Democratic US Rep. Jim Clyburn claimed on MSNBC that the Biden administration has inflation beneath management — solely to get interrupted on the air with the information that prices rose more than expected final month.
The 83-year-old congressman from South Carolina was in the midst of bashing social media for spreading “disinformation” about inflation — earlier than being minimize off for a “breaking information” report that shopper costs “elevated at a faster-than-expected tempo final month. A sign that inflation stays stubbornly excessive,” Brzezinski mentioned.
The Client Worth Index launch by the Bureau of Labor Statistics amid MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” got here in at 3.5% — forward of the three.4% headline inflation determine economists surveyed by FactSet anticipated, and above February’s 3.2% reading.
Clyburn’s section then abruptly ended. The Dow was off more than 500 points in Wednesday buying and selling on fears that out-of-control inflation will hold rates of interest excessive for the remainder of the 12 months.
A clip of the embarrassing MSNBC section was later posted to X, with responders noting: “Would like to see a clip of what occurred with Rep. Clyburn’s response to the breaking information instantly after this.”
“What a lousy liar,” another wrote of Clyburn’s claims.
Clyburn admitted to MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski on Wednesday morning that Americans “are seeing the prices at the stores costing more money,” but claimed that “people are in fact earning greater incomes” and “the inflation rates are down.”
But every month from April 2021 to April 2023 — a majority of the Biden presidency — price inflation has outpaced wage growth, siphoning away consumers’ purchasing power, according to government data.
The latest CPI data — which tracks changes in the costs of everyday goods and services — means that consumer prices still have yet to fall year-over-year since President Joe Biden’s term began in January 2021.
At the time, inflation sat at 1.4% — 150% less than Wednesday’s 3.5% reading.
Brzezinski cited a poll from undecided voters, who said there are “real warning signs for the Biden campaign,” including interest rates and the increasingly unaffordable housing market.
These voters are also “feeling like they’re being gaslit” and Biden isn’t being held accountable, Brzezinski said.
Clyburn, however, cheered the Biden administration for its “policies,” though he didn’t specifically indicate which ones.
He went on to make a confusing call to actions to lawmakers to “make sure that people see the policies of the Biden administration, how they affect their everyday lives and get them to see in his policies that which is real.”
Biden additionally spun the inflation figures in his favor, noting that the CPI report “exhibits inflation has fallen greater than 60% from its peak,” which was 9.1% in June 2022.
“Preventing inflation stays my high financial precedence,” Biden insisted in a statement issued Wednesday.
Nonetheless, in an effort to gradual the financial system, the Federal Reserve has hiked rates of interest to their present 22-year excessive, between 5.25% and 5.5%.
When inflation persists because it has in latest months regardless of the present 22-year excessive benchmark federal funds price, the Fed has historically hiked rates of interest even additional in an effort to gradual the financial system.
