Texans are paying more for gas, groceries, even furniture. Thanks, Joe Biden
Prices jumped 7% in December from a year ago, the highest inflation rate in the United States since 1982, according to a new report just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In Texas, particularly the Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington areas, inflation actually increased slightly more to 7.5% at the end of November 2021.
The things that have gone up the most in price since the start of the pandemic? Gas, new cars, and clothing. That’s not all though. Food, particularly meat, poultry, fish and eggs soared until year’s end. They’ve only recently become somewhat less expensive. Even furniture prices have risen sharply, making it more difficult for families to afford basic necessities.
Americans battling a COVID pandemic and all the missed work days, reduced wages and anxiety that comes with it, cannot afford to live in an America with inflation at a 40-year high. Economists say supply chain backlogs and high consumer demand for goods have contributed to the high inflation. “On top of it all, an energy crisis ricocheted through the supply chains this fall. Higher energy costs are pushing up the prices of just about every other good, economists say,” read The Washington Post.
No one person bears full blame, not even President Joe Biden, but his administration certainly has not improved the situation. The administration has been unfriendly to oil production. And he insisted on more COVID stimulus, when it was already clear that federal money was flooding the economy.
At first the White House said pandemic-era inflation would be short-lived, but Biden aides have had to walk that back since it clearly defies Americans’ experiences.
“If inflation does become too persistent, if these high levels of inflation become too entrenched in the economy or people’s thinking, that will lead to much tighter monetary policy from us, and that could lead to a recession and that would be bad for workers,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. Powell told lawmakers this week.
The Biden administration had a monumental task in guiding America through the pandemic, but that was not the only thing that mattered to Americans. A stable economy — and that includes average Americans being able to purchase housing, food, cars and goods without straining their budgets — would do wonders even amid an infectious-disease crisis.
Too bad the Biden administration was not up to the task.
This story was originally published January 13, 2022 at 1:21 PM.
