An editorial by The New York Post summarized the 17-minute taped interview with Erin Burnett by concluding President Biden averaged a “lie a minute” after the Post counted 15 whoppers.
“From whoppers about the economy to prevarications on Israel, Biden spun a fantasyland of a presidency that voters know is false,” the editorial stated.
Joel Griffith, an economic researcher at The Heritage Foundation, says he couldn’t believe Biden’s claims about inflation, which Biden said was 9% when he took office. Biden also blamed corporate greed for costs going up and up.
"How stupid does the President think we are?" Griffith asks rhetorically.
According to Griffith, the average family income has dropped $4,000 when adjusted for inflation in a home with two income earners.
“And that $4,000 decline doesn't even include the rising cost of home ownership," says Griffith. "If you're looking to buy a home, a $1,100 mortgage payment a few years ago is now $2,600 a month now. And the $4,000 pay cut doesn't include the rising interest costs either on credit card debt."
An average 30-year mortgage rate is 7.62% today. It was 2.87% percent in May 2021.
The Post editorial called Biden’s claim about inflation the “lie of the night,” because inflation was only 1.4% when he took office in January 2021.
Biden, who is often portrayed by Democrats as a grandfatherly healer-in-chief, was reminded by Burnett that families are feeling “real pain” with grocery prices that are 30% higher.
“People are spending more on food and groceries than they have at any time, really, in the past 30 years,” Burnett said. “I mean, that's a real day-to-day pain that people feel.”
“It-it-it-it really is and it's real,” Biden replied. “But the fact is that if you take a look at what people have, they have the money to spend.”
Biden went on to blame “shrinkflation,” such as a shrinking candy bar that is sold for the same price, and called that “corporate greed” that Democrats are working right now to fight.
Griffith, however, says economists have watched profit margins shrink during Biden’s term in the White House. Those are shrinking, he says, because everything from product ingredients to labor costs and transportation costs have gone up.
"We can see that a gallon of milk is still a gallon of milk. A dozen eggs is still a dozen eggs. Half a dozen oranges is still a half-dozen oranges,” Griffith says. “All of those costs have gone up substantially over the past few years."
