The White House has urged Americans not to panic over high prices and empty shelves this holiday season, saying the items you want to buy “are hopefully substitutable by other things.”
SO WHAT
President Joe Biden is apparently going with the “We Have Food at Home” defense of his handling of COVID-19.
WHAT HAPPENED
“There will be things that people can’t get,” a senior White House official acknowledged to Reuters Tuesday, when asked about Christmas shopping amid global supply bottlenecks related to the pandemic. “At the same time, a lot of these goods are hopefully substitutable by other things.”
Added the unnamed official: “I don’t think there’s any real reason to be panicked, but we all feel the frustration and there’s a certain need for patience to help get through a relatively short period of time.”
HOW WE GOT ANOTHER COVID CHRISTMAS
Biden promised on the 2020 campaign trail to “immediately put in place a national strategy that will position our country to finally get ahead of this virus and get back our lives,” and he all but declared victory over the coronavirus this July.
- But after a delta-variant fueled spike in cases, Biden began blaming Republican governors and unvaccinated Americans for the nation’s continued pandemic hardships.
- According to Reuters, the White House has lately been “scrambling to relieve global supply bottlenecks choking U.S. ports, highways and railways,” which have led to goods shortages and inflation.
With economic problems at the top of Americans’ list of concerns, Biden’s approval rating has crashed to an all-time low.
- Former President Donald Trump recently dubbed the holiday season “Biden’s Blue Christmas,” and Democrats and the media have expressed growing alarm about Biden’s unpopularity.
- “There is a malaise,” Sarah Longwell, a GOP strategist who supported Biden in 2020 told Politico after leading a damning focus group of Pennsylvania Democrats last week.
- “People don’t feel like their lives have been improved. They did sort of feel that promises aren’t being kept.”
