On Wednesday, President Biden boldly — if not blindly — claimed that inflation was in effect “zero percent” for July. This was after the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report showed the actual adjusted rate of inflation stood at 8.5 percent for the month.
Biden took the opportunity to share the CPI report numbers during a signing ceremony for the PACT Act (H.R. 3967), which expands healthcare coverage for veterans.
“Before I begin today, I want to say a word about the news that came out today relative to the economy. Actually, I just want to say a number. Zero,” he boasted in an apparent (yet quite common) senior moment. “Today, we received news that our economy had zero percent inflation in the month of July. Zero percent.”
Biden continued with his doublespeak-infused fuzzy math: “Here’s what that means: While the price of some things go up, went up last month, the price of other things went down by the same amount. The result — zero inflation last month.”
Here are the actual numbers as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:
The all-items index increased 8.5 percent for the 12 months ending July, a smaller figure than the 9.1-percent increase for the period ending June. The all items less food and energy index rose 5.9 percent over the last 12 months.
Energy costs are still waging war on American pocketbooks. The report showed “the energy index increased 32.9 percent for the 12 months ending July, a smaller increase than the 41.6-percent increase for the period ending June.”
The real kicker was that food costs, if you haven’t noticed, increased at the highest rate seen in 43 years. “The food index increased 10.9 percent over the last year, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending May 1979.”
To add to the delusion of the success of our economy and its supposed strength, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre affirmed the “zero percent” talking point wasn’t just another gaffe from Biden, but rather the approved narrative the administration was moving forward with, tweeting, “We just received the news that our economy had 0% inflation in July. While the price of some things went up, the price of others, like gas, clothing, and more, dropped.”
Jean-Pierre continued the administration’s narrative, pushing Congress to pass the Inflation Reduction Act as well:
What’s more: Real wages went up for the first time in almost a year. But we know we have more work to do. Congress should send the Inflation Reduction Act to President Biden’s desk as soon as possible, to lower health care, prescription drug, and energy costs.
As we reported earlier this week, the Inflation Reduction Act includes hundreds of billions of dollars for boondoggle “green energy” projects and hundreds of billions in tax increases — all of which will fuel inflation, not reduce it. Democrats have claimed this bill as a big win, especially for their leftist constituents, but it’s a big loser for American consumers and taxpayers, who will actually be paying for the corporate tax increases and government redistribution of tax benefits required for the bill’s pet projects.
Democrats are desperate for any good news to help them in the upcoming midterms. Inflation is still running away, with the Biden administration’s horrible economic policies being labeled as nothing better than economic malpractice.
Today’s announcement by a dazed and confused Biden has emboldened many Republicans in their fight against the massive leftist tax-and-spend policies of the Democrats. Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) laid out a tweet perfectly exposing Biden’s blatant propaganda:
President Biden just said “our economy had zero percent inflation in the month of July.”
Gas ↑ 44%
Airfare ↑ 27%
Groceries ↑ 13%
While you continue to pay for his failures, Biden owes the American people the truth about inflation.
After June’s 9.1 percent increase and today’s White House claim of zero percent, one can only envision next month’s CPI bloviated talking points.
