Inflation report: Groceries went up more than 22% over four years of Bidenomics

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By CASEY HARPER | THE CENTER SQUARE

President Joe Biden is only a few weeks away from the end of his time in office, and one key part of his legacy is undeniable: inflation.

Biden has battled inflation from the start, but critics say he helped fuel it with trillions of dollars in deficit spending during his four years in office. Federal debt spending is offset in part by printing money, which increases inflation.

Biden has boasted bringing inflation rates down from about 9% earlier in his term to roughly 2.5% currently.

While the rate of inflation has slowed, that doesn’t mean prices have decreased. In fact, they continue rising, albeit slower than earlier in his term.

The federal government released a a key inflation marker Friday, its Personal Consumption Expenditure index, which rose 2.4% last month, a bit less than expected.

Overall, though, prices have risen more than 20% since Biden took office.

According to the federal CPI inflation calculator, $100 in January 2021, when Biden took office, has the same buying power as $120 as of November of this year. That means $100 went much further in 2021 than it would today.

The price of groceries actually rose faster than overall inflation, increasing more than 22% since Biden took office.

Those higher prices have given Republicans plenty of fodder for their attacks on the incumbent president.

“The Biden-Harris Administration’s parting gift to the American people is as welcome as a lump of coal at Christmas: higher prices that keep rising,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., said in a statement Friday. “Families have been hammered by a 20 percent spike in prices under President Biden that has made the cost of living unaffordable. The American people are ready for the Trump presidency and a return to a strong, prosperous economy that created good-paying jobs.”

Polling data showed that despite some positive economic indicators this year — relatively low unemployment among them — Americans still had a poor view of the economy. At least one reason why was undeniably that costs, for groceries in particular, have soared since Biden took office.

Polling after the November election showed voters cited higher prices as a key consideration in their vote.

A poll from May of this year showed that Americans’ confidence in Biden’s handling of the economy hit a “historic low.”

From Gallup:

Obama’s confidence ratings were at least 50% each year except for one (42% in 2014). Biden has fared much worse as confidence in his economic management dropped precipitously in 2022 from 57% to 40% amid sharply higher inflation, and it has been below 40% since then. Only Bush earned lower confidence from Americans than Biden has since last year – by the end of his second term, amid the Great Recession, when just 34% of Americans expressed confidence in his economic abilities.

Gas prices spiked during Biden’s term as well, topping a historic national average of $5 per gallon before dropping, in part, because Biden emptied out much of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

When Biden took office, the national average price for a gallon of gas was about $2.39 per gallon.

Currently, the national average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline is about $3.00 per gallon, according to AAA.

30 COMMENTS

  2. That’s how government is helping Americans by stealing money and making rules that cause inflation.
    Where are the true Americans who really want to make America the best place to live?
    Voters do this to themselves by voting for the same crooks every year.
    We are in real need of a new government.

  3. If I am allowed to make an entirely tangential comment: The State of Alaska government employs about 100 economists, economics professors, and economic teachers. Because of many features of the Alaska economy that combine to make Alaska so different from the rest of the US we need better and more comprehensive information, and one might expect that with all these economists we could have that. This isn’t all theoretical and it isn’t suggested here only so that the governor and the legislative finance committees have more reports to go with their coffee. In the absence of data we see ideas and initiatives such as the recently reported (here) plan to create and Alaska Department of Agriculture when there may be no data whatsoever to support such an expenditure and increase in governmental bureaucracy.

    Some of those unique Alaska economic features are our lack of a productive economy, the absence of any in-state food production except fish (and that is in decline), the transportation challenges posed by distance and the Jones Act, the incredible predominance of welfare in our food distribution, and the huge footprint of federal, state and government employees and employees of government contractors. Economic statistics produced by the federal government are inadequate for us because Alaska is such an outlier, and asking these 100 state economists to provide that information doesn’t seem unreasonable. Alaskans need to know about prices but also need to know about scarcity as every store has some empty shelves at all times.

    With so many economists it’s reasonable to expect state reports that have information not reported by the federal government. Banks deposits for example: are Alaska banks investing most deposits in Alaska, or not? How about new and used vehicle sales? If more data is not desired then could we pare down the number of economists the state employs?

    We’ve seen major shifts in Alaska industries and in how industries do business, and follow-ups on those changes should be reported by state economists. The commercial salmon industry ships most salmon in the round now, and the largest customer is China: What does China do with that salmon, how well does the industry do in employing Alaskans, and what new trends are under way? Our mining industry is composed of about ten medium-sized operating mines and many prospects that seem to be endlessly about to open: What do state economists have to report on that? What innovations and new technology are being adopted by the salmon, mining and other Alaska industries, and will employment increase or decrease? Are Alaska banks financing these industries? If these state economists are not reporting information very well are they at least giving regular reports to the administration and the legislature? Can’t these economists do better than merely regurgitating federally-supplied data?

  4. Fake NEWS!!!
    CASEY HARPER | THE CENTER SQUARE writes: “Biden has battled inflation from the start” this is total B.S. he and his administration lied at the start saying it was transitory…then lied that he inherited it from Trump.
    Despicable!!!

