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A week after boasting of “fixing” the economy – and assuring Americans they had plenty of money in their pockets to deal with rising prices – U.S. president Joe Biden was handed another depressing data point on Wednesday.
And no, we’re not referring to his anemic polling numbers … we’re talking about inflation, the economic issue which has defined Biden’s presidency.
According to the latest release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the consumer price index climbed 0.3 percent during the month of April. Prices are now 3.4 percent higher than they were a year ago and 19.5 percent higher than when Biden took office.
“Has your paycheck increased by that same amount over the past three years?” I noted earlier this spring. “If not, then you are essentially being taxed for the deluge of deficit spending coming out of Washington, D.C.”
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Unlike a lot of so-called “conservative” media outlets who have used this issue exclusively to bash Biden, my media outlet has consistently pointed out the contributions of former U.S. president (and 2024 GOP nominee) Donald Trump to this pervasive, persistent inflationary pressure. On his way out of office, Trump signed a massive Covid-19 stimulus bill that he previously referred to as a “disgrace” – part of his broader failure to fulfill his fiscal promises.
So while Biden deserves plenty of blame for the ongoing price hikes … he is not exclusively to blame. Also, as this media outlet has consistently chronicled, “Republicans” in the U.S. Congress have shown absolutely no appetite for reining in excessive spending.
What have they shown an appetite for? Continuing the unsustainable spending insanity of their Democratic predecessors …
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RELATED | ENTITLEMENT CRISIS
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As I’ve often noted, a little inflation is not necessarily a bad thing. Higher incomes drive economic growth – but they have to be created from someplace. If the price of goods and services remains stagnant, then the paychecks of the workers producing those goods and providing those services is likely to remain stagnant as well.
So, some uptick in prices is actually positive.
Generally speaking, the optimum rate of inflation is around two percent annually. During the administration of former president Barack Obama, though, inflation consistently came in below this optimal level. The annual rate of inflation for 2016 averaged just 1.26 percent while in 2015 it clocked in at a meager 0.12 percent. The two percent threshold was also missed in 2014 (1.62 percent) and 2013 (1.47 percent).
Under Trump, inflation hit its targets in 2017 (2.1 percent) and 2018 (2.4 percent) but slipped just below the target rate in 2019 (1.8 percent). In 2020, inflation registered just 1.2 percent thanks in large part to the Covid-19 shutdown. Under Biden and congressional Democrats, it is three times its optimum level.
Count on this media outlet to continue tracking this key economic indicator and its impact on the nation’s political debate. Also, unlike so many in the press, count on us to continue fairly and dispassionately appropriating the blame for the problem.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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