By the Republican National Committee

BIDENFLATION RAGES ON

• Hardworking Americans are struggling to stay afloat financially as Bidenomics continues to drain the wallets of families and businesses across the country.
• The latest Consumer Price Index data shows year-over-year inflation remained high last month at 3.2 percent – twice the rate compared to when Biden took office.
  • Core consumer prices – stripping out food and energy – rose by 4.0 percent.
• Inflation has risen by 17.6 percent since Biden took office – with Americans still reeling from the lasting effects of inflation.
  • On a year-over-year basis, inflation under Biden has averaged 5.9 percent – more than double the level of inflation seen under any of the last four presidents.
  • Food prices are up 20.9 percent, rent is up 18 percent, and electricity is up 24.7 percent since Biden took office.
• With persistent inflation having eaten away at wage gains, more and more Americans are struggling financially.
  • Bidenflation outpaced wages for a majority of Biden’s presidency – year-over-year real average hourly earnings were negative for 25 months and real average weekly earnings were negative for 26 months.
• Real wages remain lower than when Biden first took office.
  • Inflation-adjusted average hourly wages were $11.39 when Biden took office and are now $11.05 – the BLS adjusts to 1982-1984 dollars – meaning Americans have seen a 3 percent pay cut under Biden.

MORE AMERICANS ARE STRUGGLING FINANCIALLY

• Americans are suffering from the lasting effects of Biden’s historic inflation, with many struggling to pay their debts, save for retirement, or afford rent.
  • 62 percent of Americans report living paycheck-to-paycheck.
  • 79 percent of Americans say their overall household debt is higher or about the same as it was a year ago.
  • More than half of Americans feel stress about their everyday expenses.
• The personal savings rate was 3.4 percent in September, well below a decades long average of roughly 8.9 percent.
• Bidenomics has cost the middle class $2.4 trillion since March 2022.
  • The average middle-class household has lost over $33,000 in real wealth in just the past year.
• Low-income Americans are being hit the hardest by inflation, according to studies by the New York Fed, Dallas Fed, and the Urban Institute.
• Americans are increasingly borrowing to cover daily expenses, finding their regular income is no longer enough to make ends meet.
  • Credit card debt recently surpassed $1 trillion for the first time ever – with the average credit card balance now more than $6,000 the highest in ten years.
  • Sixty-day car payment delinquencies for people with bad credit hit an all-time record of 6.1 percent in September – that’s the highest level of lateness since the survey began in 1994.

THE COST OF LIVING IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY UNAFFORDABLE

• U.S. average gas prices currently sit at $3.35 per gallon, which is nearly $1 per gallon higher than when Biden became president.
• Moody’s found that the typical American family is spending $709 more a month on the same goods and services as they were two years ago.
• The Fed has hiked interest rates 11 times since March 2022 – now at their highest level in 22 years – making it harder for families to buy a home, finance a car, pay off debt, and perform various other financial transactions.
  • The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage is now at its highest level since 2000.
  • Homeownership has been deemed “unaffordable” in 99 percent of the country.
  • Biden’s favorite economist – Moody’s Mark Zandi – said that purchasing a home or a car right now is “completely unaffordable for the typical American household.”
• Renting is only getting more difficult for Americans as rental costs continue to surge while wages remain stagnant – with low-to-moderate income renter households getting hit the hardest.
  • This is now “one of the least-affordable rental markets ever.” 
• According to the latest Census data, U.S. inflation-adjusted household income fell last year by the most in over a decade.
  • Median household income has fallen for two straight years under Biden and remains below pre-pandemic levels.

AMERICANS ARE NOT HAPPY WITH BIDEN’S ECONOMY

• American families are seeing higher prices for virtually everything, and they know exactly who to blame: Biden and Democrats.
• Just 14 percent of Americans say they’re better off financially today than when Biden took office, according to a Financial Times poll.
• 66 percent of Americans disapprove of the way Biden is handling the economy, according to a recent AP-NORC poll.
• 69 percent of Americans believe the economy is in bad shape and 64 percent believe the country is on the wrong track, according to an Economist/YouGov poll.
• Half of Americans say their financial situation is worsening, according to a recent Harvard CAPS-Harris poll.
• Biden’s approval rating on the economy is at just 32 percent – the lowest of his presidency, according to CNBC’s All-America Economic Survey.

DEMOCRATS’ RESONSE TO THE INFLATION CRISIS BIDEN CREATED: MORE INFLATIONARY SPENDING

• As working-class families struggle to make ends meet thanks to inflation, voters know Democrats are to blame for rising prices.
• In 2021, Biden and Democrats passed their inflation-fueling $1.9 trillion “stimulus,” which even liberal economists admit fueled inflation.  
• In August, every single Democrat voted to pass the Bidenflation Scam, which experts say will worsen inflation and raise taxes on working-class Americans.
  • Studies from the Tax Foundation, Penn Wharton Budget Model, Moody’s, and the Congressional Budget Office all found that the bill will either make inflation worse or do basically nothing to bring down inflation.
  • The Tax Foundation concluded that the Bidenflation Scam Act will “worsen inflation especially in the first four” years.
• In March, Biden unveiled his budget for FY 2024: a $6.9 trillion spending spree chock full of wasteful spending and higher taxes.

REPUBLICAN-LED STATES ARE DRIVING JOB GROWTH

• Biden deserves no credit for jobs that have been created – he paid Americans not to work for months and stifled economic growth.
• Republican-led states are the ones creating jobs and leading economic growth.
  • The latest state jobs report shows that eight of the top 10 states for jobs recovered since the coronavirus pandemic are led by Republican governors, and all 10 states have Republican-controlled legislatures.
  • Out of the top 25 states with the lowest unemployment rates, 17 are led by Republican governors.

  Originally posted here.