While some people are considering long-term trends (for example, climate change and threats to democracy) when thinking about the upcoming election, many voters are understandably looking at serious problems they are having right now, most notably inflation.
Looking at inflation, the price of gasoline is obviously a culprit, but that culprit has a couple of glaring accomplices, Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia, who cut production to jack up prices. Here at home, oil companies are recording record profits, which suggests that they aren’t just passing increased prices to consumers, but adding something for themselves.
The combined profits of the largest energy companies in the first quarter of this year are close to $100 billion,” United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said, calling out the “grotesque greed of the fossil fuel industry and their financiers.”
So, not really Biden or the Democrats’ fault. But, which party do you think is more likely to push back on the oil companies’ price gouging, Democrats or corporation-supporting Republicans?
Food has also clearly gone up, but again, large corporations are profiteering, largely because it’s hard for consumers to discern how much is due to increased costs to producers. You can read about this at Vox, but here are some takeaways from that article:
“[Tyson Foods had] roughly $1.5 billion in higher costs, but that’s corresponded with $2 billion in price increases,” [according to Claire Kelloway of the Open Markets Institute], “[s]o that is a solid half a billion dollars that is not related to an increased cost of business. That’s purely an exercise of their market power and ability to charge more, and their profits really speak to that.”
John Hansen of the Nebraska Farmers Union, which advocates on behalf of independent ranchers and farmers, put it more bluntly: “There’s no question there’s been price gouging through the Covid disaster, and there’s no question that that price gouging continues.”
Economists point out that increased concentration of market power is allowing a few large corporations to set prices above the need to address their costs, in part because consumers expect prices to rise.
So consumers and farmers are getting gouged. Who’s going to protect them? I’d suggest Democrats like President Biden and Elizabeth Warren, who have called out the price gouging by large companies. Republicans are silent.
The GOP is blaming Democrats for a problem the Democrats haven’t caused, and offering nothing but an undeserved reputation for economic savvy: When Republicans are in power, they raise deficits by cutting taxes on the rich and want to address inflation by creating unemployment, rather than addressing price gouging by their corporate funders.
By the way, the GOP is also on record on wanting to cut Social Security (looking at you, Ron Johnson) and attacking Obamacare without offering a plan to address health care costs and availability for millions of Americans. You might also want to consider the safety of our children in a society awash in guns, or government interference in women’s (and even men’s) reproductive choices.
Long ago, Franklin Roosevelt pointed out the four freedoms vital to a democracy:
- Freedom of speech.
- Freedom of worship.
- Freedom from want.
- Freedom from fear.
Which party will protect those freedoms?