President Joe Biden got heated speaking about foreign shipping companies on Friday, likening his frustrations with the hike in prices to wanting to "pop" someone.
"I have to admit to you, a lot of us elected officials have been in office for a while. Every once in a while, something you learn makes you viscerally angry. Like if you had the person in front of you, you'd want to pop them," Biden said from the Port of Los Angeles, America's busiest, on Friday afternoon. "No, I really mean it."
"There are nine major ocean line shipping companies that ship from Asia to the United States. Nine. They formed three Consortium," the president continued. "These companies have raised their prices by as much as 1,000 percent. So, everything coming from Asia, they take 90-some percent of the stuff coming from Asia. They've raised it by 1,000 percent."
To fight those hikes, Biden said he is calling on Congress to "crack down" on foreign-owned shipping companies that are raising prices despite still raking in $190 billion in profit—"a seven-fold increase in one year."
On Friday, Biden said that the increased costs from those nine shipping companies affect "everything" Americans do, from food to transportation to home goods. He positioned his congressional push to lower the cost of supply chains as part of his plan to fight inflation—an issue his his administration has repeatedly blamed on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"I'm doing everything in my power to blunt [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's price hike, and bring down the cost of gas and food," Biden said. "I led the world to coordinate the largest release of the global oil reserves in history—240 million barrels to boost supply to keep price from rising even more."
Without any relief, Americans are continuing to feel the effects of inflation when filling up the tank and shopping for groceries. And the economic challenge those prices have mounted onto Biden refuse to back down.
Earlier in they day, the Labor Department announced that U.S. inflation hit a new 40-year high last month, rising a whole percent between April and May.
"Today's inflation report confirm what Americans already know. Putin's price hike is hitting America hard. Gas prices at the pump, energy and food prices account for half of the monthly price increases since May," Biden said in his speech.
"I understand Americans are anxious, and they're anxious for a good reason. I was raised in a household when the price of gasoline rose precipitously. It was the discussion at the table," Biden said from California. "It made a difference when food prices went up but we've never seen anything like Putin's tax on both food and gas."
Despite his acknowledgement of inflation, Biden promoted a vision of a healthy economy, touting the historic low unemployment rate and a decrease in the federal deficit that have occurred during his time in office.
"Because of the progress, American can tackle inflation from a position of strength unlike any other country in the world, because every country in the world is getting a big bite and piece of this inflation—worse than we are in the vast majority countries around the world," he said.
"We got to continue building this economy from the bottom up and the middle out," he added. "I am so sick and tired of trickle-down economics. It does not work."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Katherine Fung is a Newsweek reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and world politics. ... Read more
