President Joe Biden faced backlash Tuesday afternoon for celebrating the passage of his so-called “Inflation Reduction Act,” which experts say will have little to no impact on reducing inflation, while the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed today that inflation rose in August compared to last year and while the stock market tanked.
Biden claimed that the bill was the “single most important legislation passed in the Congress to combat inflation and one of the most significant laws in our nation’s history.”
“We’re going to fight for environmental justice and create clean energy jobs and apprentices and front-line fence communities that have been smothered by the legacy of pollution,” Biden added.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 8.3% between August 2021 and August 2022, according to a Tuesday report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Month-over-month prices for food, shelter, and medical services continued to tick upward, producing a 0.1% overall price increase from July. Economists had expected headline inflation to fall 0.1%. Prices for food at home — a category that includes grocery store or supermarket food purchases — increased 0.7% from the previous month. Meanwhile, prices for natural gas and electricity rose 3.5% and 1.5%, respectively.
“Today’s CPI report confirms that the US has a serious inflation problem,” economist Larry Summers, a Democrat, tweeted. “Median inflation used to be a favorite indicator for team transitory. This month it was at its highest ever reading.”
