WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that President Biden will “absolutely” mention “inflation” during his first State of the Union speech — despite a senior aide telling reporters Biden may avoid using the dreaded I-word.
“The president will absolutely use the word inflation tomorrow and he will talk about inflation in his speech. Of course that is a huge issue on the minds of Americans,” Psaki said at her daily press briefing when asked about her colleague’s remark.
Inflation hit a 40-year high last month and the spike in consumer costs is contributing to a gloomy national mood and Biden’s slumping approval rating.
Biden will also attempt to use the Tuesday address to revive efforts to pass his roughly $2 trillion Build Back Better Act, White House aides said Monday.
Biden will dust off the stalled social spending plan despite the package failing to gain the necessary Democratic support in the Senate due to fears about inflation.
“I’m not gonna go into, you know, whether he will say the word ‘inflation’ or not,” one official told reporters on a call previewing the speech.
“I’ve been doing this for long enough that I’m not going to make that prediction with more than 24 hours before the speech and final edits still going on,” she added. “But the point stands that he will be talking about prices and cutting costs in a way to help working families.”
The federal Consumer Price Index found overall consumer costs up 7.5 percent in January compared to in January of 2022 — dashing White House predictions that the figure would begin to fall. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens to send costs even higher due to disruptions to energy and other markets.
One official corrected herself on the White House preview call after originally saying Biden “will talk about price increases that have become entrenched and eat away at the economic progress the country is making and squeeze families’ budgets.”
Asked if the White House was conceding that price increases are permanent, the aide said, “my colleagues have told me that I misspoke, that I stumbled over my words. The president will talk about price increases that become entrenched, not that have already become entrenched.”
Biden in December claimed that the prior month’s 6.8 percent annual inflation rate was likely the “peak.” He also said in July that inflation was “temporary” when it was around 5 percent.
Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) killed Biden’s Build Back Better Act in December — saying inflation could get even worse through the ambitious framework that would have federally subsidized child care, preschool, home health care, housing, hearing aids, electric vehicles and a smorgasbord of other initiatives.
“I cannot take that risk with a staggering debt of more than $29 trillion and inflation taxes that are real and harmful to every hard-working American at the gasoline pumps, grocery stores and utility bills with no end in sight,” Manchin said at the time.
Manchin’s “no” vote would have meant the current version of the bill could not pass the 50-50 Senate even under special budget rules that allows legislation to pass with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking ties for Democrats.
A second White House official told reporters Monday that the Build Back Better Act’s planks will feature prominently in Biden’s appeal to Congress.
“On Build Back Better, I think what you can expect the president to lay out tomorrow is how his plan — the ideas he’s put forward — lowers costs for families, can reduce the deficit and say that it’s time for Congress to act, it’s time for Congress to get him a piece of legislation that addresses those core challenges for families right now,” he said.
The same official claimed, referring to the stalled legislation, that “the reconciliation bill that is right now on the table would reduce the deficit.”
The Congressional Budget Office said the Build Back Better Act would add $367 billion in unfunded spending, but Biden argued that it would lower the cost of living, particularly for people with children.
The House passed the sprawling bill in November with a $2.2 trillion price tag — but Manchin accused fellow Democrats of deceptive “gimmicks” that undercounted its true cost by making new programs last for shorter periods of time than proposed new revenue. A Republican-requested report from the Congressional Budget Office said that the package would cost about $4.5 trillion and add $3 trillion in deficit spending if programs extended over 10 years, or the same period of time used to calculate new revenue.
Critics blame Biden’s policies for high inflation, especially the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act signed in March 2021. Biden’s stimulus followed bipartisan legislation in 2020 that distributed about $4 trillion to keep the US afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. In November, Biden signed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that the CBO said would add $256 billion to the federal deficit, though Biden argued it would ultimately lower inflation by improving the transportation of goods.
The president is also expected to devote a chunk of his address to the Russian attack against Ukraine that was launched Feb. 24 and forced substantial revisions to his remarks.
Biden will “outline the efforts that we’re taking to rally the world to stand up for democracy and against Russian aggression,” one of the White House officials said.
Biden’s first State of the Union will take place in a Capitol surrounded by anti-riot fencing that was installed in the past week due to fears of a potential convoy of truckers arriving to protest COVID-19 mandates.
It will be the first State of the Union since the pandemic emerged. The most recent State of the Union — in February 2020, shortly before the onset of widespread COVID-19 lockdowns — is best remembered for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tearing up her copy of then-President Donald Trump’s speech.
Biden addressed a joint session of Congress in April of last year. However, it is not considered a State of the Union address because he had not yet been in office for one full year.
This year’s speech is occurring much later than usual due to the Omicron variant of COVID-19 that caused record-high US coronavirus infections in January. Guests are not allowed to attend and some members of the House and Senate will be seated in the second-floor viewing gallery to reduce the risk of viral transmission. The room is expected to be roughly one-third as full as usual and all attendees must have a negative PCR test result in hand.
In a surprise move, the House of Representatives on Sunday scrapped its indoor mask mandate just in time for the speech — likely avoiding renewed clashes between Republicans and Democrats, though many Capitol staffers chose to keep masks on their faces Monday.
The CDC abruptly redefined mask guidance Friday, advising Washington DC and many other parts of the country with relatively low transmission rates that they can scrap mask mandates. The White House is expected to ditch its indoor mask mandate Tuesday before the speech.
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