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consumer price index
Dems in Congress Vow to Fight 'Inflationary Policies' of Trump
"Make no mistake: imposing new tariffs, mass deportations, and politicizing the Federal Reserve will lead to skyrocketing prices," said the Joint Economic Committee chair.
Nov 13, 2024
Leading Democratic lawmakers used new federal inflation data on Wednesday to renew their warnings about the economic threat posed by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and pledge to keep fighting for working America—despite minorities in Congress.
"Democrats continue to fight to lower costs, and we saw promising signs last month that the cost of energy, groceries, and new vehicles stabilized. But with President-elect Trump in office, the reality for Americans' finances will become bleak," said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), chair of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC).
Throughout Trump's campaign against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, JEC Democrats released reports warning about Project 2025, a sweeping far-right policy plan for the next Republican president. Although Trump tried at times to distance himself from the Heritage Foundation-led initiative, it was crafted by at least 140 people who served in his first administration—and since Election Day, there have been clear signals from the president-elect's allies that "yeah actually Project 2025 is the agenda."
Heinrich said that "Trump and Republicans have led Americans to believe that their policies will lower costs, but make no mistake: imposing new tariffs, mass deportations, and politicizing the Federal Reserve will lead to skyrocketing prices. And that's only a sample of the inflationary policies Republicans have laid out in their Project 2025 playbook."
"Democrats have built a strong economy with smart policies that empower workers, grow the middle class, and lower costs for families. Meanwhile, Trump's policies will only help his CEO friends and ultimately lead to a weaker economy," he continued. "Democrats' commitment to families will not end because of a new Trump administration. We'll continue fighting to ease the financial burdens on families and ensure everyone across the country feels relief."
"American families cannot afford more Republican 'trickle-down' economics that throws the middle class under the bus while slashing taxes for billion-dollar corporations."
Congressman Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, responded similarly to the consumer price index (CPI) data on Wednesday, declaring, "Make no mistake: Trump's tariffs are taxes by another name—and it is hard-working American families who will pay the price."
"While today's report continues to show the progress we've made under the Biden-Harris administration, CEOs are already talking about raising prices for consumers in response to Trump's tax hikes," Boyle noted.
NPRreported last week that "forecasters at Pantheon Macroeconomics project that a 10% tariff would increase inflation by about 0.8 percentage points next year and impose an additional drag on U.S. manufacturers." Companies warning of price hikes if Trump's tariffs are implemented include AutoZone, Columbia Sportswear, and Stanley Black & Decker.
"I am deeply concerned that Trump's plans will force Americans to pay higher prices for everything from clothing to groceries," Boyle said. "American families cannot afford more Republican 'trickle-down' economics that throws the middle class under the bus while slashing taxes for billion-dollar corporations."
Steven Mnuchin, Trump's former treasury secretary, recently toldCNBC that tariffs, sanctions on Iran, and tax cuts will be top issues for Trump—despite Congressional Budget Office analysis that extending tax cuts the Republican passed in his first term to serve wealthy individuals and corporations would add $4.6 trillion to the national deficit.
"The top priority is extending the Trump tax cuts and the signature part of his program. I think that should be easy to pass in Congress, particularly if the Republicans control the House as well," Mnuchin said last week. Since then, decision desks have confirmed Republicans will retain their House majority, in addition to seizing control of the Senate and Oval Office.
Senate Republicans elected Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) as their next leader on Wednesday, just hours after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that, as expected, the CPI increased 0.2% in October and prices grew 2.6% over the last year. Economists said the data means the Federal Reserve will likely cut interest rates again next month.
Trump is set to be inaugurated in January and has suggested he may try to oust Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whom he appointed in 2017, despite legal barriers. Powell—who has faced criticism from some economists and progressive lawmakers for holding off on rate cuts for so long, at the expense of the working class—seems prepared to fight for his job.
