“More than expected.” “Faster than expected.” Who are these “experts” who always seem to be completely bumfuzzled by bad economic news when a Democrat is president?

In any case, those were the headlines blaring from the mainstream media this morning upon the totally expected news that the last pre-election Consumer Price Index is still really, really bad. On an annual basis, September’s 8.2% inflation rate looks slightly better than August’s 8.3% or July’s 8.5%, and it’s definitely better than June’s 9.1%.

But over the summer, Joe Biden made the month-to-month rate his favorite boasting point, claiming at one point that inflation was now “zero.” Well, that number was 0.4%, which was higher than all those experts expected and significantly more than the July-to-August rate of 0.1%.

“Excluding the volatile categories of food and energy, so-called core inflation jumped last month,” reports the Associated Press. In fact, the 0.6% increase in core prices was even higher than the overall rate. Those excluded food prices? Up 11.2% over the past year.

The news is no better for the Producer Price Index, which is an upstream measure of inflation before consumers pay for goods. That too was up 0.4% in September — twice what economists predicted — with a 12-month increase of 8.5%. That’s a sign high inflation will persist for the foreseeable future.

Another focal point is the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes aimed at slowing the inflation rate. The Fed has hiked rates by three percentage points since March, but the AP calls the inflation report “a sign that the Fed’s five rate hikes this year have so far done little to cool inflation pressures.” Keen sense of the obvious, right there. The Fed is therefore likely to keep hiking.

Most workers are finding that wages are not keeping up with inflation. CNBC reports that “average hourly earnings declined 0.1% for the month on an inflation-adjusted basis and are off 3% from a year ago.” On the other hand, it’s not often that folks on a fixed income get anything approaching good news, but Social Security recipients will receive a historic benefits increase of 8.7% to go along with Medicare premiums dropping 3%.

In short, inflation is still at 40-year highs while the economy, already in negative territory, is likely to slow even more, and Democrat policies are to blame.

First, Democrats led the charge to shut down the economy, crippling supply lines. Then they injected trillions of dollars into the economy, creating demand that vastly outstripped supply. Now, the Democrats who run the Fed are punishing consumers by making unmet, pent-up demand vastly more expensive. The goal is to slow the economy.

Remember that when you cast your vote this November. Also remember Clueless Joe’s “Inflation Reduction” Party.

Update: “Prices are still too high,” Biden said of today’s report. But not to worry! “Fighting the global inflation that is affecting countries around the world and working families here at home is my top priority.”