The Patriot Post® · Inflation Reduction? 'I Wish I Hadn't Called It That'

Joe Biden ignited the wildfire of inflation with his misnamed American Rescue Plan in early 2021. After calling inflation transitory and refusing to take responsibility for it rising to four-decade highs, Biden pushed the Inflation Reduction Act. Needless to say, it didn’t live up to its name, and he’s now [checks notes] admitting it.

“I wish I hadn’t called it that,” Biden confessed to reporters yesterday. “It has less to do with reducing inflation than it does providing for alternatives that generate economic growth.” That last part is a bald-faced lie. Biden’s boondoggle isn’t about economic growth but about fueling the so-called green energy radical leftists favor. See the stories we covered just this week about failed wind power and the slave-powered industries of solar panels and electric vehicles.

Nevertheless, even the senile Biden must’ve somehow realized the inconvenience of his confession because he continued, “We’re now in a situation where if you take a look at what we’re doing in the Inflation Reduction Act, we’re literally reducing the cost of people being able to make their — meet their basic needs.”

Lies. Filthy lies.

In promoting the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, Biden boldly claimed: “The Inflation Reduction Act is the strongest bill you can pass. It will lower inflation, cut the deficit, reduce healthcare costs, tackle the climate crisis, and promote energy security.” What couldn’t it do?

Well, here we are a year later, and inflation is a persistent problem. The annual rate of inflation actually went back up to 3.2% in July from 3.0% in June, which breaks a trend of the pace gradually slowing since its high of 9.1% in June 2022. Producer prices went up even more in July, which is a bad sign for future inflation.

The bigger and more important number, however, is what inflation has done since Biden took office, and it ain’t pretty.

16.9% — that’s the rate of cumulative inflation since January 2021.

In other words, it’s not the monthly number that matters, but the increasingly crushing burden of the last two and a half years of rising prices.

And even that cumulative number is just on the wider basket of goods. It’s even higher on many grocery staple items, as well as cars, gasoline, and homes. That’s evident by looking at year-over-year numbers or comparing various prices to those in January 2021. For example, eating out costs 7.1% more than last year, and transportation services like airfare are up 9%. A gallon of gas is about 60% higher than the day Biden took office and it’s rising again. Yes, it’s fallen since last year, but that’s hardly an achievement given that last June gas was 110% higher than Inauguration Day.

Meanwhile, Americans have taken an effective pay cut because real wages are lower than when Biden took office. Savings are decimated. Credit card balances are higher than ever. Cars and homes are unaffordable — and even if you’re not in the market for them, related taxes and insurance are going way up as a result of soaring prices. Just staying in your home is increasingly unaffordable.

Not to worry. According to Joe Biden, “Bidenomics is just another way of saying restoring the American Dream.” Our dream is that Bidenomics will soon be consigned to the trash bin of history.