While media outlets and Democratic pundits frequently tout a reduction in the inflation rate as a positive economic sign, Americans struggling to afford groceries and other expenses understand that such statistics do not mean prices are coming down.
Joe Biden talks about inflation, but fails to mention that costs are up 17.3% on his watch and that the inflation rate is more than double what it was when he took office. pic.twitter.com/f0X8Fac5Cm
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 5, 2024
During a recent Senate Banking Committee hearing, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen acknowledged that reality and advised that the consumer prices are not likely to return to the levels they were at prior to President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Her somewhat candid admission came in response to a line of questioning from U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA).
“These high prices, caused by Bidenomics, are here to stay, aren’t they?” he asked.
Yellen replied with a denial that Bidenomics — a term once used by the White House to highlight the supposed achievements of the Biden administration but which fell flat among voters — was to blame for the decades-high inflation rate of the past several years.
“We suffered a pandemic that resulted in severe dislocations,” she said in an attempt to take the onus for economic hardships away from the president.
Kennedy continued by emphasizing the main focus of his initial question.
“But if I could ask you, they’re here to stay, aren’t they?” he continued.
Yellen responded by noting that she has no reason to believe prices will be falling in the foreseeable future.
While the Biden administration has attempted to shift the blame for inflation elsewhere, its many critics have pointed to runway federal spending as the biggest culprit.
As Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) asserted in November: “Let there be no confusion that the policies of Joe Biden and the Democrats are why families have suffered the worst inflation in 40 years. Democrats have done nothing to correct course or steer the economy in the right direction.”
He went on to conclude that the Democratic Party has essentially demanded that cash-strapped Americans simply “endure” the pain of higher prices while leftist politicians continue “pushing policies that increase spending and choke off American energy — policies that keep driving prices and costs higher.”
American voters seem to agree, as evidenced in a September poll that found nearly twice as many respondents — 59% to 34% — disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy than those who approve.
In the same survey, GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump had an 11-point advantage over Biden in terms of which candidate respondents would trust to handle the economy.
