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It seems to me politics are especially bad at countering inflation. People may be pissed off the "government isn't doing enough" to fix it. However, the levers the government can easily pull to fight inflation (raising taxes/interest rates, cut transfers/subsidies, lower consumption/wages) won't gain them any popularity points. Even worse, there are plenty of socially-desirable policies that'll make inflation worse: tax cuts, raises, loan forgiveness, more transfers. I'm grateful our system is even capable of doing unpopular things like raising interest rates. If monetary policy had heavier democratic influence, I'd worry high inflation would just be the long-term equilibrium.
Ontario's leader is under heavy fire for playing hardball and preventing educational workers from getting large raises. I don't know the details well, but couldn't one argue this is what fighting inflation looks like?
Well, that is why the Fed is designed to be relatively immune to short-term political considerations; for example, Fed governors serve 14-year terms, and cannot be reappointed.
OTOH, it is worth mentioning that inflation affects different groups differently (eg: borrowers at fixed terms are helped by inflation, and the real value of their payments decline over time. Lenders and people on fixed income are hurt by inflation. And, since inflation affects different sectors differently, their are always relative winners and losers. And, of course, a recessionary anti-inflation policy harms some people more than others; some people are far more at risk of being laid off than others are. So, even a policy that says, "the Fed should prioritize fighting inflation, even if unemployment rises" is itself a political decision.
And since the Fed is supposed to be independent, I doubt they can just outright say to Congress "If you pass X bill, you're making our job harder, please don't do that."
Surely there's backchannels that allow the same communication to take place, but it would look a bit suspicious if the Fed was taking open policy 'positions' based on their supposed impact on the rate of inflation.
The Fed was openly asking Congress to do more fiscal stimulus during the last recession. They comment on this stuff all the time.
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