President Biden is fighting to lower costs for American families

President Biden’s top economic priority is lowering costs. The Biden-Harris Administration is making progress, but knows there’s more to do to lower costs and give the middle class a fair shot.

Here are the steps being taken and the plan going forward: 

• President Biden is lowering the cost of prescription drugs and healthcare by capping insulin for seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries at $35 a month, negotiating to lower the costs for seniors of key prescription drugs, capping annual expenses for Medicare beneficiaries, and reducing health insurance premiums for millions of working families by an average of $800 a year.  
• President Biden is working to lower the costs of renting and buying a home by seeking the boldest investment in affordable housing in a generation – including tax credits for first-time and first-generation homebuyers.
• President Biden is working to reduce home energy costs by expanding the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and expanding rural development programs that reduce energy bills for families.
• President Biden is lowering the costs of raising a family by saving on child care and pre-K costs; fighting to restore the full Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit; making college more affordable by increasing Pell Grants and expanding free community college; and expanding student debt relief so college is a pathway to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity. 
• President Biden is cracking down on junk fees and price gouging by taking on corporations that rip off consumers through these practices.
• President Biden is strengthening our supply chains in order to lower costs for Americans by bolstering critical supply chains and investing in America to expand our manufacturing base here at home.

President Biden has delivered real progress, but he knows that there’s more to do. Inflation is down two-thirds from its peak and annual core inflation is the lowest since May 2021. Wages are rising faster than prices over the last year and since the pandemic. Prices for key household purchases like gas, milk, eggs, and appliances are lower than a year ago. Unemployment has remained below 4% for the longest stretch in more than 50 years. He’ll keep fighting to continue lowering costs for working families.

Meanwhile, Trump and MAGA Republicans have no plan to lower costs. They’ve made clear their priorities are giving more tax breaks to the wealthy and big corporations, ripping away affordable health care, cutting Social Security and Medicare, and siding with Big Pharma. Trump’s tax giveaways to the wealthy, big corporations, and pharmaceutical companies will increase the costs of prescription drugs, utility bills, health insurance premiums, and student loan payments for millions.

There are three leading causes of the inflation we’ve seen in recent years: 

1. A once-in-a-century pandemic. The pandemic shut down the global economy and severely disrupted supply chains – putting pressures on prices across the world.
2. Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine. Because of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the price of oil and gas increased dramatically.
3. Corporate greed. Many corporations have raised prices to rip off consumers and pad their profits, charging more and more for less and less.

The pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine are both global in nature. That’s why we’ve seen historic inflation in countries all over the world. The good news: because of the actions taken by President Biden, America is in a stronger position to meet this challenge than just about any other country in the world. 

The agenda: lowering costs for prescription drugs, health care, energy costs, higher education, student debt, housing and family expenses; responsibly increasing American oil production without delaying or deferring the nation’s transition to clean energy; investing in America to ensure essential products are made right here in America; and cracking down on corporate price gouging and junk fees. 

The results to date: inflation has fallen more than 60% from its peak;  America’s economy avoided a recession; wages are rising faster than prices; incomes are higher than before the pandemic; and unemployment has remained below 4% for the longest stretch in 50 years. 

But President Biden knows we have more to do to lower costs for hardworking families. Prices are still too high for housing and groceries, even as prices for key household items like milk and eggs are lower than a year ago. That’s why he’s fighting to continue bringing down costs –  for example, just recently he proposed a bold plan to lower costs for housing – by building and renovating more than 2 million homes and making it easier to become a first-time homebuyer – and to expand his student debt relief program to 30 million Americans. In addition, he’s ramping up the pressure on corporations, including grocery retailers, to use their record profits to reduce prices.

What’s the Trump and MAGA Republican plan to lower inflation? There isn’t one. Here’s the Trump/MAGA playbook: let billionaires and large companies avoid paying their fair share in taxes even as they raise prices and reap profits from the middle class at record rates. 

Let’s not forget: Trump is the only President since the Great Depression to leave office with fewer jobs than when he came in. He proposed cutting Social Security and Medicare every year in office. He is running on plans to eliminate the Affordable Care Act and repeal limits on drug prices. His giveaways to the wealthy, big corporations, and Big Pharma will increase the cost of prescription drugs, utility bills, health insurance premiums, and student loan payments for millions.

The Inflation Reduction Act is a key part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. It is one of the cornerstones of the remarkable recovery from a pandemic that devastated the American economy and the American people. It is also one in a set of major pieces of legislation, all of which passed thanks to the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris: 

• The American Rescue Plan
• The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
• The Inflation Reduction Act
• The CHIPS and Science Act

The Inflation Reduction Act lowers prescription drug costs, health care costs, and energy costs;  is the most aggressive action on tackling the climate crisis taken in American history; and is lifting up American workers and creating good-paying, union jobs across the country. It takes steps to ensure the ultra-wealthy and corporations pay their fair share in taxes. And no one making under $400,000 per year pays a penny more in taxes.

With the Inflation Reduction Act,  President Biden took on Big Pharma and won, lowering health care costs for hard working Americans. The Inflation Reduction Act protects Medicare recipients from catastrophic drug costs by phasing in a $2,000 per year cap for out-of-pocket costs; it establishes a $35 monthly cap for insulin costs; and it gives Medicare the authority to negotiate prices for high-cost drugs for the first time ever. As a result, ten key drugs are being negotiated this year. The President is calling for 200 key drugs to be negotiated going forward. 

Together with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act, the law has helped spur over $650 billion in private sector manufacturing investments since President Biden and Vice President Harris took office. The Investing in America agenda is building more secure supply chains, driving investment to places too often left out and left behind, and is creating good-paying and union jobs.

What would happen if Trump came back into office?

Trump’s record is clear. He wants to take us backwards and is promising to undo the progress President Biden has made to bring costs down for American families. He and his MAGA allies are intent on rigging the economy for himself and his rich friends – at the expense of working families.

Here’s his record as president:  

• Trump’ 2017 tax scam benefited the wealthiest families, giving a tax cut to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans of more than $60,000 a year. 
• Using Trump’s corporate tax carve-outs, many of the biggest corporations paid $0 in income tax. Trump cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent. In the last year of Trump’s presidency, 55 of the biggest companies in America made $40 billion and paid $0 in federal income tax. 
• Trump repeatedly attempted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He fell one vote short of repealing the ACA on the Senate floor. Thanks in part to Trump’s efforts to sabotage the ACA, the number of people without health insurance coverage rose by 2.3 million from 2016 to 2019 – even before the pandemic.
• Trump tried to cut funding for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in each of his budget proposals.
• Trump sided with predatory for-profit colleges and tried to cut college affordability and debt relief programs.
• Trump increased costs for first-time homebuyers, tried to cut affordable housing programs, and gutted policies intended to help people of color access fair housing.
• Trump dismantled consumer protections and failed to protect small businesses, all in service of boosting big corporations.
• Trump fought for policies that make it harder for families to raise a child by making it more difficult for them to access food, early education, health care, and more.

Trump is running on an agenda of retribution and revenge. In addition to doubling down on his tax cuts for his super-rich friends, he’s promising to eliminate the Affordable Care Act and repeal limits on prescription drug prices. His giveaways to the wealthy, big corporations, and Big Pharma will increase the cost of prescription drugs, utility bills, health insurance premiums, and student loan payments for millions.