US President Joe Biden expressed that fighting inflation was his top economic priority with the recent statement from the White House explaining why the country is going through its highest inflation spike since 1981. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s price hike hit the US and the world hard in May 2022. Thus, high gas prices at the pump, energy, as well as food prices, made up for nearly half of the monthly price spikes. In many places, the gas pump prices are up by $2 a gallon, since Russian troops entered Ukraine on February 24. The White House statement reads, “Even as we continue our work to defend freedom in Ukraine, we must do more—and quickly—to get prices down here in the United States.” 

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Both the disruption in energy supply chains and the US sanctions on Russian energy have contributed to the price rise. 

The statement goes on to explain that prices at the pump are a major cause of the inflation and the war in Ukraine is a major cause behind the prices at the pump. Biden, however, proposed a solution to this conundrum, saying that the US is working to produce a record amount of oil the next year, and the 79-year-old Democrat also assured he’s working with the industry to further “accelerate output”. 

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“But it is also important that the oil and gas and refining industries in this country not use the challenge created by the war in Ukraine as a reason to make things worse for families with excessive profit taking or price hikes”, the White House statement reads. 

As per government data, the US saw inflation rates jump to 8.6% in May, which is the highest the nation has seen in 40 years. Thus, the Biden administration has put some steps in place to control prices but the president noted that the Republicans’ way of increasing taxes on the middle class and working families was not the way to go about it.