“Because of the actions we’ve taken to address the Putin price hike,” said MSNBC hack White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki yesterday, “we are in a better place than we were last month, but we expect March CPI headline inflation to be extraordinarily elevated due to Putin’s price hike.”

Whew. And here we thought this record inflation was Joe Biden’s fault. We thought this splitting headache we get whenever we fill ‘er up at the pump or head to the checkout line at the Food Lion was due to Biden’s anti-energy, pro-inflationary policies and his money-printing profligacy.

But no. It’s all Vladi’s fault. It’s The Putin Price Hike™.

And, just as Comrade Jen helpfully warned us, what an “extraordinarily elevated” price hike it is. As CNBC reports:

Prices that consumers pay for everyday items surged in March to their highest levels since the early days of the Reagan administration, according to Labor Department data released Tuesday. The consumer price index, which measures a wide-ranging basket of goods and services, jumped 8.5% from a year ago on an unadjusted basis, above even the already elevated Dow Jones estimate for 8.4%.

If you’ve been waiting for the right time to buy that used car for your daughter’s graduation, you’ll probably want to keep waiting. Used car and truck prices fell 3.8% for the month, but they’re still up a whopping 35.3% for the year.

Those of you who are masochists or whose spirit animal is Eeyore can peruse the rest of the grim details in this news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Suffice it to say, though, this Bidenflation is the worst we’ve had it since Ronald Reagan was battling Jimmy Carter’s stagflation dumpster fire more than 40 years ago.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz recently laid out the five-lie evolution of Bidenflation:

Their first lie was: It’s not happening. Don’t believe your eyes. There’s no inflation.

Their second lie was: Oh, it’s transitory. Yes, it’s happening, but it’s transitory. Just for a moment.

The third lie is, and this is from Ron Klain: It’s a high-class problem. It’s there, but it’s a high-class problem. Aren’t you lucky to have inflation?

Their fourth lie was: It’s happening, it’s not transitory, it’s not high-class, but it’s a good thing. It’s a sign of how great the economy is that you can’t afford to pay for your groceries or put gas in your car.

Then lie number five that every Biden apparatchik is repeating: Putin, Putin, Putin. They decided politically, let’s blame this trainwreck of a Biden energy policy on Vladimir Putin.

Recall that last year, Biden was singing the praises of his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package — a wasteful and fraud-plagued spend-a-thon that he and his handlers dubbed “The American Rescue Plan.” How’s that rescue working out, Joe?

As for the lie that all this can be laid at the feet of Vladimir Putin, not even NBC is buying it. The Consumer Price Index has risen rapidly throughout Biden’s term, not just since Putin invaded Ukraine. When he took office, the CPI was 1.4% higher than it’d been a year earlier. By July it was 5.4% higher, by December it was 7% higher, and in February it was 7.9% higher. Fact is, the inflation Americans are enduring for groceries and gas is much higher than the overall 8% being reported.

So much for Putinflation.

Moreover, “Gasoline prices had risen 48% before Putin invaded Ukraine,” as Cruz points out. “As the sticker says on the gas pump, 'I did this.’ Joe Biden did this.”

Indeed, Joe Biden did do this, and no amount of shameless White House spin-doctoring between now and November 8 will convince us otherwise.

Next time you hear a Democrat call it the Putin Price Hike, tell him to take a hike.