The Patriot Post® · Biden Insists We're Better Off, but Inflation Says Otherwise
On August 10, 2022, Joe Biden bragged: “Our economy had 0% inflation in the month of July. Zero percent.” It was, he said, an example of him building “an economy that works for everyone.”
His boast was a flagrant lie because the annual inflation rate at the time was 8.5%, down slightly from 9.1% — a four-decade high reached because Biden ignited it with profligate federal spending led by income redistribution. “Works for everyone” means “crushes everyone.”
Joe Biden is a congenital liar, so, naturally, he’s out there again this week touting his supposed great record combatting inflation. “We have dramatically reduced inflation from 9% down to close to 3%,” he insisted. “We’re in a situation where we’re better situated than we were when we took office when inflation was skyrocketing.”
No, shortly after Biden took office, he dramatically increased inflation from less than 2% to over 9%. And it is rising again, with last month’s consumer price index numbers coming in at 0.4% for the month and 3.5% annually. Inflation has now increased for three straight months, and the 0.4% monthly rate translates to 4.8% annually.
Unsurprisingly, Leftmedia outlets expressed surprise, calling it “unexpectedly sharp” or “hotter than expected.”
This feigned surprise is actually deceit. Over the course of Biden’s presidency, cumulative inflation has now surpassed 19%, and it’s far more than that on key items consumers need most, like groceries, gas, and insurance. For example, “The Hidden Costs of Homeownership Are Skyrocketing,” The Wall Street Journal reports today. Property taxes, insurance, and maintenance and repairs are all drastically more expensive now.
Biden is also misleading about income. “Wages are rising faster than prices,” he asserted, though adjusted for inflation, wages increased a measly seven cents over the last year. And according to The Wall Street Journal, “Since Mr. Biden took office in January 2021, average hourly earnings after inflation are down 2.54%.”
We’ve written about inflation until we’re blue in the face, and to a certain extent, most people are just tired of hearing about it.
Still, it is the single issue that impacts and angers virtually every American across the political spectrum. No one thinks it’s a good thing, even if the Leftmedia is busy gaslighting us into thinking everything is just dandy and blaming consumers for not getting it. They point to the fact that the annual inflation rate is better now than it was — as if that means prices aren’t astronomically higher than a few short years ago.
If inflation were really Biden’s “top economic priority,” as he claims, then he wouldn’t be mandating electric vehicles, transferring student loans to taxpayers, and running up massive spending deficits. Falsely blaming businesses for shrinkflation doesn’t count as fighting inflation.
This story and every other one about the economy boils down to a simple question: Are you better off today than you were four years ago? Ronald Reagan asked Jimmy Carter that question in 1980, and Donald Trump should repeatedly ask Joe Biden the same question this year.