

No more unconstitutional vaccine mandates that exempt Congress but punish private business. No more reckless government spending to fuel Biden’s inflation fire. Let’s take our debt seriously. Let’s stop raising taxes and start being responsible with our budget. Let’s get rid of government waste and cut the regulations that are causing bottlenecks in our supply chains. And let’s end the campaign against energy independence.

We can get out of this mess. But President Biden has to actually start caring about the economy.

RICK SCOTT is the junior U.S. senator from Florida. He served as Florida’s governor from 2011 to 2019.

Read more: https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/11/in-bidens-sticky-inflation-crisis-poor-families-suffer-the-most/