Former Trump Advisor Says Inflation Will Help to Kill Biden's Spending Plan

A former economic adviser to former President Donald Trump has said record inflation will help Republicans to defeat President Joe Biden's proposed $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act.

Stephen Moore, who is now a leader of a coalition of conservative groups opposed to the infrastructure and social spending bill, said on Friday that there is now a "50-50 chance" of stopping it.

The Consumer Price Index for October recorded a 6.2 percent increase year on year - its highest level in 30 years. Those figures were published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday.

"Inflation is really resonating with people," Moore said.

"I give us a 50-50 chance now of killing this bill," he added.

Moore mentioned Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) who has publicly expressed concerns about inflation and Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who often supports Manchin's position.

"Whatever the House does, Manchin and Sinema have an absolutely veto over what goes in this bill," Moore said.

Moore said that the coalition is working with Republicans in the House and Senate on messaging around the bill for 10 weeks.

"Our strategy has been delay, delay, delay," he said. "The more the public finds out about this bill, the less popular it becomes."

Moore claimed that certain measures in the bill would discourage work and lead to the loss of between six and eight million workers. Those measures include an expanded child tax credit and Obamacare subsidies. He believes this would have the effect of driving up prices.

President Biden has made entirely the opposite argument, saying in a statement on Wednesday that the Build Back Better Act would reduce long-term inflation.

"17 Nobel Prize winners in economics have said that my plan will 'ease inflationary pressures," Biden's statement said. "And my plan does this without raising taxes on those making less than $400,000 or adding to the federal debt, by requiring the wealthiest and big corporations to start to pay their fair share in taxes."

Biden has also said that the recently passed $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill "will help ease inflationary pressures, lowering costs for working families." He will sign that bill at a White House ceremony on Monday.

However, Moore is correct that Manchin is a crucial part of passing the Build Back Better Act. Every Democratic senator will have to approve the final bill as the party hopes to pass it through the budget reconciliation process and without GOP support.

Manchin expressed concern about inflation on Wednesday, tweeting: "From the grocery store to the gas pump, Americans know the inflation tax is real and DC can no longer ignore the economic pain Americans feel every day."

The senator has also previously suggested that a large spending bill could make inflation worse and that he would not support such legislation.