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Fact Check: Biden Budget Director is Wrong–American Inflation Isn’t Just Part of a Global Trend

March 30, 2022 — Blog    — Press Releases    — Select Revenue Measures   

A new analysis from the San Francisco Fed finds that U.S. core inflation is higher than other nations – and attributes a part of it to President Biden’s decision to continue unemployment bonuses and government stimulus after the pandemic receded.

 

Yet, the Biden Administration is trying to pass the blame for inflation by claiming that it’s a global trend. In a House Budget Committee hearing today, Biden’s Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young said:

 

“I’d also point out that inflation is a global trend. Almost every country is seeing inflationary growth. What that tells us is that we have a global issue. It’s not one bill, not one country’s specific policies. This is something all major countries are facing coming out of the pandemic.”

 

Key Facts:

  • Prior to the pandemic, U.S. core inflation was consistently about 1 percentage point above OECD nations. 
  • The U.S. core inflation rate is above 4 percent when the OECD’s rate is around 2.5 percent.
  • Despite the end of the pandemic, the Biden Administration continued to send monthly “stimulus” checks and unemployment bonuses, which increased inflation by about 3 percentage points by the fourth quarter of 2021.
  • Former Obama-Biden economic adviser Larry Summers himself warned that President Biden’s so-called “stimulus” would trigger inflation.
  • But President Biden and Democrats have ignored inflation, denied it, dismissed it as “transitory,” and are even trying to pass the blame for rising costs onto American businesses and industries like meatpackers and energy suppliers.
  • A chart from TheRightFacts.org using Consumer Price Index (CPI) data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that inflation has increased since the day President Biden took office in January 2021, and began its rise to the fastest rate in 40 years the month directly after Democrats rammed through their partisan $1.9 trillion bill (March 2021).