Inflation

DEMOCRATIC PARTY POSITION:

The Democratic Party is committed to policies providing for price stability and full employment. Working families are the backbone of the American economy and fiscal and monetary policies must combat inflation to protect our ability to support ourselves and our families.

Key elements of President Biden’s (and the Democratic Party) action plan to fight inflation have been the following:

• Passing the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, which included provisions to reduce prescription drug prices as well as help low-income households save money on clean energy, home retrofits, and transportation while building resilience to climate change and economic insecurity with benefits to small businesses to grow and create good-paying jobs in communities across America.
  
• Passing the CHIPS and Science Act to lower costs, secure supply chains, and boost American global leadership.
  
• Rolling back ineffective Trump-era tariffs.
  
• Help lower gas prices by coordinating policies with worldwide producers, encouraging domestic energy production and addressing periodic regional supply shortages.
  
• Help lower grain prices by coordinating policies with worldwide producers, especially given the supply disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine, a major grain world supplier.
  
• Continue to support independent actions taken by the Federal Reserve in managing the money supply and interest rates.
  
  
• REPUBLICANS IN FLORIDA:
  
  Republican obstructionism strategy has labeled any Democratic measure that will lower prices as “Socialism,” while failing to offer their own solutions to help family budgets. This policy position is ironic given the failure of Republican administrations to address major economic storms resulting from the financial crisis in 2008 and the pandemic in 2019 which resulted in the need to adopt sizeable economic rescue plans in each of those years and the following years when newly elected Democratic administrations had to lead and manage the country out of those major crises.

INFLATION BACKGROUND AND FACTS: The Covid-19 pandemic caused major global shutdowns of production capacity worldwide and disruptions in previously efficient supply chains. This led to a significant decrease in economic activity globally and to major shortages of foodstuffs and manufactured products. The economic shutdown led to emergency actions by governments worldwide, adopting aggressive fiscal aid programs, and central banks, who implemented aggressive expansionary monetary policies to maintain liquidity of markets and offset diminishing consumer demand.

The above rescue initiatives contributed to a global wave of unusually high inflation which has affected working class citizens in the United States and worldwide. Post-pandemic fiscal and monetary policies in the U.S. and worldwide are making significant progress in reducing rates of inflation.

GLOBAL FACTORS AFFECTING INFLATION:

• Covid-19 Pandemic workforce and production disruptions.
   
• Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) slowing production and ranking in profits.
   
• Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and resulting sanctions reducing oil and gas supply to Europe.
   
• Businesses are paying higher gas prices to ship and receive products that they pass along to you and me.