Biden Flunks Another Inflation Exam

You know things are bad when even the mainstream press is admitting that the latest inflation numbers “soared far above expectations last month” and that this is “wiping out pay gains.” But, according to President Joe Biden, Thursday’s report on inflation “shows some progress in the fight against higher prices.”

What progress? Inflation was up 8.2% in September, compared with the year before. And that’s on top of last September’s 6.2% increase.

Here’s another way to look at it.

In the 21 months since Biden took office, the Consumer Price Index has shot up 13.5%. That compares with 4% in the first 21 months of the Trump administration. (See the chart below.)

The so-called “core inflation” number – which subtracts more volatile food and energy categories – shot up 6.6% on an annual basis this September, the biggest such jump in four decades.

As the Associated Press put it, the core inflation number was “far above expectations” and “a sign that the Fed’s five rate hikes this year have so far done little to cool inflation pressures.”

In other words, we are in for a world of hurt as prices keep climbing while the Fed’s continued rate hikes slash home prices, shrink retirement accounts, and kill jobs.

The Heritage Foundation’s EJ Antoni calculates that inflation and the resulting interest rate hikes are already costing the average worker $4,200 a year. As we noted in this space earlier, Biden’s economic disaster has stolen more money than families received from all the COVID relief checks combined.

What has Biden been doing this whole time? A review of the record shows that he has either:

• Denied inflation was a problem
• Promised it would soon be over
• Claimed his policies were working to bring it down
• Blamed COVID, Putin, greedy gas station owners.

The chart below is a timeline of what Biden was saying as inflation steadily marched upward.

The person Biden hasn’t blamed for this crisis is himself. Because in order to do so, he’d have to admit that his $2 trillion “rescue” plan sparked the inflationary spiral, just as many economists predicted it would.

Instead, in his statement Thursday, Biden said that “Republicans in Congress’ number one priority is repealing the Inflation Reduction Act. That’s the exact wrong thing to do in this moment.”

Actually, repealing that law – which raises taxes, turbocharges the IRS, and adds still more inflationary spending, while doing nothing whatsoever to control inflation – is the exact right thing for Republicans.

The exact wrong thing to do is believe anything Biden says about the economy.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board