President Joe Biden is weighing how hard to hammer big food companies over painfully high grocery prices in his upcoming State of the Union Address. But some some aides remain wary of focusing too much on food inflation, given how little power the president has to singlehandedly force down prices.
Biden embraced the concept of āshrinkflationā in a Super Bowl message targeting major snack food corporations ā as the president framed it, there are now āfewer chipsā in your bag, while companies are āstill charging you just as much.ā
And the White House has been aggressively testing out the messaging on the airwaves and in internal polling ahead of Bidenās speech, according to two White House officials familiar with the matter, who were not authorized to speak on the issue and were granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations. Recent polling circulated within the White House has been favorable to Bidenās push to blast what heās described on the campaign trail as ācorporate greedā driving higher prices across a range of sectors.
It literally says in the summary that heās hesitant to discuss it too much because itās not something he has direct control over.
The bully pulpit is what heās got for now and Iām glad heās using it, but the danger is that he looks like a feckless old man when nothing changes.
At this point I donāt expect my government to do anything, just make nice sounds.
I know itās a pipedream, but I wish we could collectively tax strike until certain shit changes