Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
The Bureau of Labor Statistic’s Tuesday morning release of its March Consumer Price Index report revealed that the nation at least held steady at 40-year-high inflation rates; but the fact America’s inflation woes didn’t reach a new historic benchmark was a depressing consolation prize in a game consumers are growing accustomed to losing.
According to March’s figures, inflation rose at a rate of 1.2% and has increased by 8.5% over the last 12 months. The latter number, according to a report by CNBC, was about one-tenth of one percent higher than expected and the highest rate since 1981.
In real terms, the cost of food, fuel, and shelter continued to surge. The cost of food was up 1% on average and shelter a half percent, but the real punch the American budgetary gut was an 11% jump in energy costs, including an 18.1% inflation in the cost of gasoline and 22.3% increase in the cost of fuel oil, which is certain to cause spikes in other areas next month.
The cost of energy has increased 32% over the last 12 months, with fuel oil skyrocketing by 70.1% and gasoline by 48%.
Perhaps worst of all, the BLS released a second report which revealed the real average hourly income for workers fell by 0.8% in March. This figure is calculated by comparing the rate of inflation with the rate at which salaries increased, meaning wages increased at a 0.4% rate, far short of the rate of inflation.
“Americans are paying an additional $100 per week…every week,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) tweeted Monday. “Biden’s inflation tax is robbing American families.”
Americans are paying an additional $100 per week…every week.
Biden’s inflation tax is robbing American families.https://t.co/ubp5DI7WlH
— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) April 11, 2022
On Facebook, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) wrote, “Inflation hit another 40-year high under Joe Biden & the Democrats’ wasteful spending agenda. Inflation is a tax on all Montanans, and those who can afford it the least, feel it the most.”
House Republicans also wasted little time in decrying another month of bad news.
“Runaway inflation is crushing American families and our economy,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted Tuesday morning. “Under President Biden, prices are accelerating faster than any time in more than 40 years, sucking up paychecks and draining savings. Americans can’t afford Democrat one-party rule.”
Runaway inflation is crushing American families and our economy.
Under President Biden, prices are accelerating faster than any time in more than 40 years, sucking up paychecks and draining savings.
Americans can’t afford Democrat one-party rule.
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) April 12, 2022
Almost as fast as the CPI numbers were released, the White House unveiled a new fact sheet that it touts as President Joe Biden’s plan to save Americans at the pump. It is also the latest attempt by the administration to foist blame for cost-of-living increases on someone other than Democrats and the president.
“The President is committed to doing everything he can to address the pain Americans are feeling at the pump as a result of Putin’s Price Hike,” the release reads.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), took to Twitter Monday to list the numerous ways Biden has sought to dodge accountability on inflation and to reiterate the Republican slogan that inflation is “Bidenflation.”
The White House is now expecting shocking inflation numbers.
Here’s the list of the Biden admin's ever-shifting denial of reality about inflation:
-It’s not happening.
-It’s transitory.
-It’s a high class problem.
-It’s a good thing.
-It’s Putin’s fault.It’s #Bidenflation.
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) April 11, 2022
On the matter of fuel costs, Biden pledged to work with the Environmental Protection Agency to create a series of emergency waivers that will allow expanded use of E15 gas, a fuel mixture that is forbidden to be sold during the summer months in most of the U.S. but which the president says will result in an average savings of 10 cents per gallon.
The president is banking that this move, plus a bevy of targeted spending efforts and tapping the nation’s strategic reserves, will be enough to stave off an electoral crisis in the midterms and that his insistence upon blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin will take root in the American psyche.