President Joe Biden followed up his news-making press conference Wednesday afternoon with a different victory lap Thursday morning, on what is being called “unabashedly good news” on the inflation front.
“Dow surges 1,000 points in biggest rally since 2020 after a lighter-than-expected inflation report,” is Thursday morning’s headline at CNBC.
“Inflation cools much more than expected in October,” CNN Business reports. “The Consumer Price Index rose 7.7% for the year ending in October, a much slower pace of increase than the 8% economists had expected and the lowest annual inflation reading since January.”
Biden, not one to brag, did decide to ride the wave of good news this week, tying his tweets into remarks he made at his press conference yesterday.
A reporter had asked the President, “What in the next two years do you intend to do differently to change people’s opinion of the direction of the country, particularly as you contemplate a run for President in 2024?”
Biden, in his usual frank manner, replied, “Nothing,” adding, “because they’re just finding out what we’re doing. The more they know about what we’re doing, the more support there is.”
“Do you know anybody who wants us to get rid of the change we made on prescription drug prices and raise prices again? Do you know anybody who wants us to walk away from building those roads and bridges and — and the Internet and so on?” Biden asked. “I don’t — I don’t know any.”
Moments later he added: “I want to build a country from the middle out and the bottom up. And that way, everybody does fine. I’m tired of trickle-down. Not a whole lot trickles down when you trickle down to hardworking folks.”
On Thursday he continued that approach in his response to the economic news.
“Today’s inflation report shows my plan is working and folks are starting to see progress,” Biden tweeted. “It’s been a hard 2 years recovering from where we were in early 2021. But our economy is open, new jobs are being created, and soon my plan to reduce drug and energy costs goes into effect.”
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That part about jobs being created was a bigger factor than many have discussed, according to The Intercept’s Ryan Grim, who pointed to their interview with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The New York Democratic Congresswoman told The Intercept on Wednesday, “I think we learned an economic lesson, which is that full employment is politically stronger than inflation, as opposed to when we were in the situation under Obama, where they tried the other tack and unemployment was punished much more severely. And so I think we learned that economic message on employment.”
President Biden continued his victory lap.
“Americans are paying $1.20 less a gallon of gas than this summer, getting a much-needed break at the grocery store ahead of the holidays. And millions are saving on health insurance thanks to my legislation,” he said.
And he doubled down on his remarks Wednesday, also tweeting, “We are on the right path, and we need to keep moving forward to build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out.”
“I will work with anyone to provide more breathing room for American families. And I will oppose any effort to undo my agenda or to make inflation worse.”
Meanwhile, economists are more than pleased at today’s news on the inflation front.
Harvard economics professor Jason Furman called the Consumer Price Index report on inflation “a pleasant surprise.”
“This is a very encouraging inflation report,” said popular University of Michigan School of Economics Professor Justin Wolfers, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution. “There’s a good chance that inflation has peaked, and is now turning down.”
He also responded to Forman, tweeting, “Even Jason sees today’s CPI report as unabashedly good news.”