It turns out that excessive and unwise government spending translated into severe inflation that cost all of us ever more money. Indeed, Heritage Foundation economist EJ Antoni says that the Fed’s data “speaks to why that entire narrative about inflation being caused by supply chains was just wrong.”
The Federal Reserve’s November report about its Global Supply Chain Pressure Index (GSCPI), which tracks transportation cost factors, indicated that while supply chain disruptions did play a role in some shortages and consequently in inflation over the last few years, we must look elsewhere for the main drivers of inflation overall. And according to Antoni, based on the Fed data, government spending is a major factor.
Antoni emphasized in comments to The Epoch Times that bad government policies and wasteful spending, especially under Joe Biden, prolonged and drove inflation. “We didn’t have inflation simply because supply chains were snarled; we had inflation because the government spent, borrowed, and printed trillions upon trillions of dollars it didn’t have,” he stated.
The index went up in 2020 when Donald Trump and other government officials agreed to devastating lockdowns (and the consequent demand for more government handouts). There was another spike in 2021 under Biden-Harris COVID-19 policies, The Epoch Times explained, followed by yet another spike in 2022, then a drop. Supply chains were normalizing by 2023, but inflation continued.
And while the inflation rate has allegedly slowed since then, remember that that does not mean inflation has gone down. In fact, costs continue to rise, and we still pay significantly more for necessities than we did pre-2020 — and most particularly than before B.C.E. (Biden Catastrophe Era).
Average prices across the American economy have not gone down despite constant Democrat propaganda assuring us they have. That’s not primarily because of supply chain issues. And Americans know whom to blame, which is why they voted against Biden’s VP Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
Related: Why Trump Won: Americans Optimistic Their Finances Will Improve in 2025
As Antoni continued, “If we actually did believe that higher prices were caused by these supply-chain difficulties, then what we should have seen as supply chains normalized was not only inflation coming down but prices coming down.” But we didn’t.
This is and always has been a manufactured crisis. “Why do we still have, overall, 20 percent higher prices than we saw in January of 2021?” Antoni asked. “It’s because the government has debased the currency to pay for all its excess spending.”
Cato Institute fiscal expert Chris Edwards agreed with Antoni’s assessment. “There’s general agreement among economists now that it was that big spending that Biden did—that spiked inflation,” he said. As of September, over $1 trillion was required just to service the national debt, yet Democrats keep spending more and more, with the assistance of too many Congressional Republicans (including Speaker Mike Johnson and co. pushing the disastrous CR right now). Let’s hope the incoming Trump administration can finally reverse that trend.
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