Pirate's Cove

This article is an attempt to protect Kamala from the food increases that occurred under her watch

What presidents can and can’t do to lower grocery prices

A majority of U.S. consumers believe elected officials, of one party or the other, can help lower their grocery bills — an expectation that could help swing the election, given how important inflation is to likely voters in 2024.

The truth is likely to disappoint them. Despite what both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are promising on the campaign trail, the next leader of the free world has limited options to lower food costs in the speedy or widespread way many voters might hope. (Just ask President Joe Biden, who struggled for much of his presidency to show Americans he was reining in grocery prices). That said, POLITICO spoke to a number of economists who argued there are good reasons to go after some of the drivers of high food costs, even if the impacts won’t be felt for some time.

Joe did? How? Most of his policies made things worse. Who was sitting right there with him? Did Politico miss that they called it the Biden-Harris administration since day one?

POLITICO took a look at some of the policies Biden, Harris and Trump have used, or said they plan to use, to address high food prices and the limitations of each. Neither the Harris nor Trump campaigns responded to a request for comment.

First they discuss Kamala’s price gouging idiocy, and it comes to the conclusion everyone knows: it has zero chance of passing Congress, and it would actually make food prices worse.

Then they touch on Trump wanting to increase the energy supply, and their “reality check” states

The U.S. government has limited influence over those global prices, which are shaped by market and geopolitical factors. Gas prices dropped during the early months of the pandemic, for example, because millions of people stayed home and dramatically reduced their gas consumption. But as the Bureau of Labor Statistics documented, prices surged as society reopened and the economy started to rebound.

While energy prices have consistently been higher under Biden than they were during Trump’s first term, they have dropped from their heights in 2022, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent global prices soaring. As the Agriculture Department noted in February, fuel and oil costs saw significant declines in 2023 and are expected to decline again in 2024, thanks to drops in global energy prices. U.S. oil prices in the past few days have dropped to their lowest level in two years as OPEC+ says it will increase its own oil production later this year and fuel demand in China looks weaker.

Except, energy prices are still higher than they were during the Trump years. If you bring them down by even just 50 cents a gallon, especially for diesel, you significantly decrease the supply chain costs. Couple that with decreasing the cost of energy to run businesses and farms and such, and food prices come down without disinflation (which is often bad). You’re just lowering the cost of doing business. The Ukraine war has a very, very, very limited impact on US food prices and energy.