MEGHAN MCCAIN: Biden must think Americans are stupid if he believes they blame inflation on Putin

James Carville, the notorious and legendary Democratic political operative, infamously once said, ‘It’s the economy, stupid.’

He coined the term in 1992 while he was advising President Bill Clinton during his successful run for the White House.

Carville was trying to get through to Clinton’s campaign staff. He wanted his team to communicate to the public that Clinton was focused on the issues that were most important to them – their bank accounts.

Suggesting that your own staff is ‘stupid’ is one thing.

Suggesting that the American people are ‘stupid’ is another — and that seems to be President Joe Biden’s approach.

‘I’m doing everything within my power by executive orders to bring down the price and address the Putin price hike,’ Biden told an audience in Iowa on Tuesday. ‘Your family budget, your ability to fill up your tank, none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide half a world away.’

The White House slogan may as well be ‘It’s Putin’s fault, stupid.’ And he’s talking to you and me.

Well the American people aren’t buying it.

A Quinnipiac poll, conducted in early April, found that 59% disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy.

Speaking from inside an Iowa ethanol manufacturing plant on Tuesday (above), Biden announced his latest plan to bring down gas prices by authorizing the summertime sale of relatively high ethanol blends of gasoline, called E15. 

They can see what’s really happening.

On Tuesday, The Bureau of Labor Statistics released their consumer report index showing an 8.5% rise in March compared to the same month last year.

This followed a 7.9% annual increase in February and marks the fastest rise in consumer prices since December 1981.

To put it in the simplest terms possible, it is 8.5% more expensive to live in America and buy food, gas and groceries than it was a year ago.

The rise in inflation is also eating away at people’s paychecks. Even though workers are earning more on average – their dollars aren’t going as far.

These are staggering numbers and it is overwhelming to even think about what this means for our country not just economically but socially, culturally and politically as well.

When people struggle to afford to feed their families or fill their gas tanks or live a decent life on an honest day’s wage, they begin to understandably panic.

And with that panic comes anger, distress, further disillusionment and in the worst of circumstances, even violence.

As of today, the administration’s talking point is that this is Putin’s inflation.

Not only is this intellectually dishonest, it is a lie.

Inflation was already headed in this direction long before Putin’s invasion and it has gotten worse.

It doesn’t take an economist to know that pouring $1.9 trillion dollars into an already recovering economy would have consequences.

Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has been yelling this from the rooftops. Former CEO Andy Puzder was written about this for DailyMail.com.

On Tuesday, The Bureau of Labor Statistics released their consumer report index showing an 8.5% rise in March compared to the same month last year.

And now, the president’s solutions for combatting this crisis have fallen laughably short.

Speaking from inside an Iowa ethanol manufacturing plant, Biden announced his latest plan to bring down gas prices by authorizing the summertime sale of relatively high ethanol blends of gasoline, called E15.

It may be a sign of how desperate Biden has gotten – as previous administrations have resisted year-round sales of this fuel, because of environmentalists’ concerns that E15 contributes to smog during the hot summer months.

But by the U.S. Department of Energy’s own admission E15 is sold at just over 2,300 gas stations.

According to the National Association of Convenience Stores there are more than 115,000 convenience stores that sell motor fuel and potentially 145,000 stores selling gas across the country.

So, I don’t think we can expect the E15 policy to help all that much.

Twenty years after Carville’s campaign blueprint for focusing on economic concerns above all else – it’s perplexing why Biden doesn’t get it.

Maybe the entire Democratic party has forgotten this.

Progressive figures like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez seem to have little to no respect for James Carville and have responded to his criticisms of wokeness with indignation, but Carville is a legend for a reason.

People become legends after a long period of time, it doesn’t happen overnight, and legends should be respected and, in my opinion, listened to.

To put it mildly, there is no greater American challenge facing the Biden administration than the economy and the pocketbooks of everyday Americans, and everyday Americans are not stupid people.

Good politicians adjust when their policy programs aren’t working. The Biden administration’s economic policies clearly aren’t working.

Their energy policies have only served to create more pain at the pump and drive up the cost of energy in people’s houses.

If you believe as many do in Washington that Ron Klain, the president’s chief of staff, is driving all of this, then Democrats need to start asking why he isn’t adjusting his approach.

Beyond blaming Putin, what does Ron Klain have?

They’re just stuck in a partisan silo where everything is going swimmingly, even as voters know the truth.

One of the great challenges to this administration is to come up with a solution to a problem where the answer just isn’t simply ‘write a check and throw money at it.’

In 1990 after a successful military action in Kuwait, President George H.W. Bush had a job approval rating of 80%, which at the time ranked as the highest in Gallup polling history.

By election year in July of 1992, his job approval ratings sank to 29% after Clinton and his party’s leaders focused their message on the economy at the Democratic National Convention.

In slightly more than a year and a half, President H.W. Bush had gone from having the highest job approval ratings to one of the lowest Gallup had measured in its history (slightly better than Harry Truman and Richard Nixon at the end of their Presidency).

Biden’s approval rating is already hovering around 40%.

History repeats itself and unless Biden and his administration figure out away to tackle ‘the economy, stupid,’ without treating Americans like their ‘stupid,’ they are doomed to repeat the history of previous presidencies past who have failed on their mishandling of the economy.