On Tuesday, Democrat President Joe Biden released a statement in response to the new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that showed that inflation continued to rise in January at a rate worse than economists had predicted. Biden attempted to paint the bad news in the report as a good thing.
“Inflation in America is continuing to come down, which is good news for families and businesses across the country,” Biden began, already making false claims. “Today’s data confirm that annual inflation has fallen for seven straight months. Inflation for food at the grocery store came down again last month. Gas prices are down about $1.60 from their peak last year.”
Notably, gas prices are about 50% higher than they were when Biden took office in January 2021. Additionally, inflation in January and over the last year was worse than economists expected as inflation rose by 0.5% in January and rose by 6.4% from January 2022 to January 2023. As noted by CNBC, economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting respective increases of 0.4% and 6.2%.
Biden continued, “And real wages for working Americans are up over the last seven months, delivering welcome breathing room for American families. We are seeing this progress even as unemployment remains at its lowest level since 1969 and job growth remains resilient.”
It should be noted that real wages for working Americans fell last month, and have fallen dramatically since Biden took office in January 2021.
Biden went on to tout his so-called “Inflation Reduction Act,” which was a spending bill focused primarily on climate change that is projected to – at best – have no effect on inflation and could make inflation worse. He then blamed Republicans for the inflation crisis, which began after Biden took office during a time when Democrats controlled the Presidency, House, and Senate.
“I will stand firmly against any effort to make inflation worse and increase costs for families. Today’s data reinforces that we have made historic progress and are on the right track, and now we need to finish the job,” Biden concluded.