This article is a year old and I was impressed that the Conservative Think tank at the time put the blame on Trump:
Fact-checking Republican attempts to blame inflation on Democrats
Facts First: While some economists say the stimulus packages passed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic are having an impact on inflation, it's misleading to suggest that's the only explanation for the recent rise in inflation. Blaming it exclusively on Democratic spending proposals misrepresents what's actually been passed, and ignores the trillions of dollars in spending passed last year supported by Republicans and signed by then-President Donald Trump which economists say have also contributed to inflation.
Last year, Congress passed two bills totaling around $3 trillion in Covid relief spending -- the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act passed in March 2020, and the $900 billion pandemic relief bill passed in December 2020. Both were signed by Trump and supported by Republicans. The economic stimulus packages, including the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan signed by Biden in March 2021, which contained at least one tax credit program which is already in effect, have contributed to inflationary pressures but are not the only reason behind the spike, experts say.
"Inflationary pressures are arising from a variety of factors: supply chain issues, the reopening of the economy, over $2 trillion of excess household savings, accommodative monetary policy, President Trump's $900 billion December stimulus, and the President's $1.9 trillion stimulus," said Michael Strain, Director of Economic Policy Studies for
conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute.
Jason Furman, the Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, noted that the stimulus checks included in all three Covid relief packages, not the tax credits in the American Rescue Plan, were likely responsible for any impact on inflation those policies had.
"The tax credit's relatively small compared to the economy as a whole," Furman said. "If you want to call the checks a tax policy, yes I think that did contribute to inflation."
Furman, a Democrat who previously worked for the Obama administration, acknowledged that the American Rescue Plan has contributed somewhat to inflation, but said, "I think the biggest thing that's contributed to inflation is just restarting an economy," something other countries recovering from the pandemic have also experienced.
Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, told CNN that "The jump in inflation has nothing to do with tax and spending policies." According to Zandi, inflation is being temporarily driven by "a one-time adjustment in prices" following a decrease last spring when the pandemic erupted, supply chain constraints which have limited production and an increase in demand as the economy reopens.
"Businesses that slashed prices during the height of the pandemic, such as hotels, airlines, rental car companies, etc. are simply raising prices back to where they were pre-pandemic," Zandi said, adding that, "the supply-side of the economy has lagged demand as the pandemic continues to struggle with scrambled global supply chains."