Joe Biden has been promising for months that the rate of inflation — which had been rising since May — was just a temporary aberration and that once businesses began to reopen things would settle down and we’d be back to normal.
He said the same thing during the summer and the early fall. It’s supply-chain disruptions or some other quirk that Biden wants everyone to believe is responsible — it’s not his fault!
Whatever it is, Joe Biden has lost all credibility on the economy, which usually means curtains for a president’s re-election. Prices rose 6.8 percent from a year ago — 0.8 percent since October.
The price increases are pretty much across the board: vehicles, rent, furniture, airline fares — all rising. Gasoline prices dropped about 1.5 percent — a fact that elicited mirth from the RNC when Democrats actually began bragging about it. But the price of gasoline is still 6.1 percent higher this year than last.
Sixty percent of small-business owners said they had increased prices in the previous 90 days, according to a November survey of more than 560 small businesses for The Wall Street Journal by Vistage Worldwide Inc., a business-coaching and peer-advisory firm. Eighty percent of the companies surveyed reported increased labor costs, while 72% said their suppliers had raised prices.
The November employment report signaled continuing improvement in the job market. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.2% from 4.6%, with 1.1 million more people employed in November than in October, the Labor Department said. Consumer spending has also remained strong, advancing 1.3% in October, the most recent government figures.
Most economists are saying that the high rate of inflation is temporary and that the high increases in inflation will ease next year.
But how much? Families can stand a 1 or 1.5 percent rise in inflation for a year. But that was the base rate of inflation prior to the Biden presidency. What will the base rate be if Congress passes the Build Back Better bill and the other gargantuan spending initiatives the Democrats want to pass? Can we live with a 2 or 2.5 percent rate of inflation every year?
The eye-popping reading – which marked the sixth consecutive month the gauge has been above 5% – could threaten the passage of the Build Back Better bill, however: Sen. Joe Manchin raised concerns this week about soaring inflation and refused to commit to supporting his party’s massive social spending and climate plan until he sees the final text of the $1.7 trillion spending plan.
“The unknown we’re facing today is much greater than the need that people believe in this aspirational bill that we’re looking at, and we’ve got to make sure we get this right,” Manchin, D-W.Va., said during a Wall Street Journal CEO summit. “We just can’t continue to flood the market, as we’ve done.”
The current bout with inflation is wiping out whatever wage increases people enjoyed from going back to work after the pandemic. It will almost certainly be the number one issue in the 2022 midterm elections as Democrats will have to face the wrath of voters who trusted the promises of Joe Biden and the Democrats to bring America back.
The pandemic is still with us and the only thing Biden has brought is misery and pain.