Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chairman of the Progressive Caucus, tried to give a lesson in progressive economics on Friday when commenting on the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act.
“It is ultimately going to lead to a reduction in overall inflation, but most importantly, to the budget that people have every single day,” Jayapal said to reporters on Friday. “Inflation is, like, a theoretical word that economists use, but what families feel every day is the up or down of costs.”
My congresswoman, Seattle Progressive Pramila Jayapal, thinks "inflation is like a theoretical word that economists use."
Send help. pic.twitter.com/83Udsuwu58
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) August 12, 2022
Wow. Just, wow.
The Chairman of the Washington State GOP, Caleb Heimlich, had a pithy response to that.
Tell that to the families that can’t afford groceries. How out of touch are @washdems ? https://t.co/MGHQs7ghpD
— Caleb Heimlich (@CalebHeimlich) August 12, 2022
Inflation is the word, of course, and it’s not an academic exercise — not for economists, and very much not so for American workers. The latter have seen lots of “ups” over the past 17 months since Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan stimulus bill in March 2021, only balanced off by a “down” in gas prices last month that reflected a sharp drop in demand. Inflation has run above 4% since the first full month after Congress passed that massive spending bill under reconciliation, and has gone on so long that it’s lapped itself. We are now seeing high inflation over comparative data from last year where inflation was already running high, which makes all of these year-on-year numbers worse than even they look here.
Ed is correct. From here on out, the perception of inflation will be colored by the fact that we’re starting from an elevated point in the price spectrum. Prices will never, ever be as low as they were just 14 months ago. Meanwhile, wages have gone up but not nearly fast enough to keep pace.
Jayapal may want to try a Jedi mind trick on the weak by pretending inflation isn’t a real-world phenomenon. That will likely have very few victims, however, considering the impact that this inflation has had on Americans’ real wages. For the last five quarters — again, going back to Biden and Democrats’ last big-spending bill — Americans’ real disposable income has declined, which is also a comparative and compounding disaster when it comes to personal “budgets”:
Related: Glorious Inflation News, Comrades!
Most of us are losing ground in the household budget battle. Everyone is making economies, doing without or doing with less. And this isn’t due to Vladimir Putin. It’s not due to the pandemic. The responsibility for this avoidable crisis lies solely with Joe Biden and the Democrats in Congress.
Naturally, conservatives on Twitter had a great time piling on the hapless radical.
Textbook definition of champagne socialists https://t.co/2tz6d716bl
— Finding Karen (@hdawg921) August 12, 2022
Democrats aren’t serious people. https://t.co/DnYwD3z61s
— Greg Thomas (@gregthomaswv) August 12, 2022
“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”
― George Orwell, 1984— George Orwell☢️🚮 (@ric22812704) August 12, 2022
Unfortunately for Jayapal, she overestimated her ability to pull the wool over people’s eyes. Whatever she wants to call “inflation,” it’s hurting ordinary Americans — whether it’s just a word that economists use or not.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member