Biden administration is holding weekly meetings to try and stem inflation

President Biden’s top advisers now meet at least once a week to discuss how to tackle the supply chain crisis and curb rampant inflation. 

The advisors discuss ways to relieves backlogs at US ports, how to recruit truck drivers and how to produce more semiconductors within the US, according to the New York Times.  

The Biden administration is finally trying to grapple with persistent inflation that they for months insisted would be transitory. But on Monday, Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen said they expected it to persist until mid to late next year. 

The consumer price index rose 5.4% in September from last year, up from August’s gain of 5.3% and matching the increases in June and July. 

 ‘I agree, of course, we are going through a period of inflation that’s higher than Americans have seen in a long time,’ she said on CNN’s State of the Union. ‘And it’s something that’s obviously a concern and worrying them. But we haven’t lost control.’ 

Yellen added that she expects inflation to return to a more ‘normal’ rate of around 2 per cent sometime next year.

‘On a 12-month basis, the inflation rate will remain high into next year because of what’s already happened. But I expect improvement by the middle to end of next year – second half of next year,’ Yellen said.

That reality is straining Biden’s push to pump trillions more into the economy through a social spending package and an infrastructure bill. 

But the White House is arguing the worker shortage contributing to the supply crunch could be alleviated with their spending bill, with its child and elder care provisions. 

Sen. Joe Manchin isn’t biting. The West Virginia Democrat has repeatedly pushed back against his fellow Democrats’ penchant for spending, warning that it could create an ‘entitlement mentality’ and sounding the alarm on rampant inflation.

He has forced Democrats to whittle down their $3.5 trillion climate and social spending bill to a price tag to the tune of $1.5 trillion.  

Inflation is also weighing on Biden’s poll numbers, which are the lowest at this point in the term of any president in recent history other than Donald Trump. And Republicans are using it to knock Democrats just before the 2022 midterm races heat up. 

Biden has also disappointed Americans more than any other president since World War II has at this point in their term, a new Gallup poll released Friday appears to show.  

The newest data is from a survey taken from October 1 – 19 and compares Biden’s average approval rating across the first three quarters of his term against every president since  Dwight Eisenhower. 

Biden lost a whopping 11. 3 percentage points from his first quarter approval of 56 percent to an average of 44.7 percent at the end of the three months spanning late July through October.

Donald Trump, the only post-WWII president whose approval rating is lower than Biden’s at this point, saw a smaller drop of just 4.4 percent after having started with low expectations.

Independents appear to be driving down Biden’s favorability the most, from 61 percent approval at the beginning of February to just 34 percent in October.

Gas prices have led the way for price increases, up 42% over this time next year. The Biden administration has called on Middle Eastern countries to increase their production of oil, but Biden admitted in a CNN town hall last week: ‘I don’t have a near-term answer’ on gas prices. 

‘I don’t see anything that’s going to happen in the meantime that’s going to significantly reduce gas prices,’ he said. 

Biden earlier this month announced a deal with retailers and suppliers to keep ports open 24/7. He suggested he might even call in the National Guard to alleviate supply chain issues at the ports if he can’t find another solution, while haulage companies are offering six-figure salaries and $15,000 sign-on bonuses while struggling to attract 80,000 new drivers who are needed to relieve the nation’s supply crisis.