Tipsheet

Biden Gets a Hard Reality Check on Inflation

As Spencer reported, inflation soared past 9 percent and new numbers came in higher than economists expected Wednesday morning. 

Just two days ago the White House claimed the economy is "strong." In the spring, White House officials and President Biden argued inflation spikes were over. 

"The President's going to be focused.  We have a strong economy.  We are going to, you know, as we're talking about inflation, our plan right now is to do that transition from that, the growth that we've seen in the economy to a more stable and steady growth," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. 

President Biden issued a statement about the new numbers as he travels overseas, claiming they are out of date. 

"While today’s headline inflation reading is unacceptably high, it is also out-of-date. Energy alone comprised nearly half of the monthly increase in inflation," Biden said. "Tackling inflation is my top priority - we need to make more progress, more quickly, in getting price increases under control." 

Meanwhile, the U.S. economy has fallen into a recession after two back-to-back quarters of negative GDP growth.