3 Three Ways the Biden Administration Could Ease Inflation

Food prices exploded last year—eggs are up a whopping 60 percent—and American families are feeling the pinch every time they visit the grocery store or the gas station.

Many of the soaring costs are the direct result of the Biden administration’s policy decisions: high government spending, stringent regulations on key industries, and welfare policies that discourage work all contributed to driving prices up higher and higher. 

The Biden administration could reverse the burdensome squeeze on family budgets with several key policies to ease inflation—here’s where they should start…

1. End the public health emergency. The House recently passed the Pandemic is Over Act, a bill to formally end the public health emergency, and the president said it would expire on May 11. But the White House should bring a quick and decisive end to the public health emergency now so states can start to get back on track. 

Doing so would immediately reinstate work requirements for able-bodied workers receiving food stamps. Reviving work requirements would help bring thousands of able-bodied adults without dependents—the demographic who is best positioned to work—back into the workforce and fill open jobs that number in the millions. This would go a long way to address the severe labor shortage that is wreaking havoc on supply chains and driving prices sky high. 

2. Cut regulation. A restrictive regulatory environment makes it more difficult for businesses to operate—and that is precisely what President Biden has created. In his first year in office alone, he created more economically significant regulations than any other president in modern American history. 

Further, agencies are allowed to rule by mandate and spend millions of taxpayer dollars with little to no accountability. President Biden should take it upon himself to rein in the out-of-control regulations of his administration—or better yet, Congress could pass the REINS Act, which would require congressional approval for any rule costing more than $100 million before it could go into effect. 

3. Revive domestic energy production. President Biden’s policy decisions have suffocated the energy industry—and it’s affected Americans in more areas than just the gas pump. When energy prices go up, other industries are affected—agriculture, manufacturing, transportation—and consequently, all prices go up. 

The Biden administration could take a couple big steps to revive domestic energy production and reverse policy decisions that have attempted to cut off the energy supply to fit their “green” agenda. One would be to reinstate permits and leases for domestic drilling on federal land, and to reinstate the Keystone Pipeline’s permits. And he should absolutely abandon his promotion of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria in investing, which is serving to cut off capital from the oil and gas industries. 

Inflation would certainly lessen in intensity if the White House would decide to get America back to work by ending the public health emergency’s suspension of work requirements, and if they would rein in regulation and revive the domestic production of oil and gas. 

The president bears most of the blame for inflation, but he has it in his power to reverse course and ease inflation—if he wants to.