We know the GOP will put inflation front and center in their list of complaints about the Democrats during the general election campaign. What can the Democrats do to fight back?
Ask the right questions in public. The bottom line is that the Republicans have no plan for dealing with inflation other than to cut spending on safety net programs (and, in all likelihood, taxes for business). That obviously won’t help lower prices. If, as seems likely, the GOP candidates argue that the 2020 pandemic legislation was too generous to workers and should not have included the stimulus, it is fair to ask the voters if they would be willing to give the money back in exchange for slightly lower inflation. It is also appropriate to inquire as to what level of unemployment the GOP candidate thinks would be acceptable to reduce inflation back to 2 percent, and to point out that Trump supported stimulus checks during his campaign.
The point here is that the Democrats will lose big on this issue if they just run on the results of their own program and whine about supply chain problems. Showing the emptiness of the opposition agenda is essential.