White House’s one more month of economic debate

Another month of slow hiring forced White House officials to admit that the recovery is lagging expectations, and that inflation and worker shortages could continue into 2022.

Administration officials are planning to highlight whatever bright spots they can find, such as rising wages and the pace of economic growth, and use the weak spots to bolster their pitch for why Congress needs to pass a proposed $3.5 trillion spending bill.

To show he’s working to address product shortages driven in part by bottlenecks at major shipping ports, Biden will be meeting Wednesday with shipping executives and officials from Walmart, UPS and Home Depot.

Democratic strategists begin to prepare for what that could be of meaning for their predictions in the midterm elections. Republicans say they plan to seize on the weak points of the economy, hoping to link inflation and worker shortages to Biden’s policies, as part of their pitch to voters.