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Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Finds Biden's Spending Spree Fueled Inflation

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  March 30, 2022 2:00 PM

A new letter from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco throws cold water on President Biden and Democrats' claims that his massive spending agenda would help Americans burdened by record-high prices for common goods and services and instead suggests inflation was brought about by "fiscal support measures" pushed by Democrats.

Under President Biden's economic policy and larger agenda, America has seen inflation rise to four-decade highs as producers and consumers continue to see prices grow at a rate that's outpaced wage growth. The resulting reality for Americans is, as Katie reported, the average household will pay $5,200 more this year than last year. 

Along the way, President Biden and his administration first tried to dismiss inflation as a "transitory" fleeting problem that Psaki claimed was a natural reaction to the economy reopening after Democrats' draconian measures began to lift. After that excuse didn't fly, the White House has sought to blame "big meat" and other industries they claim are greedily gouging consumers, even as the Producer Price Index that measures inflation upstream rose along with consumer costs. Through it all, Democrats have maintained that their massive and woke budgets wouldn't contribute to or extend the inflation that burdens Americans.

But what the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (FRBSF) found and reported this week shows once again that "it's the spending, stupid," by comparing inflation in the United States with inflation being seen in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. "Since the first half of 2021," the FRBSF's letter notes, "U.S. inflation has increasingly outpaced inflation in other developed countries."

"The United States is experiencing higher rates of inflation than other advanced economies," noted the FRBSF letter's conclusion, and goes on to cite "the sizable fiscal support measures" that were proposed by President Biden and passed by the Democrat-led House and Senate that "could explain about 3 percentage points of the recent rise in inflation."

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Meanwhile, President Biden unveiled his budget for the next fiscal year this week and — to no one's surprise — it includes even more spending that, based on what the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco found, would only continue to drive inflation upwards. And that's something Republicans in the House and Senate are eager to emphasize ahead of the midterms.