White House blames pandemic for inflation, Biden’s low ratings

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• The Biden administration sees the pandemic as the root cause of the soaring inflation and the president’s falling approval ratings.
• The White House believes that controlling the pandemic is the key to restoring the nation and reviving Biden’s own standing.
• The U.S is still plagued by the delta variant and there are numerous signs that COVID-19 will leave scars even if the pandemic ends. 

The White House blames the pandemic as the root cause of both the country’s troubles and President Joe Biden’s political woes. High inflation, struggling businesses, and the president’s low approval ratings are just some of the major problems the Biden team is currently facing currently.

The Biden administration believes that controlling COVID-19 is critical to rejuvenating the U.S. and reviving the president’s own standing.

Last summer’s premature claims of victory were overwhelmed by the highly-transmissible delta variant. Millions of Americans are still unvaccinated and there are many signs that COVID-19 will leave its scars even if the pandemic ends. 

The emergence of a new variant, omicron, from South Africa, is worrying public health officials. The report leads to new travel bans and caused many stocks to drop. Scientists around the world rush to understand how dangerous it may be.

For the administration, those who are resisting vaccination are spoiling the recovery of the rest of the country.

Asked why Americans aren’t getting the message that the economy is improving, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said this past week: “We’re still in the middle of fighting a pandemic and people are sick and tired of that. We are, too.”

The state of affairs, she said, affects everything from how people feel about sending their kids out the door to the price for a gallon of gas.

The administration views vaccination mandates as critical, not only to preventing avoidable illness and death but to safeguarding the economic recovery — and salvaging Biden’s political position. 

Biden on Friday appealed for unvaccinated Americans to be “responsible” and get the shot and for those eligible for a booster to get that, too. “That is the minimum that everyone should be doing. … We always talk about whether this is about freedom, but I think it’s a patriotic responsibility to do that.”

To Biden’s critics, though, it’s a stretch to blame all the nation’s problems on COVID-19 or to think that containing the virus will solve them.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell puts the blame for high prices on Biden’s big pandemic relief package, saying recently: “There is no question what is keeping working Americans awake at night. Inflation. The runaway prices and unpredictability that Democrats’ policies have fueled.”

In last month’s poll, only about one-third of Americans said the nation was heading in the right direction, down from about half in late February. 

Views of the economy have dimmed as well, with only about one-third saying conditions are good, compared with close to half in September.

Source: AOL