The Biden Price Hike Continues its Assault on Americans’ Wallets

Key Takeaways:

Newly released inflation data reveals that the consumer price index (CPI) rose by 8.5% year-over-year in March, breaking 40-year-old records to the detriment of Americans’ finances.

Inflation continues to be broad-based in the damage it is inflicting on the economy, with energy prices exhibiting a particularly steep increase last month. The average price of gasoline has gone up by 74% since the Biden Administration took office in January 2021.

Wages are not rising fast enough to offset inflation. The average worker has seen their paycheck shrink by 2.8% in purchasing power over the past year and has paid almost a $1,200 inflation tax since this inflationary episode began, with low-income families and seniors most vulnerable.

The Biden Administration has been deflecting blame from their reckless policies onto “corporate greed” and Vladimir Putin despite clear evidence that inflation did not spike until the American Rescue Plan Act was passed in spring 2021 and predated Russia’s incursion into Ukraine.

Small businesses continue to confront even higher inflation — 10% according to producer price index (PPI) data from February 2022 — suggesting that consumers may be in store for continued high inflation and further undermining the Biden Administration’s false corporate greed narrative.

The prospects for inflation become even worse if the Biden Administration pushes forward with implementing policies from its living dead Build Back Better agenda — or Big Government Socialism Bill — that would impair the supply-side of the economy at precisely the wrong time, given rising recession risks.

Inflation is America’s top economic concern, and the latest data confirms that they are right to be worried. With each passing month, inflation continues to climb, and the latest 8.5% year-over-year increase for the consumer price index (CPI) has yet again broken 40-year-old records. It is important to remember that the last time inflation was this high, it was on its way back down, not still on the ascent with no relief in sight.

Workers’ paychecks are feeling the pinch. Although wages are on the rise, the pace of wage increases continues to fall below that of inflation. As a result, the average worker has seen their purchasing power fall by 2.8% over the past year, causing them to pay a nearly $1,200 inflation tax since the beginning of this inflationary episode in 2021. Low-income workersand seniors living on fixed incomes are even more vulnerable to this surge of inflation — and unlike in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when seniors were at least able to earn a high-interest rate on their savings, the return on deposits over the past year has remained rock bottom. Even though Americans pay the inflation tax at the cash register each time they make a purchase rather than by filing IRS forms, its effects are just as real as any other tax. The Biden Administration has already broken its pledge to shield people earning less than $400,000 from tax hikes.

After months of downplaying inflation in 2021, the Biden Administration finally recognizes that it can no longer ignore Americans’ most pressing economic worry. However, rather than admitting the failures of its reckless, short-sighted fiscal and energy policies and rolling up its sleeves to implement long-overdue supply-side reforms, the Biden Administration considers the current inflation primarily as a political and messaging problem to be obfuscated.


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