DV Journal

Milk costs more. Meat is more expensive.  Clothing is pricier. New cars, even used cars–forget about it!

With the Consumer Price Index released on Wednesday showing a 6.2 percent increase over the last 12 months, inflation is now at a 31- year high. Wholesale prices are also rising, up 8.6 percent since this time last year.

What does that mean for families in the Delaware Valley?

Deanna Doane, president of the Wayne Business Association, said her members are seeing prices rise every day and have no choice but to pass costs on to their customers. For restaurants the price of food is higher and so is the cost of labor, she said.

“Now we are going to have to increase prices and that hits the local community. We are a restaurant town and it’s very hard for restaurants. (Inflation) makes it hard on small businesses,” said Doane, who owns Click Canyon Digital Marketing.

Asked on Facebook to comment on what they’ve bought recently that’s more expensive, Radnor resident Amy Wishner said paint, while Frank Clayton of Hamilton Square, N.J. said wood. He spent $400 for seven cedar planks for his deck.

“Inflation is the cruelest tax as it hurts everyone, everywhere, every day,” said Guy Ciarrocchi, president of the Chester County Chamber of Business & Industry and a Republican candidate for governor. “It’s been caused by very bad decisions—like stopping American energy production. It reduces the supply and forces us to import. That hurts us at the gas pump and heating our homes.

“Gov. Tom Wolf has made things worse by creating a workforce shortage, critics say. That also harms the supply chain and causes prices to go up—and gives consumers less selection. This government-caused problem must be fixed by government—now—so that private citizens can move on with our lives,” Ciarrocchi said.

Meanwhile, Nate Benefield, senior vice president at the Commonwealth Foundation, a free-market think tank, put the blame squarely on the federal government.

“The fact that inflation is at the highest level in decades should be no surprise to anyone,” said Benefield. “That’s what happens when the government prints more money to fund massive deficits. Voters are increasingly aware of the consequences of “free money”—higher prices, smaller packages, and shortages, all of which hurt low-income households the hardest. Policymakers—at the federal, state, and local levels—need to act now to rein in government spending to protect working families.”

But U.S. Representative Madeleine Dean (D-Montgomery) rejected the often-made argument that federal spending leads to inflation during a Zoom press conference to tout the recently approved $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.

“This bill, the infrastructure bill, will be an economic engine,” said Dean. “It will relieve inflationary status right now…As we do invest in infrastructure, the supply chain problems will be eased.”

Republican Christian Nascimento, who is running for Dean’s seat, thinks Dean’s stance runs against basic economics and real-life experience. “People are finding that stores are out of stock on goods, and what they do have is more expensive than ever.  When consumers spend more on everyday goods, they have less money to save for an emergency. That puts families in a precarious position and can keep people from rising to the middle class.

“The local businesses that I speak with every day are being forced to raise their own prices due to their cost of goods rising – and that’s assuming that they can find employees to help them remain open. All that the (Biden) administration and members of Congress have been able to do lament high gas prices and suggest that we lower our expectations and consider this a ‘new normal.’

“My fear is that all of the impending and proposed government spending will make this situation that much worse, and continue to increase prices in anticipation of a flood of spending, without a significant improvement in the supply chain,” Nascimento said.

And David Galluch, a Republican candidate for Congress in Delaware County, said, “Inflation is taking its toll on everyone. Last month we saw the largest jump in prices on a yearly basis, 6.2 percent, in over 30 years. People are paying more for food, more for gas, and more for daily essentials they can’t live without. Growing up with a single mom, who worked two jobs most of my childhood, I know first-hand how hard these price increases are on all of us.

“Unfortunately, this spike in inflation may very well climb due to President Biden’s intention to increase government spending further. If he and Congress continue on their current course, inflation will continue unabated and the Fed may eventually need to raise interest rates sharply to counteract inflationary pressure. At that point, we risk a recession, which would further compound the pain American families will feel,” Galluch said.

Jeff Bartos, a Montgomery County businessman who is running for the U.S. Senate, agreed the Biden administration is to blame.

“As a direct result of Joe Biden’s disastrous economic policies, inflation is running away to record highs and is impacting Pennsylvania families every day,” Bartos said. “From the grocery store to the gas pump, working families are feeling the devastating effects of the Biden administration’s inflation crisis. Whether you are running a small business or in charge of your family’s finances, your hard-earned dollars aren’t going as far, and the rising price of everyday necessities is impacting your life. Make no mistake, this is Joe Biden’s tax on Main Street businesses and working families.”

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In a newly-uncovered video, President Joe Biden’s nominee to help oversee the nation’s banking system says that if small U.S. oil and gas companies went bankrupt, that would be a good thing.

It’s a suggestion that in the current climate — gasoline prices soaring and some consumers looking at 50 percent hikes in energy costs this winter – may not be such a “good thing” for getting her nomination through a 50-50 Senate.

Saule Omarova, tapped by Biden to run the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, has been embroiled in controversy since her nomination was first announced. While she did hold a minor role in the George W. Bush Treasury Department, her economic resume is nontraditional at best.

