The economy remains a top issue in the minds of Americans in 2024. As inflation rates drop across the country and supply chains stabilize post-pandemic, voters are rightfully angry that they’re continuing to make tough decisions every day, like whether to put food on the table or pay rent, while corporations continue hiking up prices to pad their own pockets.
While polls suggest economic issues present an advantage for Republicans, the current dynamic of economic frustration provides Democrats a real opportunity to go on offense and hold Republicans accountable for corporate price gouging.
Because while Americans struggle with these high prices, companies and CEOs brag about record-high profits, and their sticker prices remain inflated.
This is by careful design—a practice called greedflation.
Corporations are bucking the trends and inflating prices to boost their profits. According to a recent report, corporate profits accounted for over half of inflation during last year’s second and third quarters. The same report found that prices for consumers rose by 3.4 percent while input costs for producers increased by just 1 percent.
These corporations don’t care about working families and they never will. The rich continue to get richer while everyday families struggle to afford their basic necessities. And Americans know this. According to recent Navigator Research polling, four in five Americans blame corporations being greedy and raising prices to make record profits as a cause of inflation, including three in five who believe that it is a “major” cause of inflation – a 15-point increase since January 2022.
But corporations are not acting alone. Flying largely under the radar is how greedflation has been enabled by the Republican politicians in Congress who have been bought and paid for by corporate PACs, dark money, and well-connected lobbyists.
For example, oil and gas companies accounted for half of all corporate contributions over $1 million to outside groups in the 2020 cycle––with every contribution going to GOP super PACs and dark money groups. And while oil and gas companies saw record profits in 2022, they spent $124 million on lobbyists.
Across industries, from retail to Big Oil, corporate PACs are shelling out big dollars to fund Republicans—corporate PACs spent $150 million last election cycle alone. Not surprisingly, the corporate PACs doling out millions are the same corporations deliberately relying on greedflation to keep their profits high and consumers’ wallets tight.
While Democrats have been hard at work to combat this profiteering—from President Biden cracking down on junk fees, Senator Elizabeth Warren’s work on shrinkflation, and Senator Bob Casey holding corporations accountable for greedflation—it’s time to go on offense.
Alongside democracy, the economy continues to be a top priority for voters. Democrats must seize this opportunity to expose Republicans’ for turning their backs on Americans in favor of protecting their corporate donors’ pockets.
In addition to running in these crucial districts and states, Democrats must take action against bankrolled Republicans in office. This means calling out their local leaders and their party bosses, like Minority Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and Majority House Leader Steve Scalise, for accepting tens of millions of dollars in corporate PAC contributions to vote against and block legislation that cracks down on greedflation and profiteering—like the Inflation Reduction Act.
The GOP has never seen a problem that can’t be solved by a corporate tax break and staunchly opposes bills to hold corporations accountable and bring down costs for working families, like the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act and the Price Gouging Prevention Act.
And it’s no coincidence that the first major bill passed by the Republican-controlled House this Congress was a handout to the Big Oil industry and its deregulatory agenda.
Just in case you needed a reminder of where the GOP’s priorities lie: Republicans will never stand against their corporate donors.
To win in November, Democrats must make the contrast clear that on the economy, it’s Republicans who are doing the bidding of their corporate donors and fueling greedflation.
Only then will we be able to make real change—both in our policies and in our wallets
