1/Virtually everyone agrees on the cause of the harmful inflation we're experiencing: people have more money to spend, but that demand is chasing too little supply.
But who we blame and how we propose to solve it reveals a lot about our political divide.
But who we blame and how we propose to solve it reveals a lot about our political divide.
2/It's an incredible fact that despite one of the worst economic crashes in our history, average Americans (not just the super rich) have more household wealth to spend today than they did before the pandemic. 
3/Government spending -- bailing out small businesses and state & local governments, helping people who lost jobs, stimulus checks & the child tax cut -- worked in rescuing our economy, and left Americans with the extra cash we are now trying to spend (i.e., higher demand).
4/Had the government not done those things, it's absolutely true that there would not be inflation right now.
But we also wouldn't have amazing economic growth with historically low unemployment.
And millions of Americans would be destitute.
But we also wouldn't have amazing economic growth with historically low unemployment.
And millions of Americans would be destitute.
5/So when you hear people blame "Biden spending" for inflation, what they're saying is that you should have less money to spend . . . that your wages should be lower; that your taxes should be higher; that the government should have let your employer or municipality go bankrupt.
6/What most Democrats are saying is that increased demand (more people with more money to spend) is a good thing! And that the way to beat inflation is to help the supply of goods and services in the economy to catch up to healthy consumer demand.
7/We're focused on improving efficiency of our ports and delivery systems, which helped greatly during the holiday season. Some good news: The port of NY/NJ is moving 20%+ more goods than before pandemic without delays. Releasing from petroleum reserve helped, too.
8/We MUST pass legislation now to relieve the shortage of microchips (a huge reason for higher prices of cars and many other goods), and my broader bill to bring home from China manufacturing of goods critical to America's economic security.
9/Crushing COVID is obviously critical to fighting inflation. As Omicron passes in the US, our labor disruptions will ease. But we must also get more people vaccinated in countries where COVID has shut down factories critical to our supply chains. north-jerseynews.com/2021/10/25/mal…
10/If you're concerned about inflation, you should also support letting employers legally hire people already in the US who desperately want to work the jobs now being unfilled -- and back politicians who would rather fix the economy than demonize immigrants.
11/To sum up: The solution to inflation is not to squeeze middle class Americans as Republicans are suggesting, so that we have less to spend on cars, food, and travel.
The solution is to build back supply chains resilient enough to meet American consumers' post-pandemic needs.
The solution is to build back supply chains resilient enough to meet American consumers' post-pandemic needs.
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