- Romney assailed Biden's handling of the economy in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
- "President Biden needs to ditch his woke advisers," he said, blaming the stimulus for record inflation.
- He suggested exploring potential benefit cuts in safety net programs to address the rising debt.
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah tore into President Joe Biden's management of inflation on Wednesday, torching the administration's handling of the economy and inflation as Americans grapple with the worst price hikes in decades.
"President Biden needs to ditch his woke advisers and surround himself with people who want to get the economy working again," Romney wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
He blamed the Biden administration for stoking inflation with a stimulus law that issued "stay-at-home" checks for Americans, and citing moves like oil and gas production limits and a pro-union stance. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
A former GOP presidential nominee, Romney remains a fairly staunch conservative on economic and foreign policy. The Utah Republican said in his op-ed he favors Congress establishing a bipartisan commission to "rescue our federal entitlement programs from impending collapse."
Last month, Romney suggested that he'd back cutting retirement benefits — without mentioning specifics — for younger Americans as a way to rein in the national debt.
He has cut a more centrist path in recent years in other areas, particularly when it comes to opposing former President Donald Trump. Romney was famously the first senator in American history to vote to convict a president of his own party facing impeachment. He was the sole Republican to vote to convict Trump during his first impeachment for pressuring Ukraine to investigate Biden's family and one of seven to vote to convict Trump for inciting the January 6 Capitol insurrection.
Since Biden took office, Romney was just one of just three GOP votes to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, one of 17 Republicans to vote for Biden's $1 trillion infrastructure plan, and one of six Republicans to vote for an independent commission to investigate the January 6 attacks.
"I mean it sincerely — but I want to thank three Republicans who voted for Judge Jackson," Biden said outside of the White House on April 8 while celebrating Jackson's historic confirmation. "And Mitt Romney, whose dad stood up like he did. His dad stood up and made these decisions on civil rights."
Romney's push to make Biden more moderate on economic policy underlines a growing Republican talking point. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recently said that if the GOP retakes the Senate they will "make sure Joe Biden is a moderate."
But these comments ignore that Biden won the 2020 with one of the most progressive policy platforms in history. Far from some bait and switch, Biden and his allies were fairly explicit at times about how liberal the dealmaking former vice president would be if he won the White House.
Romney's attacks illustrate how Republicans want to use historic inflation to bash Democrats ahead of November's midterm elections. The Consumer Price Index, a closely-watched inflation gauge, rose 8.5% year-over-year in March, the biggest one-year surge in 40 years.
Axios reported this week that Republican lawmakers have mentioned inflation six times more than Democrats since January 1.
"In any crisis situation, the first three rules are focus, focus and focus," Romney writes. "President Biden's domestic focus must be on inflation."