Brilliant insight you can only get from a Biden alumnus.
With one week left before voters deliver what political observers believe could be a historic rebuke of the GOP, the Washington Post advises readers to temper their expectations of the Democratic Party. “If voters expect a new Democratic Congress to bring down prices,” Post reporter David Lynch warns, “they will probably be disappointed.”
Although prominent Democrats have solicited voters’ support by promising to focus on “affordability,” Democratic majorities in one or both chambers of Congress will find their hands tied. “There is nothing the next Congress can do about the level of prices,” said Barack Obama’s former chief economic adviser Jason Furman.
Furman suggests that the Democratic Party’s conundrum stems from a lack of authority. But Lynch says that it’s a matter of will, too — or, perhaps, a prudent lack thereof.
“Even if they win control of the House and Senate on Nov. 3, there’s little chance Democrats could terminate the war and end Trump’s tariffs over his opposition,” the author contends, “or would want to derail the AI boom.”
The subtext of Lynch’s piece is clear: It’s not only wise to expect that Democrats will suddenly abandon the enthusiasm they’ve evinced this year for pausing data-center construction or throttling the AI industry with a regulatory garrote. The AI boom is, after all, the foremost driver of domestic economic growth. If that’s correct, Lynch might have spared some of the opprobrium he heaped on Donald Trump for failing to meet his own affordability promises for Democrats who are right now — at practically this very moment — misleading voters about their stance on this issue.
The same could be said of the rising energy and transportation costs, which are attributable to the fallout surrounding the unresolved Iran War. Lynch doesn’t address why Democrats will probably decline to roll back Trump’s war-making powers — cutting off funding for the blockade or sorties over Iran, for example — so this one also belongs in the “won’t” column. And for good reason.
Elementary logic would lead observers who are not besotted with partisan fervor to question precisely how it is that withdrawing the blockade on Iranian ports would lead to lower energy prices. More likely, withdrawing U.S. assets from the region would give Iran a free hand to control access to the strait and toll its traffic, imposing a significant premium on global energy and signaling to America’s enemies worldwide that the time to test their luck is now.
Only the president’s tariff powers and the upward pressure his manic-depressive relationship with trade barriers is putting on prices seem to be truly outside congressional Democrats’ reach. Since the Supreme Court weighed in on the matter, Lynch observes, “the powers that Trump uses to impose tariffs do not require congressional approval.”
While the Post set out to prime the public for disappointment, its report focuses more on explaining why prices are high and why voters don’t appreciate that. There’s even a handful of supporting quotes. For example: “There’s no question in my mind that what’s driving folks nuts is not inflation, it’s the level of prices,” said Joe Biden’s economic adviser Jared Bernstein. That’s the kind of insight you can only get from a Biden alumnus.
But he has a point. “People eventually acclimate to the price level,” Bernstein concluded. So, what is the remedy for an overheated economy in which wages are rising but not fast enough to keep up with the demand for — and, therefore, the cost of — goods? Lynch has a one-word answer: “Time.”
Funny. That’s what Trump’s been saying.