Rising inflation fuels Democratic fears as Biden faces mounting woes

Joe Biden was in Iowa yesterday, touting ethanol, but not because he’s worried about the state’s caucuses, which are probably going to lose their first-in-the-nation status anyway because of the 2020 fiasco.

No, it’s because he hopes to tamp down gas prices by allowing an ethanol mixture to be used in the summer, brushing aside the usual air pollution concerns.

But the day got off to a lousy start with the government’s release of a chilling figure: 8.5 percent. That’s the inflation rate last month, the highest since back in 1981, and edging closer to double-digit territory. And over half that increase comes from gas prices, even though they’ve come down slightly.

So much for inflation being transitory.

Politically speaking, it’s hard to think of much that’s going right for the Biden administration these days.

The president’s allies argue that journalists aren’t giving him credit for the economy’s roaring comeback. Millions of jobs have been created, and unemployment, at 3.6 percent, is at the lowest level in decades. But many people have come to take that for granted, whereas families feeling the pinch at supermarkets and gas stations are frustrated, and aiming their anger at the party in charge. As past presidents have learned, no amount of messaging can convince people who are uneasy about a fragile economy.

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A Politico poll found that more than two-thirds blame rising gas prices on Vladimir Putin and the oil companies, but 51 percent also blamed Biden.

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