Biden moves to lower gas prices, but the GOP is blocking his plans to really help working families

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The White House is unveiling new policies to bring down gas prices following President Joe Biden’s March announcement that the administration would release 1 million barrels of oil a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Tuesday’s announcement, coming as Biden visits an Iowa ethanol plant, will be an Environmental Protection Agency waiver allowing the summer sale of E15, gas blended with ethanol. E15 is usually barred from summer sales due to air pollution rules, but the White House believes that its use will lower gas prices by 10 cents a gallon. 

“At the end of the day prices are too high, American families are feeling that,” Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, said Monday. “We need to take every action we can to try to make things more affordable and provide some relief as the Fed acts the way we anticipate it will.” Average gas prices have already dropped from $4.33 a month ago to $4.11 on Monday, but clearly more relief is needed.

Inflation remains a major economic concern for people in the U.S., and a major political concern for the Biden administration. Prices in March were 8.5% above March 2021, and 1.2% above February 2022. There had been signs earlier in 2022 that inflation was beginning to ease, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has instead driven it up for energy and food in particular. Shutdowns of some Chinese manufacturing facilities due to COVID-19 have also kept inflation high.

Food and energy are major expenses for most households, so inflation in those areas hits particularly hard. One significant area in which inflation is easing, though, is used cars, which dropped 3.8% in March. With new car availability affected by supply chain issues—in particular a semiconductor shortage—prices for used cars have spiked. 

Some supply chain issues have appeared to be easing, but the lockdown in Shanghai, which is a major manufacturing and export hub for China, is not a promising sign.

While all of this is very real bad news for U.S. consumers, we do also have to talk about what gets talked about less.

And when we talk about the effect of rising prices on U.S. households, we also have to talk about the longer-term effect of stagnating wages. As just one example, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, and has been for well over a decade—because Republicans block any attempt to raise it. The minimum wage isn’t the only factor in stagnating wages, but it’s a damn good example of the problem.

This isn’t the only way that Republican—and Sen. Joe Manchin’s—obstruction of Democratic policy priorities is making inflation hit families harder. For six months, the expanded child tax credit was a major boost to 36 million families with kids. Democrats other than Manchin wanted to extend that, while every single Republican opposed it. Biden also had plans to help with affordable housing and child care, but again, Manchin and Republicans have tanked that. So when we hear about inflation, we’re hearing about its impact after a long list of policies that could help working people deal with inflation have been knocked out as possibilities. With the environmentally problematic E15 waiver, Biden is working with what he has given Republican obstruction in Congress.