“Shrinkflation” is the word du jour for the Biden administration, which is readying for the president to discuss the economy in his annual State of the Union address.
Shrinkflation, a portmanteau of “shrink” and “inflation,” has become a popular term for corporate greed among the more liberal lawmakers in the Democratic Party. They contend that corporations are cheating consumers by giving them less product for the same price — shrinkflation.
But the Biden administration only just recently began to echo those same sentiments. The pushing of the shrinkflation line ahead of the State of the Union could be seen as a way to deflect blame for the inflation of the past few years onto corporations rather than on economic policies implemented by President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats.
Still, Republicans have dismissed Biden’s attacks on shrinkflation, arguing that excessive spending by the administration, coupled with Federal Reserve monetary policy during the pandemic, is mainly to blame.
“Shrinkflation is real, but it’s not a partisan issue. Shrinkflation is part of the great COVID inflation,” Ryan Young, senior economist at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, recently told the Washington Examiner.
Shrinkflation is factored into official statistics for inflation, such as the consumer price index. In other words, the inflation statistics commonly cited by officials and the media already reflect any such adjustments by manufacturers.
Just weeks ago, Biden posted a video ad on social media railing against the practice.
“While you were Super Bowl shopping, did you notice smaller-than-usual products where the price stays the same?” Biden posted on X. “Folks are calling it Shrinkflation and it means companies are giving you less for every dollar you spend. I’m calling on the big consumer brands to put a stop to it.”
“American public is tired of being played for suckers,” Biden said in the video.
The phrase appears to be gaining traction. Google searches for shrinkflation are up, according to Google Trends data.
Shrinkflation has even made its way to Sesame Street. The X account for Cookie Monster recently featured a tweet that read, “Me hate shrinkflation! Me cookies are getting smaller.”
Piggybacking off of that and sticking to the Sesame Street theme, the White House account added, “C is for consumers getting ripped off. President Biden is calling on companies to put a stop to shrinkflation.”
Biden also discussed shrinkflation in terms of Sesame Street during an event at the White House.
“I’ll tell you what, I tell you who did notice, Cookie Monster. He pointed out cookies, or his cookies are getting smaller, paying the same price,” Biden said, according to NBC News. “I was stunned when I found out that’s what actually happened.”
“Many corporations are raising their prices, pad the profits, charging folks more and more for less and less,” Biden continued. “In fact, some of the small snack companies, you won’t — think you won’t even notice what they’re doing when they charge you just as much for the same size bag of potato chips, only there’s a helluva lot fewer chips in it.”
The popular children’s show wading into U.S. economic policy was controversial and was even derided by puppeteer Frank Oz, who was an early collaborator with Sesame Street founder Jim Henson. Oz questioned the “integrity of the Sesame Workshop” in a post on social media.
Biden is facing a tough reelection challenge, and the pivot toward shrinkflation might be a new effort to deflect blame for the nearly three years of too-high inflation, which has made life more unaffordable for consumers and caused voters to sour on Biden and the economy, despite other favorable economic trends, such as strong output and job growth.
It is likely that Biden mentions corporate greed and shrinkflation during his Thursday State of the Union address, echoing the talking points that more liberal Democrats like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have been using.
Warren recently put out a video that took aim at Doritos, Oreos, and toilet paper.
“You ever go for the last chip in the Dorito bag and suddenly say, ‘Whoa, there should have been more chips in here?’” Warren asked. “You would be right. From Doritos to Oreos to even toilet paper, these big corporations are shrinking how much they give us, but they are charging the same amount or sometimes even more.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Ahead of the State of the Union, the White House team and Biden’s campaign have been working to highlight the bright spots of the economy, like low unemployment, to shore up support for Biden’s economic policies, which they have dubbed “Bidenomics.”
Despite the efforts, Biden’s approval ratings have not seen a significant bump. As of Wednesday, his overall approval rating clocked in at only about 38%, with a majority of voters disapproving of his job performance, according to an aggregation of polls by FiveThirtyEight. Additionally, more than 60% of U.S. adults disapprove of his handling of the economy, according to recent polling by Gallup.