This week, the Department of Labor reported that the consumer price index, the measurement of inflation, hit a 40-year high when it came in at 7.5%. The numbers shocked many and outpaced even the most dire predictions from economists. Unfortunately, this comes as no surprise to working-class families who have seen their paychecks wiped out by staggering price increases. Families are being crushed by the continued explosive spike in cost for everything from the gas they put in their car to the food they put on their table. But, after the Biden Administration’s first year in office, the only consistent theme we see is things going from bad to worse.
In February 2021, right after Joe Biden proposed his massive Biden Bailout Bill that he claimed was supposed to fight COVID but actually spent less than 9% of its funding on crushing the virus, former Obama economic adviser Larry Summers wrote an op-ed expressing concern that the package would cause serious inflation. In his piece, he stated, “…there is a chance that macroeconomic stimulus on a scale closer to World War II levels than normal recession levels will set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.” The next day, Joe Biden’s economic team dismissed Summers’ criticism, with the Chair of his Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) stating on CNN, “I think he’s wrong in a pretty profound way.” Someone was wrong in a pretty profound way, but it wasn’t Larry Summers.
Even when it became clear inflation was, in fact, raising prices on essential goods for hardworking families, the administration first tried to claim these were temporary, or transitory. In July, Biden stated, “Most of the price increases we’ve seen are . . . expected to be temporary.” These comments came a month after former Trump CEA Chair Kevin Hassett predicted that inflation was going to be 7% for 2021. When you look back at how many signs the Biden administration ignored, it becomes clear that they were determined to try to inflate their way out of inflation. Which, to be clear, you can’t do.
What is truly frightening about this administration is despite the overwhelming, mounting evidence of inflation, they still were determined to ignore inflation to pass their massive spending agenda. Asked about their latest $5 trillion bill in November, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, “…no economist out there is projecting that [this bill] will have a negative impact on inflation.” Fact-checkers with both PolitiFact and the Washington Post immediately rated this claim as false. And the White House Chief of Staff in October endorsed a viewpoint that inflation was a “high-class problem.” How much more out of touch can they be?
What angers me about this administration’s reaction to inflation is that no one focuses on the impact inflation is having on hardworking Americans. A recent analysis showed that the inflation that has resulted from Joe Biden’s policies costs the average American household $276 per month, or just under $3,500 per year. That’s unacceptable. Over the past year, we’ve seen the price of meat increase 12 percent, the price of power up over 10 percent, the price of gas is up 40 percent, and the cost of groceries in your home is up over 7 percent. This means Americans are having to decide whether to put food on their tables, medicine in their cabinets, or to fill up their tank to get to work. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office just confirmed that inflation hits us even harder in southern Missouri - in rural America, inflation is 130% of inflation in urban America. But Joe Biden knows this, he’s been enacting policies to hurt rural America right from the very start.
The ‘Check Engine’ light for the Biden economy is on and flashing. Last week, our country surpassed $30 trillion in debt. The addiction to spending has to stop or we will end up paying more just to service our debt than we will on any federal program, including our national defense. This week, Joe Biden refused to divulge his budget plans despite a statutory deadline to do so. It’s likely because he has no plan to make this stop. As the Republican Leader of the House Budget Committee and your Representative, my priority is to hold him accountable for this reckless agenda and force this administration to come back to reality and deal with the problems his agenda is causing for the working class.
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