With less than two months before the midterm elections, President Biden appeared to take a dismissive attitude towards inflation, despite the issue being a top concern for voters.
“Mr. President, as you know, last Tuesday the annual inflation rate came in at 8.3%. The stock market nosedived. People are shocked by their grocery bills. What can you do better and faster?” CBS’s Scott Pelley asked the president.
“Well, first of all, let's put this in perspective,” Biden responded. “Inflation rate month to month was just—just an inch, hardly at all.”
“You're not arguing that 8.3% is good news,” a surprised Pelley answered.
“ No, I'm not saying it is good news. But it was 8.2% or-- 8.2% before. I mean, it's not-- you're ac-- we act-- make it sound like all of a sudden, ‘My god, it went to 8.2%.’ It's been—”
“It's the highest inflation rate, Mr. President, in 40 years,” Pelley interjected.
“I got that. But guess what we are. We're in a position where, for the last several months, it hasn't spiked,” Biden said. “It has just barely-- it's been basically even. And in the meantime, we created all these jobs and-- and prices-- have-- have gone up, but they've come down for energy. The fact is that we've created 10 million new jobs. We're in-- since we came to office. We're in a situation where the-- the unemployment rate is about 3.7%. one of the lowest in history. We're in a situation where manufacturing is coming back to the United States in a big way. And look down the road, we have mas-- massive investments being made in computer chips and-- and employment. So, I-- look, this is a process. This is a process.”
YIKES - you’re going to be hearing “just up an inch” quite a bit for the next 2 months.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) September 19, 2022
Voters love to hear that their top concern - not being able to afford FOOD - is no big deal to the President of the United States. https://t.co/G79BBGEJ5R
Biden says inflation “up just an inch”??! It’s actually at 8.3%, near a 40-yr high!
— Joel Griffith (@joelgriffith) September 19, 2022
??Gas +25.6%
???Furniture +12.8%
??Airfare +33.3%
??Eggs +39.8%
??Chicken +16.6%
??Milk +17.0%
??Coffee +17.6%
??Lunchmeat 18.2%
??Flour +23.3%
??Oranges +14.4%
??Margarine +38.3%
??Bread +16.2%
Meanwhile, Americans are struggling to put food on the table.
With inflation driving grocery bills sky-high, Americans are turning to “buy now, pay later programs” to finance their groceries
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 13, 2022
“It speaks to the desperation that so many families are feeling" pic.twitter.com/uVSvMQ0Lfs