'Bloodbath' for GOP in Congress if inflation continues: conservative

14 February

Analysis: 'Bloodbath' could come for GOP in Congress if inflation continues. Image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr.

The Trump administration has been blaming the Biden administration for the economy, but it’s now up to his administration and Congress to fix it. With inflation a top issue for voters in 2024, Republican lawmakers could be on the chopping block in the future if they don’t solve the problem, conservative political analyst Chris Stirewalt writes at the Hill.

“The Biden administration left us with a mess,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday about inflation.

“Thenews this week on inflation has been grim.Real grim,” Stirewalt writes, as “prices for almost everything continue to climb."

"Some level of inflation is a byproduct of economic growth, but when it exceeds the benefits of that growth, voters revolt," Sirewalt wrore.

As prices go up, voters are looking to GOP members of Congress for answers. “Trump is beyond the reach of voters now,” Stirewalt writes, “but the members of his party are not. And as Republicans in Congress hammer out a deal on taxes and spending, they are doing so in a very different climate from that of eight years ago.”

The conservative political analyst explains why that's significant.

“As GOPers consider how to get a deal done that can satisfy both swing-district moderates and fiscal hawks from deep-red districts, they do so with the knowledge that if they get the blame for pushing prices up, it will make what is already expected to be a rough midterm cycle into a bloodbath," Stirewalt says.

So blaming Biden could work in the short term, but Stirewalt questions if it will stick.

“Will the strong association of inflation with Biden be strong and durable enough to buy Republicans time to govern the way they want to?” he asks.

Stirewalt ntoes inflation was a major factor in the election, pointing to AP VoteCast data. “For 87 percent of voters, inflation was a big deal, and very clearly they laid the problem at the feet of Biden and his administration, personified by then-Vice President Kamala Harris. In 2016, inflation wasn’t even on the radar screen,” he writes.

“It turned out that 2024 was not a ‘vibes’ election, but a fundamentals election. And there is no problem more fundamental to persuadable voters, especially higher-propensity, older voters, than high prices," he adds.

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