Joe Biden Tries to Preempt More Bad News on Inflation

US-POLITICS-BIDEN
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President Joe Biden tried to preempt more bad news on inflation Thursday as analysts are watching the release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), scheduled for Friday.

“Tomorrow, we will get a report on consumer prices that experts expect to be elevated again,” Biden acknowledged in a statement about the economy.

Economists are estimating consumer costs are expected to rise 0.7 percent from the previous month and hit a 6.7 percent jump from last year. That would be higher than the jump in October, which hit a record high of 6.2 percent, the highest jump since 1990.

Biden’s statement argued that the information in the CPI scheduled for release on Friday would already be outdated, noting a slight drop in gas prices and a drop in “wholesale” used auto sales.

“The information being released tomorrow on energy in November does not reflect today’s reality, and it does not reflect the expected price decreases in the weeks and months ahead, such as in the auto market,” he wrote.

Biden argued that more federal spending on entitlements for Americans would help them deal with inflation, specifically pointing to his $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Bill.

“Let’s talk about inflation. It’s real. There is inflation,” Biden told an audience in Kansas City, Missouri, on Wednesday, in a speech promoting his agenda.

Biden argued that redistributing wealth through higher taxes on the rich would help lower the cost of living for less-wealthy Americans.

“What I proposed is, in a way, to lower some of the difficult costs families have to pay every month by asking corporations and the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share for a change,” he said.

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