March 15, 2022
Inflation rose 7.9% in February- the highest annual rate of increase in more than 40 years. As a result, every American has experienced an almost 8% decline in their paycheck and/or savings.
Americans are paying more for everything: groceries, restaurants, transportation, housing, apparel, and services are all significantly more expensive compared to last year.
Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s, calculated that surging prices cost the average household an extra $296.45 a month, compared to when inflation was 2.1%. Reminder -in the last month of Trump’s presidency the rate of inflation was only 1.4%
A significant factor in pushing up inflation is the rise in gas prices, up almost 81% from Biden’s inauguration. The average national price is currently $4.33-the highest in recorded history.
No surprise, as with all of the disasters that occurred during the last year, President Biden accepts zero responsibility.
The narrative emanating from the White House is that the rapid acceleration of inflation is the fault of the Russian invasion into Ukraine. They have inanely dubbed it the “Putin Price hike”.
Last week addressing House Democrats, Biden stated:
“Make no mistake, inflation is largely the fault of Putin.”
Never mind that inflation has been soaring above 5% since last May.
The Biden administration seems to be applying the “Never let a crisis go to waste” rule- the infamous quote by then-chief of staff to President Obama Rahm Emmanuel after the 2008 economic collapse. Incredibly, Democrats are using the Russian invasion as a scapegoat for their bad policy decisions leading up to the surge in prices.
Conveniently, not only does it remove blame, but it removes the onus from Biden and his fellow Democrats from taking action. Recall just a couple of weeks ago, Biden promised he was going “to work like the devil to bring gas prices down.” When asked the same question last week, Biden replied that “he can’t do much right now” because “Russia is responsible.”
Unfortunately, facts are not on the side of the newly invented narrative crafted by Biden and his fellow Democrats- gas prices and the rate of inflation have been on the rise for over a year.
Even former Treasury Department official Under President Obama, and now writer for the NY Times Steven Rattner, in a tweet, called out the deceptive “Putin Price hike” narrative spewed in unison by Biden, Democratic lawmakers and supposed nonpartisan media figures.
Yes- this is Biden’s inflation. Inflation began to surge shortly after Democrats rammed through the $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan Act” -a purported Covid relief bill. Despite a heated economy growing at an annual rate of 14.3%, last March Democrats insisted on passing another stimulus bill, which included $1400 stimulus checks, extending enhanced unemployment benefits, and other “free money” unnecessary initiatives that had nothing to do with Covid.
Reality -Covid was just a pretext to do what Democrats live for – making more people dependent on the government. Who could have guessed that curtailing supply by paying people not to work while simultaneously increasing demand with a massive monetary infusion into a reopening economy recovering from the shock of an unprecedented lockdown would be a perfect recipe for inflation? Answer: Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of economics.
Barrack Obama’s former top economic advisor, Larry Summers, warned that the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act was not only unnecessary but would lead to inflation “not seen in a generation” and called it the “least responsible” economic policy in “40 years”. He was right.
The massive cash stimulus in an already heated economy, combined with an ever-increasing politicized Federal Reserve, has proven to have disastrous results for the American people. The central bank has two mandates- price stability and full employment. Yet, even as inflation rages the Fed’s economists have focused on “woke” political issues outside the bank’s purview- such as climate change, income inequality, and race and gender discrimination.
After the death of George Floyd, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell released a statement asserting that the:
“principle’s [of racial equity] guide us in all we do, from monetary policy, to our focus on diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and to our work to ensure fair access to credit across the country.”
Incompetence can also not be ruled out as a factor in the Fed’s negligence to predict and address inflation.
At a congressional hearing in February 2021 discussing the not yet passed Covid relief bill, Powell stated:
“I really do not expect we’ll be in a situation where inflation rises to troublesome levels.”
In July 2021, at a hearing before Congress when inflation jumped to over 5%, Powell repeated the Democratic talking point that US inflation was “transitory”.
Unfortunately, Biden does not seem to have a problem with a politicized central bank pulling water for the Democratic Party. His nominee for the Federal Reserve’s bank supervision job, Sarah Raskin, wrote in an op-ed last September that financial regulators should help drive the “rapid and just green transition” by steering capital from fossil fuel companies. Fortunately, Senator Joe Manchin announced he will not support Raskin’s confirmation. She has since withdrawn her nomination.
Gas prices
From day one Biden has declared war on the fossil fuel industry.
In 2019, while campaigning for president, Biden told a supporter,
“I guarantee you, I guarantee you. We’re going to end fossil fuels.”
When asked at a primary debate in 2019 by CNN’s Dana Bash, “Would there be any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking in a Biden administration? Biden replied flatly:
“ No. we would work it out, we would make sure it’s eliminated, and no more subsidies for either of those. No more fossil fuel.”
These were not empty words. The day after Biden’s inauguration, he signed an executive order axing the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would have delivered 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada to refineries in the United States.
Biden claims that when he terminated the XL Pipeline it was years away from completion. However, according to the Premier of Alberta Canada, Jason Kenny, the pipeline was only a year from completion. In other words, it would be operational today if not for Biden’s actions.
Biden also signed orders pausing all new oil and gas permits on federally owned lands and waterways and directed his Secretary of the Interior to “pause new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and offshore waterways pending completion of a comprehensive review…” Biden also suspended drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Despite all he has done to hinder US oil production, incredibly Biden recently criticized US oil companies for not producing more, citing the 9,000 available unused drilling permits.
Biden is disingenuous at best for numerous reasons.
First, after oil companies obtain drilling permits, financing must be obtained, as well as permits for rights of way and to build pipelines to deliver the fuel. Further, according to Harold Hamm, chairman of the Hamm Institute for American Energy, “thousands of those sites can’t be developed because they are held up in litigation. ” Onerous environmental regulations implemented by the Biden administration have made the entire process more burdensome.
The US is currently producing 1.5 million fewer barrels of oil per day than under the Trump administration, when the US was a net energy exporter. Contrary to the White House narrative, it is undeniable that Biden’s war on fossil fuels is a contributing factor in the soaring price of gas. Oil trades on the global market and reacts to the prospect of future supply. Simply- the anticipation of declining supply results in rising prices.
In the last month of Trump’s presidency gas cost $2.28 a gallon, and inflation was 1.4%, both have since been steadily climbing. An invasion that occurred less than three weeks ago can not explain this away.
Biden’s attempt to blame rising gas prices and accelerating inflation on Putin’s war is an insult to the intelligence of every American.
