President Joe Biden paused while eating an ice cream cone to brag that the United States economy was “strong as hell” — despite the fact that the inflation rate for the sweet dairy treat alone is 13.6% over last year.
Biden, who often stops for a cone while he’s out and about, explained over the weekend that he was not worried about the American economy so much as he was about economies around the world.
WATCH:
BIDEN, eating ice cream: “Our economy is strong as hell” pic.twitter.com/x5dyCg14l3
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 16, 2022
“Just one more economic question,” a reporter pressed the president as he began to eat his ice cream. “Are you concerned about the strength of the dollar right now?”
“I’m not concerned about the strength of the dollar, I’m concerned about the rest of the world,” Biden replied as he attempted to chew. “Does that make sense?”
“Our economy is strong as hell,” Biden continued. “The internal — inflation is worldwide, it’s worse off everywhere else than it is in the United States. So the problem is a lack of economic growth and sound policy in other countries, not so much ours.”
“It’s worldwide inflation, that’s a consequence of —” Biden walked away from the microphone mid-sentence.
The Biden administration has repeatedly worked to downplay the staggering inflation that is being felt across the country, using month-over-month averages to show that inflation rates are plateauing or even beginning to fall — but the year-over-year averages (over 8% consistently) have hit record levels not seen in four decades.
To make matters worse for the Biden administration, the 8% average is just that: an average. Many American families have experienced much higher inflation rates on items they need to live, feed their families, and get to and from their places of employment.
Annual inflation via BLS just out:
42.9% airline fares
33.1% utility gas
30.5% eggs
18.2% gasoline
17.2% chicken
15.7% coffee
15.2% milk
14.7% bread
10.1% furniture
9.2% vegetables
8.2% all items
8.2% fruit
8.1% ham
7.6% women apparel
7.2% used cars
6.7% rent
3.7% men apparel
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) October 13, 2022
A line-item breakdown of September’s inflation numbers — from the Bureau of Labor Statistics — shows that several items have seen much higher than the “average” 8% inflation rate since September of 2021.
Airline travel is up an estimated 42.9%, gas for heating homes and cooking is up 33.1%, eggs have skyrocketed — in part because of avian influenza outbreaks combined with inflation — 30.5%, gasoline is still up 18.2%, chicken (also related in part to the AI outbreaks) is up 17.2%, coffee has risen 15.7%, milk is up 15.2%, and bread has climbed 14.7%.
