There is perhaps no other issue hurting Joe Biden more than inflation. As history has shown, Americans tend to vote with their wallets, and their wallets aren’t nearly as full today as they were when Donald Trump was president. Biden’s team knows this and has spent many, many, many months trying to convince Americans that things are swell, that inflation is going down, and that America is more prosperous than ever.
Except it isn’t. And there aren’t enough taxpayer-funded “Bidenomics” banners in the universe that will convince Americans to trust Biden’s rhetoric on the economy and inflation more than their own eyes when they fill up their cars or check out at the grocery store. Americans feel the pain of Bidenomics directly, and even loyal Democrats aren’t willing to tell pollsters they think everything is hunky dory.
But that has never stopped the Biden administration from trying.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest Consumer Price Index for October, and once again, inflation is higher than it should be. But you can bet that Democrats will insist things are getting better.
While the Federal Reserve would like to see an inflation rate of 2%, consumer inflation in October was 3.2% over the previous year.
The all items index rose 3.2 percent for the 12 months ending October, a smaller increase than the 3.7-percent increase for the 12 months ending September. The all items less food and energy index rose 4.0 percent over the last 12 months, its smallest 12-month change since the period ending in September 2021. The energy index decreased 4.5 percent for the 12 months ending October, and the food index increased 3.3 percent over the last year.
While 3.2% is certainly better than the 8% average inflation rate we had in 2022, this new figure doesn’t actually represent inflation going down as much as it tells us that inflation is growing at a slower pace. Prices are still significantly higher than they were in the Trump era, but Democrats will rely on the ignorance of the masses to claim that Biden has got inflation under control.
Just this past week, Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler told CNN that the current economic malaise Americans are experiencing is “precisely why we need another four years to finish the job.”
Imagine having the gall to say that.
Related: CNN Tells Biden Campaign Official the Economy Sucks, and His Response Was Pure Awful
They’ve tried it before, and they’ll try it again. Because at this point, after Biden spent a year patting himself on the back for the economy, Americans have gotten the message that the person to blame for their economic woes sits in the White House (or his home in Delaware 40% of the time) and they’ll likely vote accordingly in the next election.
As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday and Christmas shopping season, Americans will easily get to see just how wrong the Biden administration's rhetoric on inflation really is. Wages are down, food prices are up, and this Thanksgiving, you better ration your mashed potatoes and expect a smaller piece of the pie — literally and metaphorically.
