President Biden’s economy is even crueler than many realize: “For most Americans, the inflation they actually experience is often much worse than the 8.6 percent headline rate,” writes Washington Post columnist Henry Olsen.
Read: Fact Check: President Biden is Dead Wrong on Inflation
Key Takeaways:
Everyday Purchases Have Grown Shockingly Expensive:
- “Prices for the goods that people regularly purchase are rising much faster than those for things they don’t. Food used at home, for example, rose by almost 12 percent over the past year, while gasoline prices jumped by nearly 50 percent. Prices for eggs skyrocketed by more than 32 percent in the last year. These categories comprise less than 20 percent of the overall CPI, yet they are products that people buy every week.”
Read: Fourth of July Prices Explode Like Fireworks
The Cost of Big-Ticket Items Are Soaring:
- “Those who did buy a new home almost surely experienced sticker shock. The price of a home has risen by a whopping 40 percent since March 2020, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller National Home Price Index. The nearly 7 million households that purchased a new or existing home in 2021 won’t soon forget the sky-high prices they encountered.”
- “…Tens of millions of individuals likely ventured out in the past year to purchase a car or truck, and saw those high prices on top of all the other accumulating price increases.”
Read: Yet Another Poll Finds Most Americans Worse Off Financially Today Than a Year Ago
The Administration’s Efforts to Combat These Hikes are Laughably Inept or Tone-Deaf:
- “Blaming price hikes for meat on the lack of competition in the meat packing industry is economically illiterate; the industry did not suddenly become less competitive in the last year, and it’s nonsensical to suppose that all powerful packers would exercise their market power now but not in previous years.”
- “Meanwhile, President Biden has issued silly tweets insisting that oil companies reduce prices at the pump, but he continues to pander to the left by refusing to issue new permits for oil drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.”