By John Hugh DeMastri
Despite August seeing the highest hike in food prices in over 40 years, President Joe Biden claimed Tuesday that the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act helped reduce the impact of inflation “at the kitchen table.”
Biden criticized Republican congresspeople for not crossing the aisle to vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, and went on to claim that the act helped reduce the spending by Americans on necessities. In August, the cost of food at home was up by 13.5% compared to the same time last year, while the cost of rent and electricity were up by 6.7% and 15.8% respectively, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Consumer Price Index (CPI). (RELATED: Food Prices Hit 40-Year High, Keep Breaking Records Every Month)
“President Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer have the nerve to take a victory lap on the Inflation Reduction Act today on the same day that inflation increased and the market fell by almost 1,300 points,” Alfredo Ortiz, president and CEO of Job Creators Network, said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Today’s data showing that inflation increased last month and core inflation increased twice as fast as expectations confirms that Biden has no control over inflation. ”
BIDEN: The Inflation Reduction Act “helped reduce inflation at the kitchen table.”
Today, the Consumer Price Index report noted that the food index jumped 11.4 percent in the last 12 months, the largest jump since May 1979. pic.twitter.com/lGosivmdqm
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 13, 2022
The prices of common grocery items have gone up significantly over the course of the past twelve months, according to the BLS, including eggs (39.8%), butter (24.6%), frozen foods (18.5%), milk(17%), chicken(16.6%), bread (16.2%) and peanut butter (15.2%).
By contrast, food at home increased by just 3.5% in both 2020 and 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The price of food first passed the USDA’s annual estimated inflation between 10% and 11% in May, when the annual food-at-home increase reached 11.9%, according to the BLS.
