america s fury. also with us cnn political analyst kirsten powers. her new book is saving grace: speak your truth, stay centered and learn to co-exist with people who drive you nuts. also with us our senior political analyst, former presidential adviser, david gergen. kirsten, let s talk about president biden. he s admitting that inflation is a real bump in the road but his administration is clearly frustrated that americans aren t feeling some of the bright spots in the economy right now. how challenging does this make for their messaging? it s extremely challenging because one thing you don t want to do when you are president is to tell people that they are imagining things. so i think it s good to acknowledge that this is a problem, this is something that s happening and for the biden administration, it s a somewhat complex situation. and so, yes, there are a lot of great things that are happening
expansive economic bill with inflation numbers this high. i don t know the answer to that. i ll be talking to him the beginning of the week. reporter: manch sin concerned more federal spending now will make inflation worse but the president is pushing back. economists think it s going to diminish the impact on inflation because it s reducing costs for ordinary people. reducing costs for ordinary people. reporter: manchin is also concerned by the cost of the bill overall. i talked to him this morning. he was stunned. reporter: in a new report requested by republicans found the temperature rtemporary boos is made permanent it could add trillions to the price tag. this was about extending all of the programs that would expire without paying for them. the president would pay for them. there s no bill that exists on this front. reporter: inflation also a top concern for voters who are paying more for food, gas, rent and used cars. but some of the biggest drivers of inflation
politics, comes out of the bible. he talks about the fact that for everything there is a season. and this is unfortunately a very bad season to be having this kind of inflation. you have people that are shopping a lot. going to the gas pump a lot. traveling a lot. he knows that. he s been doing this a long time and recognizes that you have to recognize that. he said today it s a bump in the road. it feels to people like it may be more than that. it s the comealated effect. look, the statistics show people have elevated blood pressure from the effects of the last two years. that s not metaphor. that s fact. they are feeling strain. what the white house is trying to do now is to say we get it. and we re connecting this to real policy changes. give you one example. one of the things they ve take own is anti-competitive behavior. our policies are designed to prevent the kind of exploitive practices that make price goes up. bear with us. but they it s going to be a long season before they
peak. the bad news is that inflation could get worse in the coming months. and the last few months have shown how hard it is to predict anything in the covid economy. very few people thought inflation would be this hot for this long. and yet here we are. here s what we do know. consumer prices up by 6.8% from a year ago. biggest jump since 1982. inflation is accelerating. month over month, we did see inflation decelerate just a bit but it is still at elevated levels. what s really striking is how inflation is really an issue across the board. we are seeing price spikes on everything from coffee and eggs to used cars. we also saw in november record price spikes on full-service meals, tools and hardware, new cars and trucks. it s also important to understand why this is happening and it s really all about supply and demand and covid. demand is surging right now as the economy bounces back from covid. but there s all of these supply chain bottlenecks that are
ally. he s now accusing the former israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu of disloyalty. i ll speak with a journalist who said trump wrote off his pal with two words, f him. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. tonight the white house is facing a double threat from soaring inflation. it s adding a new challenge to its agenda. it appears to be taking a toll on the poll numbers. kaitlan collins is joining us right now. inflation is now, what, a 39-year high here in the united states and that s posing a real problem for the president. yeah, and, wolf, these are numbers the white house was bracing for. they tried to get out ahead of them yesterday saying they don t think it paints the full picture of where the u.s. economy stands right now. but they have to balance that with acknowledging that, yes, prices are up and consumers are