In Minnesota economic speech, Biden mostly avoided saying 'inflation'

When President Joe Biden touted his economic agenda in Minnesota this week, one word was largely absent.

Inflation.

During his Monday speech, the Democrat championed clean energy, jobs, business investments and infrastructure projects. He highlighted the landmark climate law that has inflation in its name and lets the government negotiate some drug prices for Medicare recipients.

Biden did mention "core inflation" when discussing the high price of new automobiles in 2021 before focusing on work to boost domestic semiconductor production.

The Star Tribune asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at a briefing about the sparse inflation talk. She said that lowering costs for Americans is a priority for Biden.

"Anytime he talks about his economic policy, you always hear him talk about lowering costs. We understand that there's more work to do, and the president's going to continue to do that," Jean-Pierre said. "That's why he's gone out there to talk about investing in America, his Investing in America agenda. And also that's why you see his economic policies are working."

The U.S. consumer price index, a key inflation measure, has been cooling off in recent months — but still remains high — after rising at the fastest rate in four decades last year.

Staff writer Kavita Kumar contributed to this report.