Biden Calls High Inflation ‘Bump in the Road’; Blames Coronavirus, Not Trillions in Government Spending

President Joe Biden addressed the Consumer Price Index report at the White House on Friday after showing the highest rate of inflation since 1982.

“It’s a real bump in the road, it does affect families,” Biden said. “When you walk in the grocery store and you’re paying more for whatever you’re purchasing, it matters. It matters to people.”

Biden spoke to reporters about inflation after delivering remarks concluding his Summit for Democracy at the White House, appearing optimistic that inflation would fall.

“I think you’ll see it change sooner, quicker, and more rapidly than most people think,” Biden said.

Prices in November rose by 6.8 percent from last year, according to the report, the fastest 12-month pace since 1982 and the sixth straight month of inflation above five percent.

The president argued that his multitrillion-dollar government spending agenda was not responsible for record inflation.

“That’s hard for people to think about right now. Because inflation is up and there’s a direct correlation in most people’s minds,” Biden said, noting that people automatically think that inflation is the result of government spending more money.

“Well that’s not the reason for the inflation,” he continued. “The reason for the inflation is we have a supply chain problem that is really severe.”

Economic analysts believe that direct payments to American consumers only increase demands for products and exascerbate shortages as businesses try to get production levels back to where they were before the pandemic.

Biden also blamed the coronavirus pandemic for higher inflation and supply chain problems.

“At the bottom of it all is COVID,” he said. “COVID has had a serious impact on the ability to produce a whole lot of necessary products.”

Biden defended his proposal to spend an additional $1.75 trillion in his Build Back Better bill with additional government payments and entitlements for families, after already spending $1.9 trillion in his coronavirus rescue bill and $1.2 trillion in his infrastructure bill.

“It’s reducing costs for ordinary people,” Biden said. “But in the meantime. In order to get that up and running, it’s going to be all focused on the downside.”

The president noted the cost of used vehicles was up because of supply chain shortages hurting the production of new vehicles, indicating it was only temporary as supply chains improved.

Biden also said that gas prices had already fallen below three dollars a gallon in many states, after reaching the highest per-gallon cost since 2014.

“The point is it’s not gone down quick enough. But it will,” he said.