The Worst of Inflation is Likely Behind Us. President Biden is Kicking its Ass on the Way Out.

 

     The nonpartisan CBO released a positive report delivering two pieces of good news for America's economy. After record growth in 2021 and a brief shock in 2022 owing to inflation, it appears that America will still see its economy grow at least 3.1 percent in 2022, bringing the total to 8.8 percent in two years and allaying fears of a recession for now. The second piece of good news was the revelation that the worst of inflation is likely behind us and America's inflation rate should hit a comfortable low of two percent by 2024.

     This backs up the evidence shown in the April 2022 CPI (Consumer Price Index) Report. Inflation hit a 40-year high of 8.6 percent in March 2022 before dipping slightly to 8.3 percent in April. Core inflation was reduced from six percent to four percent, which means that inflation should continue to decline in the months to come. This was before Congress confirmed President Biden's nominees to the Federal Reserve and the Federal Trade Commission, before President Biden signed the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act and the Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2022 to stand up to Russia's costly war of aggression against Ukraine, before a Senate compromise was reached to provide hundreds of billions of dollars in funding to veterans and their families, and before the launch of the first test-to-treat locations to keep control over COVID; and it will be before the signing of the historic Bipartisan Innovation Act, before the signing of the 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Act to lower costs and reduce the deficit, before the Build Back Better Act is enacted into law, before executive action on the cancellation of student debt, before the tariff-reducing Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, and much more.

     By the time the year is over, the rate of inflation in America should dip beneath six percent. I'd like to say one thing: this has nothing to do with the federal government's spending via the American Rescue Plan Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. It has everything to do with the global supply chain disruptions caused by COVID, decades of outsourcing jobs, unprecedented corporate price gouging, and Putin's murderous rampage through Ukraine. Every developed nation on Earth is suffering from inflation right now: gas in the United States is actually less expensive than it is in many places throughout Europe, and inflation in nations like Australia and the UK have also hit record highs. The only difference between these nations and ours is that ours provided trillions of dollars in economic stimulus and, as a result, is on track to achieve its lowest unemployment rate in modern history. The last time the rate of inflation reached these levels was when Ronald Reagan was in the White House, and he was God to conservatives until the Great Pumpkin came along

     Republicans have, as with every other issue in America, opposed virtually all of these solutions and will continue to do so. The Senate GOP has called inflation a "goldmine," one they see as a way to score political points, instead of a problem facing working people. At the same time, Rick Scott, the chair of the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, has announced a plan to cut taxes on the wealthy, raise them on working families, and put Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare on the chopping block.

     The choice America faces in November could not be clearer.