While a student at Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia, not Moscow, Idaho) where she was a “V.I. Lenin Personal Academic Scholarship” recipient, Omarova wrote her thesis on “Karl Marx’s Economic Analysis and the Theory of Revolution in The Capital.” Now that she’s been nominated to one of the top financial positions in the administration, Republican senators like Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania moderate, want her to release a copy as part of the vetting process.

Thus far, she has refused.

“Republicans will overwhelmingly oppose this self-described radical,” Toomey said last month. Professor Omarova “has been celebrated on the far left for promoting ideas she herself has described as radical,” including advocating for “effectively end[ing] banking as we know it.”

Now a video of Omarova addressing the Jain Family Institute’s 2021 Social Wealth Seminar in March has raised new concerns.

“Here what I’m thinking about is primarily coal industry and oil and gas industry,” said Omarova in a video clip unearthed by American Accountability Foundation (AAF). “A lot of the smaller players in that industry are going to probably go bankrupt in short order — at least, we want them to go bankrupt if we want to tackle climate change.”

Omarova went on to say that “we cannot afford” the economic fallout and job losses that would ensue if the U.S. were to bankrupt oil companies. But given her progressive politics — she’s proposed having all private bank deposits go to the federal government in order to “democratize money” — her sentiments are hard for the energy sector to ignore.

“This is ludicrous,” says Dan Weaver, president and executive director of Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association, a membership organization with businesses large and small, some of them family-owned operations. “That idea is preposterous and sickening, to say the least.”

“This is a reminder that there are opponents of oil and gas who are in high positions or seeking high positions in the Biden administration,” says Dan Kish of the Institute for Energy Research (IEA) and American Energy Alliance (AEA). “I think people see that at the pump. They’ve seen reports that they’re going to pay more this winter.”

The timing of the new revelation is problematic for Biden and his Democratic allies. The White House has taken several high-profile actions to discourage domestic fossil fuel production, even as consumers have been hit with higher gasoline prices and warnings that home heating costs this winter will soar.

The Biden administration even asked OPEC to increase production to help people dealing with high gas and heating oil prices. OPEC declined, leading critics to say the administration should rethink its steps against domestic oil and gas production.

Locally, U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Valerie Arkoosh is calling for a statewide ban on fracking, despite the billions in economic impact from the industry.

“We’ve already seen Keystone XL pipeline workers lose their jobs, we’ve seen people’s businesses and their family budgets hurt by higher gas prices and ultimately that’s the game,” says Kish. “The game is to drive energy costs to skyrocketing levels and make it very difficult for people to use a kind of energy they use in the hopes that they’ll go and use the stuff that they want to use.

“Natural gas generation is leading to a cleaner atmosphere,” added Weaver, pointing to data from EIA. “The science is there, and if we were to ‘bankrupt’ all the oil and gas companies here, where is the energy coming from? What about the thousands of products that we use every day that don’t come from anything other than those feedstocks?”

The White House continues to back the troubled nomination. “Saule Omarova is eminently qualified and was nominated for this role because of her lifetime of work on financial regulation, including in the private sector, in government, and as a leading academic in the field. The White House continues to strongly support her historic nomination,” they said in a statement to Fox News.

And while Toomey has been an outspoken opponent, Pennsylvania’s other senator, Democrat Bob Casey, has been silent.

All things considered, Kish says it does not surprise him that somebody connected to the Biden administration feels this way about oil and gas.

“What surprises me is that she mistakingly said it publicly, or at least in a way that became public,” says Kish. “I don’t think she expected it to become public.”

Delaware Valley U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Montgomery) called the newly-passed infrastructure bill “an economic engine” during a Democratic Zoom press conference touting the legislation.

Several Pennsylvania Democratic members of Congress joined the call Wednesday to take a victory lap over the passage of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Biden administration says it will bring more than $15 billion to Pennsylvania over five years.

Asked whether the bill, coupled with the pending $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act, will add to what is already a 31-year high level of inflation—up 6.2 percent in the last year–the Democratic lawmakers insisted it would not.

Congresswoman Susan Wild (D-Lehigh/Northampton) said “responsible journalists” would not suggest these massive spending bills would “directly affect the current state of inflation.”

Dean agreed.

“I think a lot of what we’re doing here is actually going to curb inflation over the next few months…We’re going to see getting people back to work, getting our supply chains working…I hope nobody is going to tie the passage of these two bills to the current inflation rates because there is simply no relationship.”

President Joe Biden was careful to look at where the resources are coming from to pay for these bills, she said.

“I am mindful, and I want to acknowledge, my constituents asked me about their concerns about inflation, cost of goods, cost of gas, so that is real. But these two bills are not the problem. The problem is multi-faceted and it’s certainly deeply connected to COVID and an economic closure and then once you reopen an economy, how you rebound from that closure. These two bills are going to be extraordinary economic engines for our future.”

Congressman Matt Cartwright (D-Wayne/Pike/Lackawanna) said the last time there was a similar investment in American infrastructure was under President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s, when the interstate highway system was built. And he added “top economists” note that when companies produce more it will bring the prices down and this bill will “grease the skids” to allow them to do that.

