President Joe Biden just gave a speech on “New Actions to Lower Costs for Hardworking Families by Fighting Corporate Rip-offs” and, in it, ended up giving a meandering defense of his administration’s economic policies in which he attacked companies for “shrinkflation,” bringing up the Cookie Monster while doing so.
Leading off his attack on companies, Biden indicated that he thinks America has a system of “exploitation” rather than “capitalism.” saying, “I’ve said before, capitalism without competition is — is not capitalism; it’s exploitation. And that’s what we’ve been seeing. Although it’s in small scale in the minds of many people, when you add up those numbers, they’re gigantic. And we’re taking it on.”
Then, switching tacks to briefly blame inflation on the pandemic rather than massive government spending, Biden claimed, “Here’s what’s happening: The pandemic disrupted the supply chains. We all know that. I — I remember — I didn’t think as many people had any idea what a supply chain was, and we all learned really quickly.”
Continuing on that “not my fault” explanation of inflation, Biden argued, “It drove up costs on everything from smartphones to automobiles. But it also — now those costs are making things — have come down, but the prices haven’t come down. They’ve stayed up. They’ve stayed high, and the profits have soared. And it’s time for those prices to come back down. Look, the good news is inflation is the lowest it’s been in three years. In the last — in last year alone, inflation came down by two thirds. We have one of the lowest inflation rates in the world.”
That’s when he returned to the line of attack on companies, blaming them for inflation by claiming that price hikes are attempts to “pad their profits” and ignoring that, in many cases, the real reason for increased prices is their input inflation and the corresponding need to make up for it. He said, “Many companies have done the right thing: They’ve helped lower costs for Americans. But even as supply chains are back to normal, some companies are still not passing along the savings to their consumers. Many corporations are raising their prices to pad their profits, charging folks more and more for less and less.”
Giving a supposed example, Biden pointed to potato chip bags as being a key shrinkflation culprit, claiming, “In fact, some of the small snack companies you won’t and — think you won’t even notice what they’re doing when they charge you just as much for the same size bag of potato chips, only it has a hell of a lot fewer chips in it.”
Then Biden got to his Cookie Monster claim. As the audience laughed, Biden said, “I’ll tell you what — I’ll tell you who did notice: the Cookie Monster. He pointed out cookies are — his cookies are getting smaller. He’s paying the same price. I was stunned when I found out that’s what actually happened.”
Watch the laughing and Cookie Monster bit here:
The American Tribune.com
POLITICAL COMMENTARY
WATCH: Audience Laughs As Brandon Brings Up Cookie Monster In Meandering Speech On Bidenflation
By Will TannerMarch 6, 2024Updated:March 6, 2024
President Joe Biden just gave a speech on “New Actions to Lower Costs for Hardworking Families by Fighting Corporate Rip-offs” and, in it, ended up giving a meandering defense of his administration’s economic policies in which he attacked companies for “shrinkflation,” bringing up the Cookie Monster while doing so.
Leading off his attack on companies, Biden indicated that he thinks America has a system of “exploitation” rather than “capitalism.” saying, “I’ve said before, capitalism without competition is — is not capitalism; it’s exploitation. And that’s what we’ve been seeing. Although it’s in small scale in the minds of many people, when you add up those numbers, they’re gigantic. And we’re taking it on.”
Then, switching tacks to briefly blame inflation on the pandemic rather than massive government spending, Biden claimed, “Here’s what’s happening: The pandemic disrupted the supply chains. We all know that. I — I remember — I didn’t think as many people had any idea what a supply chain was, and we all learned really quickly.”
Continuing on that “not my fault” explanation of inflation, Biden argued, “It drove up costs on everything from smartphones to automobiles. But it also — now those costs are making things — have come down, but the prices haven’t come down. They’ve stayed up. They’ve stayed high, and the profits have soared. And it’s time for those prices to come back down. Look, the good news is inflation is the lowest it’s been in three years. In the last — in last year alone, inflation came down by two thirds. We have one of the lowest inflation rates in the world.”
That’s when he returned to the line of attack on companies, blaming them for inflation by claiming that price hikes are attempts to “pad their profits” and ignoring that, in many cases, the real reason for increased prices is their input inflation and the corresponding need to make up for it. He said, “Many companies have done the right thing: They’ve helped lower costs for Americans. But even as supply chains are back to normal, some companies are still not passing along the savings to their consumers. Many corporations are raising their prices to pad their profits, charging folks more and more for less and less.”
Giving a supposed example, Biden pointed to potato chip bags as being a key shrinkflation culprit, claiming, “In fact, some of the small snack companies you won’t and — think you won’t even notice what they’re doing when they charge you just as much for the same size bag of potato chips, only it has a hell of a lot fewer chips in it.”
Then Biden got to his Cookie Monster claim. As the audience laughed, Biden said, “I’ll tell you what — I’ll tell you who did notice: the Cookie Monster. He pointed out cookies are — his cookies are getting smaller. He’s paying the same price. I was stunned when I found out that’s what actually happened.”
Watch the laughing and Cookie Monster bit here:
Audience Laughs As Brandon Brings Up Cookie Monster In Meandering Speech On Bidenflation
After Biden was done using Cookie Monster as a shrinkflation example, he returned to attacking companies, claiming, “But some companies are also adding junk fees — you know, the hidden costs that are added to the — your bill without your knowledge. And some companies have been even caught breaking the law while overcharging consumers. The American people are tired of being played for suckers. I mean, it’s one thing — no matter how much money you make, no matter how rich or poor or middle class you are, you don’t like being taken advantage of.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
