White House says it’s working to lower grocery prices

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — The White House says it is taking steps to reduce costs at the grocery store. It comes as prices are still too high for many families.

Big box retailers like Target, Walmart, Walgreens, and others announced they are lowering prices.

“That is really coming after the president has really taken on price gouging,” Jon Donenberg, Deputy Director of President Biden’s National Economic Council said.

Jon Donenberg, an economic advisor, says President Biden supports the Shrinkflation Prevention Act of 2024, which would direct the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to act against companies that sell products in smaller packages for the same price or higher.

This week the USDA is working to level the playing field in the poultry industry by creating more transparency in the market, something it says will lower meat prices.

“Poultry that you get at the grocery store will be more competitively priced and also a better quality,” Donenberg said.

But on Capitol Hill, Congressional Republicans have largely blamed President Joe Biden for the inflation.

“I really don’t buy it, Reshad, I think what you see in some cases is that grocery prices went up so fast, so quickly under the first three years of the Biden administration that in some ways they’ve topped off in certain places,” Sen. J.D. Vance, (R-Ohio.) said.

Senator J.D. Vance and West Virginia Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito say the president should not take credit for the drop in prices.

“All that means is the prices aren’t coming down. It just means the rate of them going up is coming down,” Moore Capito said.

The White House says Congress can help lower prices by passing President Biden’s bill to ban junk fees.

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