“These inflationary pressures that we’re seeing, they all have to do with reopening our economy after COVID,” he said. “Obviously, the demand has outstripped the supply.” He also noted that Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, has tools “at his disposal” to put the brakes on it.

“We’re not particularly worried about inflation getting out of hand. We can control that,” said Cartwright.

In her remarks on the bill, Dean said her district is “an older ring suburb of Philadelphia which is crying out for this type of investment.”

The bill will bring $11 billion to roads and bridges to Pennsylvania: $100 million to broadband, 2.8 billion for public transportation, $355 million for airports, $240 million for weatherizing, and $1.4 billion for safe drinking water.

Congressman Dwight Evans (D-Philadelphia) said the bill will bring money for improvements to public transportation and add more jobs.

“It is very beneficial,” said Evans. “SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority) just settled a contract because of the American Rescue Act. And now the infrastructure…When you talk about SEPTA and what it means to the entire region…And all of us who are on this phone today all played key roles in making this happen, working with the president and vice president.”

“This is building on what we did before at the state level,” said Evans.

“It’s something everybody Democratic and Republican can be proud of,” said Dean.

Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Bucks), who was one of 13 Republicans who voted for the bill, was not on the Democrats’ virtual press conference. However, he released this statement: “This is a victory for not only the people of Pennsylvania but for the entire country. The federal government has created the crisis of deteriorating roads, defunct bridges, and vulnerable dams and levees through its inaction. These types of arteries are the lifeblood of American commerce and must be improved. America’s infrastructure has reached a breaking point, and this is a challenge we can no longer ignore.

“From the start, I have insisted on the passage of a hard infrastructure bill, delinked from any other partisan, social spending package. This bipartisan, physical infrastructure bill, which passed the Senate in August with strong Republican support, is entirely separate from the partisan reconciliation bill, which I oppose.

“The bipartisan infrastructure package is completely paid for, primarily by unspent COVID-19 relief funds, and will create a dedicated funding stream for our nation’s infrastructure network. I look forward to the President signing this landmark physical infrastructure legislation into law so that we can bring America’s infrastructure network into the 21st century, create jobs, and improve the health and safety of the American people,” Fitzpatrick said.

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Pennsylvania private businesses with 100 or more employees could face fines ranging from $13,653 up to $136,532 for violating the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate, officials said Thursday.

Nearly two months ago, President Joe Biden announced two mandates on American workers: Federal employees and contractors must get the COVID-19 vaccine or face punishments up to and including being fired; and large private businesses must require employees to either get vaccinated or undergo regular testing.

“We’ve been patient,” Biden said on September 9, “but our patience is wearing thin. And your refusal has cost all of us.”

In the weeks that followed, American businesses anxiously awaited the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue its emergency temporary standard (ETS) forcing businesses to comply. On Thursday, the regulatory shoe finally dropped.

“The ETS requires covered employers to develop, implement, and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, with an exception for employers that instead establish, implement, and enforce a policy allowing employees who are not fully vaccinated to elect to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering at the workplace,” the order reads. The implementation has been delayed until January 4, 2022.

OSHA will conduct onsite workplace inspections in an attempt to enforce compliance.

The Biden administration recently released rules surrounding its small business vaccine mandate, which would hit small businesses with fines from $13,653 to $136,532, if found in violation of the vaccine rules. Businesses with 100 or more employees have until Jan. 4 to comply.

Chris Gustason, a spokesman for the Republican Governors Association,  said Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and his administration have embraced and praised Biden’s “job-killing mandate,” meaning huge fines are on the horizon for small businesses across Pennsylvania, he said.

Also, Attorney General Josh Shapiro helped Wolf shut down small businesses and stood by the governor’s COVID policies, Gustason said. Shapiro, a Democrat is running for governor.

“After forcing countless Pennsylvania small businesses to shutter, leading to a 6.2 percent unemployment rate, you’d think Tom Wolf would have changed course, but apparently his war on small businesses is just getting started,” said Gustafson. “By adopting Joe Biden’s federal vaccine overreach, Wolf is all but ensuring Pennsylvania’s lackluster economic recovery will only get worse.”

Republican candidate for governor, Lou Barletta, a former congressman and mayor, called the policy unconstitutional.

“Joe Biden doesn’t have the authority to impose this unconstitutional mandate on people requiring them to inject something into their bodies against their will or face unemployment. Biden’s failed policies have already crushed the economic recovery that was underway when he took office, and this mandate will make things even worse. Further, while he claims to ‘follow the science,’ his mandate fails to recognize the natural immunity of people who have already recovered from COVID, which studies show is just as effective as, or stronger than, the vaccine.

“People should get vaccinated if that is their personal choice,” said Barletta. “But the government has no business ordering people to do it. Josh Shapiro no doubt supports this unlawful exertion of federal power, proving that he is even more unqualified to be governor of Pennsylvania than we previously thought.”

And Elizabeth Stelle, director of policy analysis at the free-market Commonwealth Foundation, said, “In a time when workers are choosing to leave their jobs and there are ongoing supply chain shortages, the last thing our economy needs is another mandate that makes it more difficult to hire. The key to jumpstarting Pennsylvania’s economy is changing the way we regulate and tax small businesses.”

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