Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren may believe corporate greed is to blame for high inflation, but even President Joe Biden’s own White House economic advisers aren’t ready to substantiate that claim.
Apparently, members of the White House Council of Economic Advisers have been removing passages from congressional testimony where senior administration officials had planned to blame corporate consolidation for rising prices.
“It’s been the war of the ‘track changes’ inside the administration over how much the White House can lean in on the extent to which competition and greed are driving inflation,” a person briefed on White House dynamics told Jeff Stein.
While there is internal pushback against this “corporate greed” narrative to explain inflation, outside liberal groups are pushing the White House to adopt the line. The American Economic Liberties Project and the Groundwork Collaborative, both groups on the far Left, sent a letter to Biden asking him to make the case for a link between higher corporate profits and higher prices.
This is not the first time the Left has tested this message on inflation. In December, the progressive polling group Data for Progress tested 16 possible messages for Democrats to try on inflation, and “corporate greed” turned out to be the fourth-worst out of the 16.
The best message for Democrats on inflation, according to Data for Progress? Bring manufacturing home. Specifically, the message saying: “President Biden says that we need to bring back manufacturing jobs in the United States to drive down prices. Our supply chains need to be housed here at home, rather than outsourced abroad.”
That same Data for Progress poll also showed that most voters understand the link between higher government spending under Biden and higher inflation. Asked to name which option did they most associate with inflation, 24% of voters named “government overspending,” while just 13% said corporate price gouging.
Former President Barack Obama’s economic advisers have also acknowledged the link between Biden’s overspending and inflation.
The best thing Biden can do to stop inflation now is let his deficit-funded “Build Back Better” agenda stay dead.
