Analysis: Republican National Committee

BIDEN DELIVERS 40-YEAR HIGH INFLATION

• As Bidenflation keeps up its relentless attack on middle-class families, more Americans are falling deeper into debt, facing rising housing costs, and watching their 401(k)s plummet.
  • Despite this, out-of-touch Democrats just passed billions of dollars in tax hikes on working-class Americans, threatening to further squeeze family budgets. 
• September’s Consumer Price Index soared by 8.2 percent compared to last year, exceeding economists’ expectations and remaining at a near 40-year high.
  • Core consumer prices – excluding food and energy – rose 6.6 percent compared to last year, a new 40-year high.
  • Real average hourly earnings fell 3 percent since last year, marking the 18th month in a row under Biden in which inflation has outpaced wages.
  • Real wages have fallen every month since Biden and Democrats passed their wasteful $1.9 trillion “stimulus.”
• September’s Producer Price Index rose by 8.5 percent since last year, coming in above economists’ expectations
  • This marks the 18th straight month that wholesale inflation has been above 5 percent year-over-year. 
  • Core producer prices – which takes out food, energy, and trade – increased by 5.6 percent from last year.
• August’s personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index – the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation – showed “inflation accelerated even more than expected.”
• With the economy in a recession, 78 percent of Americans say economic conditions are “somewhat” or “very poor.”
  • 71 percent of workers report feeling as though their pay is not keeping up with inflation, and 60 percent say they are struggling to live “paycheck to paycheck.”

AMERICANS CAN’T AFFORD BIDEN’S ECONOMY

• Even if inflation stopped rising today, Biden’s price hike would cost the average U.S. family more than $8,739 over the next year according to Congress’ Joint Economic Committee.
  • In September alone, inflation cost the typical household an extra $728.
• Bidenflation is making it “harder to pay for basic necessities.”
  • Jeannie Jansen of Wyoming, New York, who received a foreclosure notice in early July: “I busted my butt for years to have what we have. I went without heat this winter. I’ve gone without everything. And it’s still not enough because prices are so high.”
  • Venus Lopez of Tucson, Arizona: “With prices of everything going up, it’s becoming a challenge to even maintain what we have.”
  • Jamaica Bonvillian, a single mom from Louisiana: “I just get to the point where I break down and I’m like, ‘OK, how do I [afford groceries]?’”
  • Megan Naquin, a mother of six who now spends more on food than her mortgage: “Stuff hasn’t just gone up a little bit, it’s gone up tremendously.”

BIDENFLATION DRIVES MILLIONS OF AMERICANS DEEPER INTO DEBT

• With inflation showing no sign of slowing, millions of families have no choice but to “load up on credit cards or dip into [their] savings” to make ends meet.
  • 48 percent of hourly workers do not have a “single cent” in emergency savings, marking a seven percent increase since last year.
  • An even higher percentage of workers – 80 percent – report having “less than $500” saved for emergencies, with workers citing “rising energy, food and housing costs” as the main factors impacting their finances.
• Low-income Americans spend a “greater share of their earnings on necessities like groceries and gas,” meaning inflation is having a disproportionate impact on these households. 
  • Out-of-control inflation has led to a rise in food insecurity across the country, as half of households are skipping meals, cutting portion sizes, or not getting enough to eat, and two thirds are strapped for cash.
• Millions of Americans are taking on more debt to “cover daily expenses such as groceries, child care or utilities.”
  • Consumer debt among the bottom 90 percent increased by $300 billion over the last year, reaching an all-time high and marking the largest annual increase on record.
  • 60 percent of Americans with credit card debt say they have been in debt for over a year – up 10 percent since last year – while those with debt for over two years jumped 8 percent.
• 43 percent of Americans – especially “young adults and parents with young children” – plan on adding to their debt in the next six months.
• University of North Carolina finance professor Paige Ouimet: “If your costs are rising and your wages are not picking up, how are people going to fill that gap? Without substantial savings…, it’s going to…come from debt.”

THE DREAM OF HOMEOWNERSHIP IS BECOMING HARDER TO ACHIEVE

• Under Biden, American families are watching their dream of homeownership slip away as mortgage rates surge and home values plummet.
• This week, U.S. mortgage rates increased to 6.92 percent – their highest level in 16 years and one of the “steepest increases in history.”
  • Mortgage rates jumped by more than an entire percentage point in September and have more than doubled compared to last year.
  • Mortgage rates have risen by more than 4 percentage points under Biden, increasing from 2.77 percent in January 2021 to now 6.92 percent.
• Under Biden, mortgage rates to date have remained at or above 5 percent for 27 weeks straight, whereas under President Trump mortgage rates never once reached 5 percent.
• Rising mortgage rates pose the “biggest hurdle” for homebuyers, “pricing many out of the market” and denying many Americans the ability to build wealth.
  • Assuming a $500,000 home with a 30-year mortgage and a 20 percent down payment, potential homebuyers can expect to pay an extra $321,000 in interest payments compared to last year.

BIDENFLATION WIPES OUT AMERICANS’ WEALTH

• Thanks to Biden’s price hike, hardworking families face plummeting stock market values, causing retirement and savings accounts to decline sharply in value.
• According to analysts, U.S. stocks are on track to have their “worst year since 2008,” wiping out trillions of dollars in wealth.
  • Stock market losses have wiped out $9 trillion in U.S. household wealth in the first two quarters of the year, placing “more pressure on family balance sheets and spending.”
  • 58 percent of Americans report owning stock.
• Average 401(k) portfolios – a key retirement investment for millions of Americans – dropped 20 percent since last year while IRA accounts fell nearly 18 percent.
• Nancy Roberts, a librarian from Meridian, Idaho, who’s planning on retiring soon: “I am a little afraid — I don’t want to work until I’m 70. I do know I’ve lost money, but I’m trying not to freak out and look at it every day.”

BIDEN AND DEMOCRATS CREATED THIS INFLATION

• As crippling prices eat away at family budgets, Biden and Democrats’ radical policies have only made matters worse.
• A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco found that Biden and Democrats’ $1.9 trillion “stimulus” fueled inflation.
  • All 50 Senate Democrats including Mark Kelley, Raphael Warnock, Catherine Cortez Masto, and Maggie Hassan voted for Biden’s disastrous and inflationary spending spree.
• Even liberal economists have agreed that Biden’s massive spending spree added to inflation:
  • Former Obama economic advisor Steven Rattner: “The original sin” was passing the $1.9 trillion, which has “contributed materially to today’s inflation levels.”
  • Former Obama economist Jason Furman: Biden’s spending is “too big … don’t know any economist” who supported that much.
  • Biden’s Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen: Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus was one of the “factors that are involved in inflation.” 
• Despite causing this inflation, Biden and Democrats are doubling down on their inflationary agenda with their so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” that will worsen inflation and raise taxes on working-class Americans.
• Studies from the Tax Foundation, Penn Wharton, Moody’s, and the Congressional Budget Office all found that the Democrats’ so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” will either make inflation worse or do essentially nothing to reduce it.
  • The Tax Foundation concluded that the Bidenflation Scam Act will “worsen inflation especially in the first four” years.