Biden maintains his Build Back Better plan will 'ease inflationary pressures'

President Biden has responded to Wednesday's Labor Department report, which — unfortunately for the White House, which "had been emphasizing a recent slowdown in price gains" — saw inflation in October reach a "three-decade high."

The president began his statement by noting the good news — "we learned that we have had six consecutive weeks of decline in new unemployment claims" — before moving to the bad: "Inflation hurts Americans' pocketbooks, and reversing this trend is a top priority for me."

Biden then attributed the largest share of price increases to rising energy costs, which he said he has asked both his National Economic Council and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate. The president also re-emphasized his "commitment to the independence of the Federal Reserve to monitor inflation, and take steps necessary to combat it."

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Looking ahead, Biden continued, Congress must finally pass his Build Back Better social safety net plan, which "17 Nobel Prize winners in economics" have said will "ease inflationary pressures."

"We are making progress on our recovery," the president concluded. "We have more work to do, but there is no question that the economy continues to recover and is in much better shape today than it was a year ago."

Of course, however, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), had some different things to say.