In his second State of the Union address, President Joe Biden spoke Tuesday night about inflation, which has risen steeply during his presidency.
“Inflation has been a global problem because of the pandemic that disrupted supply chains and Putin’s war that disrupted energy and food supplies,” Biden said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
Although it’s true that inflation has hit other nations’ economies, it did not start in the U.S. at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, nor did it begin during Russia’s war on Ukraine. The president’s description of the inflation problem is misleading at best.
When Biden was sworn into office Jan. 20, 2021, inflation stood at 1.4%. As it began to rise in 2021, Biden called high inflation a “transitory” issue. By June of the next year, inflation hit 9.1, a 40-year high.
The rate of inflation increase has slowed, but it remains a significant problem that is eroding the savings of Americans.
“While the rate of price increases has certainly slowed in recent months, as government deficit-spending also slowed and the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates, prices are still up about 14% under Biden,” wrote EJ Antoni, an economics expert at The Heritage Foundation. “That is substantially more than the increase in average earnings.” (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s multimedia news organization.)
In fact, as Antoni also wrote in November, the average American family lost over $7,000 because of inflation under Biden.
The Inflation Reduction Act, signed by Biden in 2022, has done little to reduce inflation. In fact, it mostly added to the government spending.
Here’s what Biden said that legislation was about in his speech:
Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email letters@DailySignal.com and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the url or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state.