The larger issue is dealing with inflation.
My own thoughts are:
Classical economic theory is that ceteris paribus, if demand for an item goes up and supply stays the same, prices will rise.
Keynesian theory indicates that when government spends more, aggregate demand will rise and prices will increase.
Monetarists would argue that increasing the money supply will increase prices of everything as more dollars chase the same amount of goods and services.
The Keynesian solution to stopping inflation is to drastically reduce government spending.
The monetarist solution is to stop increasing the money supply.
Many Americans are too economically uninformed to understand the meaning of the terms or the solutions. If inflation happens, prices go up. When inflation stops, prices do not go down to pre-inflation levels. They mere stop increasing. To get prices back to pre-inflation levels means deflation. This can be achieved (gradually) by increasing the supply relative to demand, innovation reducing the cost of manufacture, gradual reductions in quality, or (rapidly) an economic recession/depression. Not all of these are equally good for society.
When someone (like my sister-in-law) says, "If inflation has been dealt with, how come prices are still so high," I know I am talking to an economic ignoramus. When I explain that Covid stimulus checks, drastically increased government spending, and loose monetary policy by the Fed caused the inflation in the first place, she looks at me like a hog looking at a wrist watch.
