Tuesday evening President Biden is gearing up to present his State of the Union address. There are many topics on the agenda to discuss around the economic climate, the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation and of course what’s happening in Ukraine.
Inflation including things like higher gas and food prices is what impacts everyday people the most, now they’re looking for answers concerning how the current Biden administration plans to fix it.
“Families are getting clobbered by the cost of everyday things, I know that gas and food prices are up , we’re working to bring them down,” Biden said.
Much like the pandemic, inflation is an issue that’s felt by the entire nation. A rise in the cost of everyday living has many people blaming the President for the increased prices many people like Stanley Drebin said its since his administration hasn’t been very forthcoming with addressing it.
“We’re paying a lot more not a little bit more and it seems like it’s going to keep on going up with the war in Ukraine and the whole thing that Putin is doing the money is going to go out of our pockets through the pump, and unfortunately it’s hurting everybody,” Drebin said.
Oil prices have reached a high that hasn’t been seen in about 7 years. The average price for regular gas right now is around $3.50 a gallon, last year this time it was around $2.50 a gallon. According to President Biden, the upward trend isn’t going away anytime soon.
“There’s going to be a reckoning on whether or not we continue to see oil prices continue to go up in ways that are going up now relative to what impact that’s going to have on the producers so its going to be hard. I think that’s the place where most middle-class people get hit the most. Pull up to the pump and instead of paying $2.40 cents a gallon now you’re paying $5.00 dollars a gallon that’s going to be really difficult, so we’re going to continue to try and work on the increase of oil supplies,” Biden said.
It’s part of what will be addressed Tuesday night at Biden’s State of the Union address. However, right now for some people like Drebin, the increase in gas and food prices are already unbearable so he can’t imagine seeing it increase even more.
“I’m a retired person so I have limited income and it hurts me. These price increases and they’re huge jumps, this is a huge jump so this is very hard to take in, really you don’t see an end to it so it’s scary,” Drebin said.
As prices go up so does everyone’s concern about the inflation topic. Biden blaming supply chain issues for inflation, but he said he has the remedy to solve these issues and he believes it starts with passing the plan he’s projected with build back better.
“The inflation has everything to do with the supply chain. That’s why the single best way to take the burden off lower class and middle class folks is to pass the build back better piece that are things that they are paying a lot of money for now. So there’s a lot we have to do it’s not going to be easy, I think we can get it done but for a lot of people things are going to be painful for a lot of people in the meantime,” Biden said.
In addition to inflation, a large portion of tonight’s State of the Union will likely address the war happening between Russia and Ukraine. The State of the Union starts tonight at 9:00 p.m.
