Abby McCloskey, Dallas News, October 29, 2023

“There was always going to be significant inflation after COVID-19, but Democrat policies made it worse. The federal government spent nearly $6 trillion on relief during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, the spending took the form of bipartisan bills. That was necessary to prevent further catastrophe; the whole economy had shut down. But after the 2020 election, it was purely Democratic bills pumping more money into an economy that had limits placed on how much it could produce, due to lingering challenges from the pandemic. That’s a textbook recipe for inflation, which hit a 40-year high last summer.

The 18% rise in prices during the Biden administration (from 2021 to 2023) is the equivalent to consumers losing nearly one-fifth of their purchasing power; unacceptable outside of banana republics. The Federal Reserve started to pull money out by raising interest rates. Normally, this might trigger a recession, but the savings accumulated during the pandemic kept consumers spending more or less like normal. This, along with other factors, allowed the Federal Reserve to execute what for all practical purposes is a “soft landing.” Thank goodness.

This is how inflation has been reduced on the Biden administration’s watch, while it still gets the lion’s share of public blame for it being high in the first place. Importantly, a Democrat by the name of Joe Manchin is to thank for blocking expensive bills that would have made inflation even worse.”