President Joe Biden is weighing how hard to hammer big food companies over painfully high grocery prices in his upcoming State of the Union Address. But some some aides remain wary of focusing too much on food inflation, given how little power the president has to singlehandedly force down prices.

Biden embraced the concept of “shrinkflation” in a Super Bowl message targeting major snack food corporations — as the president framed it, there are now “fewer chips” in your bag, while companies are “still charging you just as much.”

And the White House has been aggressively testing out the messaging on the airwaves and in internal polling ahead of Biden’s speech, according to two White House officials familiar with the matter, who were not authorized to speak on the issue and were granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations. Recent polling circulated within the White House has been favorable to Biden’s push to blast what he’s described on the campaign trail as “corporate greed” driving higher prices across a range of sectors.

  • Ashyr@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    It literally says in the summary that he’s hesitant to discuss it too much because it’s not something he has direct control over.

    The bully pulpit is what he’s got for now and I’m glad he’s using it, but the danger is that he looks like a feckless old man when nothing changes.