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.
Well, we all know “greg” is going to say 22%, that’s not true!
It’s not at least not here. Some things have gone up. Meat hasn’t. Mayo hasn’t. Milk hasn’t. Eggs have.
All of that went up, but luckily, meat not too much to eat.
The cost of some items just recently came down, butter included. I buy in bulk, so I saved almost $4.00 on a package of butter this past weekend compared to what I was paying. I’m grateful, since I have a lot of Christmas baking to do! 😉
We are all just visitors in “greg’s” world!
Meat?? Really? I was at Costco yesterday and checked out a 3 pack of New York cuts. $57! I used to buy Mayo for $4, now its $7. Where do you shop?
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.
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?
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!!!
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.
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.
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.