  5. Gasoline prices have fallen and risen due to a combination of technology (fracking), supply chain disruptions (Covid) and BEV’s. Only a moron would believe who is President makes a huge difference, or that Trump’s policies will cut gas prices in half

    • No Frank, Trump repeatedly stated that once elected he would get grocery prices down to 2018 levels. Gas he has targeted at $1.87. When he hits those 2 buttons on the oval office control panel it will be happy days again. To think Biden deliberately forced those food companies to raise their prices just to own the MAGA’S! Additionally he has guaranteed the Israeli and Ukranian wars would be over within days of his inauguration. On top of all of that Elon is willing to work for Trump with no paycheck. Now how many of you could endure that hardship and work for free. Elon is truly selfless! Plus when Trump deports all of those illegals he is going to give us taxpayers all those IPhone 16 pluses that they gave them. Hopefully those debit cards will be given to us with some remaining balances. Can’t wait to buy a pair of those gold sprayed sneakers.

    • Frank,
      When Biden took office there were about 650,000,000 barrels in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the low point during this administration was about 350,000,000 barrels and it currently holds around 390,000,000 barrels.
      ‘https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WCSSTUS1&f=W’

      While you think people who you disagree with are morons, you have nothing to support your flawed premise. If you think draining the SPR has no impact, then why pray tell did Biden drain it?

  6. Here is the facts about going forward. Cars, all products shipped to the US, Anything shipped to you. The planes you fly in and the cars you drive.

    Because of inflation the last few years, the longshoreman have a 60% wage increase, the Airplane builders have a 45% wage increase, UPS and Fedex drivers have a 40% wage increase. Domestic automakers have a 30+ wage increase. Of course, those increased wages don’t come all during Biden’s time, but they are coming and nothing Trump can do will bring that cost down. Trump has to fight those increases with decreases in other areas like energy. Of course, the media will blame him when inflation doesn’t cool as fast as it should. Bidenomics will be with us for a very long time.

  7. 22%? Let’s try about 40%. The $100 bill is the new $20, the $20 bill is the new $5. Change in your pocket is useless.

  8. When you empty the oil reserves, shut down keystone, make it more difficult to drill baby drill, you create major inflation. When cost of fuel goes up everything goes up . Schoolyard economics 101.

  9. Trump is not even president yet and he has threatened to invade Mexico, take over the Panama Canal, and annex Canada. Still no word on how he will lower the price of eggs yet.

  10. Biden has been irrelevant since before he was installed in the neutered office of the presidency. All the decisions are made for him, he never has had a clue of what is happening around his senile head. Presidents have been limited to placeholders for decades in any event.

    The government is on autopilot, while congress has been derelict in its’ primary duty by continually passing “Continuing Resolutions”, instead of passing “Budgets” since 2008.

    Raising taxes by statute is done in the public spotlight and very unpopular, better to just borrow, print and spend and indirectly tax through the resulting inflation.

    Bottom line is the small percentage of people who gainfully work in meaningful endeavors, mining, oil, small business, ect., pay more to support the welfare recipients, direct government employees and private contractors dependent on deficit government spending for servicing military bases, prisons and all manner of pork projects.

    Inflation will be far worst when foreign countries dump US Treasury notes and the US Dollar is no longer the exclusive medium of global trade.

  11. The solution to the 22% increase in the cost of goods and services lies not so much in trying to reduce prices but in increasing consumer buying power. A robust, growing economy, fueled by lower taxes and fewer regulations will put more money in people’s pockets, in all socioeconomic sectors. How do we know this? It’s exactly what happened during Trump’s first term. Couple this with a true effort to reduce government spending and America could see a real economic renaissance.

  12. Covid caused inflation. Nobody was making stuff and everybody wanted stuff. Simple as that. The result would have been the same under any administration. It’s much better now that balance has returned to supply and demand. It’s ECON 101, not Bidenomics. And if you think a Republican President wouldn’t have done a big Covid stimulus, you’re deluding yourself.

    • Whidbey,

      Let’s just assume you are correct that a disease caused inflation and it wasn’t government spending during covid that caused inflation. Are you counting the Inlfation Reduction Act as part of covid spending, or did you forget about that bill that should have been named the Inflation Increase Act?

      • An MIT study determined that the trillions in unnecessary spending after the Covid relief spending was the main cause of the inflation, and not so much supply chain issues.

  13. CH at CS hasn’t factored in shrinkflation… That 8oz container of yogurt I used to buy at $0.69 DJT’s last year became a 6oz container at $0.89 – do the math… $0.08625/oz became $0.1483/oz – the price nearly doubled. I don’t buy yogurt anymore…
    The only reason the inflation numbers aren’t MUCH higher is that many people – especially people on fixed incomes – stopped buying items like rib steaks, cars, TVs, computers, etc holding down prices hikes.
    Union wage demands are a reaction to the severity of the price hikes and will contribute to further hikes, but aren’t ultimately the cause of them. Hang this albatross on the demorats and joe biden and their stupid economic policies.

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