As Fortunereported Monday:
During a news briefing on Thursday after the Fed cut rates, Powell was asked if he would resign if Trump demanded it, and Powell simply replied "no." Later he was asked if he thought a president has the authority to fire or demote a Fed chair or other Fed official in a leadership post, and Powell said, "Not permitted under the law."
That exchange prompted Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) to post on X, "The executive branch should be under the direction of the president. That's how the Constitution was designed. The Federal Reserve is one of many examples of how we've deviated from the Constitution in that regard. Yet another reason why we should #EndTheFed.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk... then reposted it with a "100" emoji that indicates strong support.
Amid a wave of Cabinet picks, Trump announced Tuesday that Musk—the world's richest person and a leading supporter of his campaign—and fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the not-yet-created Department of Government Efficiency, which will work to "dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies."
As Common Dreamsreported, Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the watchdog group Public Citizen, responded to the news by warning that "'cutting red tape' is shorthand for getting rid of the safeguards that protect us in order to benefit corporate interests."
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Watchdog Says the Fed, Not Inflation, Is Now the 'Biggest Threat' to the US Economy
"The Fed's continued high interest rates saddle people with debt, lock them out of the housing market, and threaten their jobs," said Rakeen Mabud of the Groundwork Collaborative.
Aug 14, 2024
The top economist at a progressive watchdog organization said Wednesday that the Federal Reserve has supplanted inflation as the greatest danger to the U.S. economy after new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the Consumer Price Index fell below 3% last month—the first time it has done so since 2021.
"Inflation is no longer the biggest threat to the economy, the Fed is," said Groundwork Collaborative chief economist Rakeen Mabud, citing the central bank's persistent refusal to cut interest rates in the face of glaring warning signs throughout the U.S. economy, from the worsening housing crisis to slowing job growth. Housing costs accounted for "nearly 90% of the monthly increase" in consumer prices, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"The Fed's continued high interest rates saddle people with debt, lock them out of the housing market, and threaten their jobs," Mabud said Wednesday. "The Federal Reserve should hold an emergency meeting and cut rates immediately."
The Fed's current target interest rate range is at a 23-year high of 5.25% to 5.5%, where it has been kept for the past 12 months despite mounting calls for rate cuts from progressive lawmakers and economists as inflation continues to decline from its peak of 9.1% in June 2022.
"The Federal Reserve made a massive mistake in not cutting rates in July."
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, said in a statement Wednesday that "the evidence is clear: Inflation is falling and wages are rising."
"It's past time for the Fed to secure this progress and begin lowering interest rates," Boyle added.
The next official two-day meeting of the Fed's policy-setting panel, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), is scheduled for September 17-18. After Wednesday's inflation reading, the central bank is widely expected to enact a small rate cut at its September meeting, which will be held less than two months before the presidential election.
Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has openly warned Powell against cutting rates prior to the election, apparently fearing the move would help Democrats.
Democratic lawmakers, for their part, have argued that a failure to cut rates "would indicate that the Fed is giving in to bullying" and "succumbing to political threats," as Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) put it in a
letter to Powell last month.
In an op-ed for Common Dreams last week, Mabud of the Groundwork Collaborative wrote that "the Federal Reserve made a massive mistake in not cutting rates in July."
"Powell himself has admitted that interest rate hikes can't tackle the supply-side issues at the root of today's inflation," Mabud wrote. "And now the data are clear that he is taking the economy to the brink, despite low inflation and rising unemployment."
"Making people walk an economic tightrope is not the path forward to a healthy economy," she added. "The Fed has a dual mandate to maintain stable prices and full employment. It's time for the Fed to take that mandate seriously and make a large and immediate emergency rate cut."
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The Crassness of the Class Struggle Continues
The oligarchy must be challenged or American workers and their families will never live in the kind of nation they deserve.
Jun 26, 2024
U.S. oligarchs representing the profanely rich have distracted millions of working people from the root cause of their economic burdens.
This crassness blames minorities, immigrants, labor unions, women’s healthcare advocates, “big government,” “the deep state” and LGBTQ+ demographics as scapegoats.
