President Joe Biden on Friday gave a speech as part of a DNC event held at the headquarters of the National Education Association (NEA) in Washington, D.C. In addition to being heavily political, the speech was also quite bizarre in some points, as the president joked about a woman's age, saying "she was 12, I was 30." He also appeared to casually bring up how inflation has forced Americans to increasingly turn to food bank, as if it were some distant memory.
BIDEN: "Remember seeing all those food lines? People in nice looking automobiles waiting for an hour, hour-and-a-half, just to have a box of food put in their trunk?"
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 23, 2022
That happened on Biden's watch. pic.twitter.com/GkafyqTa6M
"Remember seeing all those food lines," the president asked the crowd? "People in nice looking automobiles waiting for an hour, an hour-and-a-half, just to have a bucket of, a box of food put in their trunk?" The president got more passionate as he emphasized this was happening "in the United States of America that was happening."
For many Americans, though, it's not something discuss in the past-tense.
In addition to sharing the clip of Biden's remarks, RNC Research shared in that same thread coverage from "CBS Mornings" which highlighted how food banks have seen an increased amount of people turning to them, referring to "a line of desperation."
Highlighting the lines at the North Texas Food Bank, CBS interviewed Trisha Cunningham, the CEO of that food bank, who spoke about the demand in comparison to previous years, confirming "unfortunately it's worse than a couple of years ago," explaining "we are serving at higher levels than we even did at the peak of the pandemic."
CBS also spoke with people who can't afford "just the basics" who "don't even have that luxury anymore" to buy things like "cookies" or "cakes."
The segment also explained how "as inflation has grown, so has need," Citing Feeding America, the show explained that "1 in 6 Americans relied on food banks last year, that's 53 million people, compared to 40 million people pre-pandemic."
According to CBS News, demand at food banks is up from during the pandemic and an additional 13 million Americans are seeking help now compared to before the pandemic.pic.twitter.com/jmmiy8vDiE
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 23, 2022
Various news outlets, from Fox Business, to PBS, to local outlets like NBC's News 12 in Richmond, Virginia, highlighted how food banks had seen increased demand.
"Food bank struggles with inflation costs as demand increases," read News 12's headline, with the piece including some sobering quotes:
“The economy is slowing down, prices keep increasing. People’s budgets aren’t able to go as far as before,” Feed More’s Director of Volunteer Services Timothy Bothe said.
Bothe says the increase in demand is 15% higher than a year ago due to inflation.
He says it’s caused a financial burden on their services.
“Just for our Meals on Wheels delivery aspect, it has increased just 18 percent on food price, five percent increase on supply aspects, which then relates to us needing to raise more money to offset those additional costs,” Bothe said.
He says they’re also seeing fewer donations, simply because people can’t afford to be as generous.
“People aren’t able to purchase extra peanut butter or canned soup,” Bothe said.
It's worth reminding that while this was going on, the president and those in his administration were claiming we were experiencing an economy that was not only "strong," but that we were "stronger economically than we have been in history."
It's not merely news stories, though, in which we are seeing the effects of inflation. In a thread with Twitchy's Sam Janney, multiple people replied describing how they or those they know have been impacted.
I'm on disability with a 17 y.o. still home.
— ?????? & ??????????????(????????????) (@GinAndTonic1965) September 23, 2022
I "make too much" for food stamps, while everything costs more on my same (not a whole lot, but it was manageable 2 years ago) income.
Under the Biden administration, inflation has reached its highest levels in four decades. The August Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers showed not just a 0.1 percent increase from the previous month, but also a whopping 8.3 percent increase in the past 12 months.
Even Yahoo! Finance did a piece on how "Grocery prices in August rose 13.5%, the highest increase since March 1979."
The president, though, has downplayed the effect of inflation, including and especially during the "60 Minutes" interview that aired on Sunday. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described prices as having been "essentially flat," when Americans are still suffering. Economic adviser Jared Bernstein similarly claimed that "inflation has been effectively flat."
A recent Fox News poll, with an emphasis on inflation, showed Biden faring particularly poorly on economic and inflation issues. Just 29 percent approve of how he's handled inflation, which is not even his lowest approval rating on the issue.
An increase of respondents, though, did say that inflation has caused them financial hardship, 78 percent in the September poll, when it was 75 percent in July. Thirty-four percent also describe it as "a serious hardship," when 30 percent indicated as much in July.
Despite how the misnamed "Inflation Reduction Act" will actually make inflation worse, Biden also touted the legislation during his Friday speech and claimed it will "reduce inflation at the kitchen table."
Biden says his so-called "Inflation Reduction Act" will "reduce inflation at the kitchen table."
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 23, 2022
This is completely false. It will make inflation worse. pic.twitter.com/HAkqcoTxEO
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