Biden Casts Agenda as Cost-of-Living Cut on ‘Tonight Show’
Biden Casts Agenda as Cost-of-Living Cut on ‘Tonight Show’
(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden cast his Build Back Better economic legislation as a cost-of-living cut for millions of Americans on Friday, as he sought to tamp down concern about inflation in his first appearance as president on a late-night TV show.
“There’s a whole range of things that are in there that are going to really reduce essentially, the cost of living for people in a reasonable, rational way,” Biden said on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” after describing provisions of the $1.75 trillion measure aimed at reducing childcare costs and expanding free public preschool.
Biden’s appearance on the program came as he continues to struggle with the lowest approval ratings of his presidency.
Americans face yet another resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic this winter, even before the new omicron variant has spread widely, and an economy where rising employment and wages have been dampened by increasing prices on everyday necessities and the threat of supply chain bottlenecks.
Asked by Fallon whether he pays attention to his approval rating, Biden joked: “Well, not anymore.” Only about 43% of Americans currently approve of Biden’s job performance, compared to about 51% who disapprove, according to an analysis of surveys by FiveThirtyEight.
Earlier Friday, the Labor Department reported the most rapid inflation in nearly 40 years, with the consumer price index rising 6.8% in November from a year earlier. The inflation gauge climbed 0.8% in October, exceeding forecasts and extending a trend of sizable increases that began earlier this year.
In remarks to reporters before the show, Biden said said the U.S. was at the “peak of the crisis” on inflation.
“It’s going to come down. It’s going to move. But in the meantime, people are worried,” Biden told Fallon. “There’s a lot of anxiety. My job is to be straightforward, shoot from the shoulder, let people know exactly what the truth is and lay out how I’m going to try to make life better for them.”
The White House has recently sought to frame Build Back Better, originally conceived as a package of programs to fight climate change and expand the nation’s social safety net, as an inflation-fighting measure.
Biden said that “I hope” the measure passes before the end of year, and that “every single bit of that bill” would be paid for with offsetting revenue measures including tax increases.
The legislation is stalled in the Senate, where centrist Democrats, including West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, have not yet committed to support it. Manchin has cited the bill’s potential contribution to inflation as among his top concerns.
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