Rather, the root cause is precisely the economic dominance of those oligarchs. Their immense economic power allows them to manipulate and exploit working people while bloating their income and wealth gains to shocking levels of financial gluttony.
U.S. oligarchs fund a vast network (Hillary Clinton, a neocon corporate Democrat was right about that one) of multifarious organizations from national to local levels. This network peddles misrepresentations, oversimplifications, and fabrications to indoctrinate working people against their own interests. Unfortunately, so far it is widely successful.
The preponderance of working people in our country shows that they have the numbers to create a powerful political opposition to the present corporate agenda.
This indoctrination is a concocted stew based on fear of the imaginary villains above. It is past time for this detritus to be refuted and replaced by progressive policies as polls show to be the views of the majority of the American people.
However, beneath this crassness is a foundational struggle.
It is the class struggle.
It is an integral component of our economic model. Without a class struggle, our economic model does not exist.
Notable progressives are chronically baffled that the Biden administration’s economic accomplishments do not resonant with working people. Perhaps it is because the actual numbers contradict their obeisance to the corporate Democratic Party.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) cites the unemployment rate and consumer price index as the two most salient indicators of the economy for working people.
Unemployment
According to adjusted sources, the actual unemployment rate is profoundly different from the standard BLS numbers.
The Ludwig Institute of Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP) reported a more accurate rate of unemployment. It measures the percentage of the U.S. labor force that does not have a full-time job (35+ hours a week) but wants one, has no job, or does not earn a living wage, conservatively pegged at $20,000 annually before taxes.
LISEP reported in February that the unemployment rate in March was 24.2 percent. The BLS reported rate was 3.9 percent.
LISEP reported this May that the unemployment rate in April was 24.2 percent. The BLS reported rate was 3.9 percent.
Shadow Government Statistics (SGS) reports an Alternate Unemployment Rate that reflects a methodology adjusted for the significant portion of "discouraged workers" defined away in 1994 during the Clinton Administration. Those identified on the BLS U-6 index for more than one year were inexplicably removed.
SGS updated their exhaustive monthly Alternate Unemployment Rate tables in March 2024.
SGS reported that the January 2024 unemployment rate was 25.70 percent. The BLS reported rate was 3.7 percent.
SGS reported that the February 2024 unemployment rate 25.80 percent. The BLS reported rate was 3.9 percent.
Another more accurate measure of unemployment or underemployment is provided by Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE). It records household essentials for families. In 2021, their index reported 41 percent of U.S. households were below the ALICE Threshold of Poverty; 29 percent of ALICE households earned just above the federal poverty level. By ALICE’s definition 70 percent of working families are living with economic adversity.
The other component of our economic model that strains working people but rarely discussed is “economic anxiety.”
Together they provide a compelling answer that confounds many pundits who fail to recognize the actual objective conditions of our economic model.
Consumer Price Index
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the other standard measure reported by the BLS.
Comparing the standard CPI numbers with adjusted numbers from other economic organizations offers another explanation as to why working people are not extolling the Biden administration’s economic numbers.
LISEP calculates an adjusted True Living Cost (TLC). The TLC measures the basics: housing, food, healthcare, childcare, transportation, basic technology, miscellaneous personal care, and household items.
LISEP reported a 7.8 percent cost increase from 2021 to 2022.
The BLS reported a rate of 6.5 percent.
More troubling is a LISEP report in October 2023 showing that 38.1 percent of American families and over 44 percent of families with children could not meet their minimal adequate basic requirements after taxes and transfers in 2019.
SGS also provided an adjusted view that refuted the standard published CPI number.
SGS reported a CPI rate for January 2024 of 10.91 percent. The BLS rate was 3.1 percent.
SGS reported a CPI rate of 10.97 percent. The BLS rate was 3.4 percent.
Transformation Obstacles
The adjusted data confirms that our economic model is regrettably failing working people. It is routine for those on the progressive spectrum to continuously point out the flaws in our economic model. Then what?
There appears to be a dearth of comprehensive and practical plans that might improve the systemic problems facing working people. More political parties would be a welcome step in the direction of participatory democracy. However, the death grip of the two parties is not about to loosen.
That was guaranteed by rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Buckley v. Valeo decision in 1976 and the First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti decision in 1978 led to the Citizens United v. FEC decision in 2010.
Our political system is shaped by judicial and legislative decisions. Those decisions habitually favor the dominant economic class that donates hundreds of millions of dollars to politicians of both parties, particularly the Republican Party.
Progressives must facilitate a transition from the present corporate views that dominate our superstructure in healthcare, education, housing, nutrition, transportation, and the environment.
Spiritual and Secular Allies
The preponderance of working people in our country shows that they have the numbers to create a powerful political opposition to the present corporate agenda. We can identify the demographics of potential allies in a transition to a more just economic model as basically spiritual or secular.
The Founders of the Constitution were emphatic on the separation of religion from the government. The United States was the first country in history to be founded on principles that were strictly secular. James Madison, a devout Christian, and prominent writer of the Constitution wrote that religion and government must remain separate; no clergy or kings pulling the strings.
Working people have the overwhelming numbers. An avalanche of voting for progressive candidates is an indispensable tactic in a comprehensive strategy.
However, values that emanate from religious or spiritual organizations are often beneficial to the practical application of government. The civil rights movement, numerous anti-war movements, the anti-nuclear movement and the environmental movement were driven by the compelling moral force of those organizations.
Consider the view of our economic model from a spiritual perspective. One element ignored by the corporate media is the role of Christian socialist theology as well as the historical traditions of Jewish, Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu and Confucian socialist values.
History is replete with critiques of our economic model based on secular humanism.
A fusion of the best spiritual and secular values can bring working people to a realization that our economic model requires a transition to something better.
Towards a Transition
The remedy to transform our economic model is not esoteric or profound except in scope.
Unions and nonprofit organizations joining together in alliances and coalitions around economic issues is an important strategic component. There are limitations though, as history has shown. Without a powerful legislative component, transitional change is fanciful and cosmetic.
Following every historical progressive legislative advancement, the dominant economic class begins chipping away at any legislation benefiting working people.
Absent a labor party, working people must adopt the daunting task of electing progressive candidates at the national, state, and municipal levels of the Democratic Party. This is not a political panacea by any means or a long-term remedy. Relying only on the Democratic Party is an illusion as the record confirms. Consider the fate of Senator Bernie Sanders when he challenged the corporate dominated Democratic Party.
As the objective conditions of our economic model continue to decline, the potential for working people to become a subjective force that demands change can develop. The form of that transformation depends on a number of variables.
The method of transition to a democratic economy in the U.S. is particularly speculative.
The transition models in history vary from the violent models of our Revolutionary War and similarly those in European and Asian history to the Gandhi model of non-violence and non-cooperation.
Moreover, Pope Paul VI wrote in a letter written in 1966, “violent revolutions generally and frequently beget new evils, and we should try to avoid this type of activity – except in the case of long standing tyrannies where the fundamental rights of man have been violated.”
Even the brilliant philosopher Karl Marx asserted in a speech to the Workingmen’s Association in 1872 that working people in Britain, the United States, and Holland might attain democratic socialism through peaceful methods.
Working people have the overwhelming numbers. An avalanche of voting for progressive candidates is an indispensable tactic in a comprehensive strategy.
The Supreme Court is subject to Congressional control delineated in the Article III, Section. 2 of the Constitution. Congress is subject to massive voter campaigns. When progressive public officials are elected on a grand scale, judicial reform will follow.
Regardless of the form of political activity that working people implement, the economic class struggle continues beneath the surface with a trajectory determined by its own economic forces.
The strategy now requires working people to present better arguments in the context of our economic model, organize against economic injustice, and rely on the Democratic Party until it does not.
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