Bidenflation is going to get worse- government report

April 13, 2022

April 13, 2022, Fairfax—The United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics released the March Producer Price Index (PPI) report and the numbers are ugly. Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning responded with the following statement:

“If you think inflation is bad now at 8.5 percent, hold onto your hat. The producer price index went up 1.4 percent in March alone. If that rate were to continue for an entire year, it would be a 16.8 percent increase on the cost of providing goods and services before profit and other costs are included. The Biden Presidency is leaving a mark on every American’s pocketbook unlike any president since Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s. Unfortunately, the only answer offered by this failed administration is to blame Putin. What Joe Biden doesn’t seem to understand is that when you set the inflation house on fire and keep pouring gasoline on it through federal spending schemes, anti-energy policies and failed foreign policies, you don’t get to blame the guy down the street for fanning those flames you allowed to consume most of the house.”

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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Congress must stop spending now to prevent runaway inflation

December 14, 2021

Inflation hurts everyone and runaway inflation is the hidden tax impacting every American that pays for our nation’s massive deficits by destroying the value of the dollar.

Fairfax, Va. – Wholesale prices increased at their quickest pace on record in November in the latest sign that the inflation pressures bedeviling the economy are still present.

Americans for Limited Government President Richard Manning released the following statement in reaction to the producer price index for final demand increasing 9.6% over the previous 12 months after rising another 0.8% in November:

“Every single month that Joe Biden has been president has resulted in an increase in the Final Demand Index of the Producer Price Index – a key indicator of future price expectations.  November continued that trend as the overall Producer Price Index (PPI) rose another .8 percent.

“This matters because the (PPI) is a measure of prices from the perspective of industries that make products, rather than the price paid by consumers.  While there is some debate over the predictive nature of the PPI as it relates to consumer prices, it is obvious that a price rise of 9.6 percent in the cost of production will be passed along to the consumers.  Last week, the Labor Department announced that inflation had risen by 6.8 percent over the past year and today’s PPI release makes it clear that more price inflation is on the way.

“But inflation is about more than numbers, it is about the person who needs to get an inexpensive used car to get to their job and discovers that used car prices have skyrocketed over the past year.  It is about the person who got a raise six months ago and today make less money in real dollars than they did before Biden became president.  It is about people on fixed incomes who are scraping by as it is discovering that the limited dollars they have just won’t stretch far enough to meet a meager budget.

“Inflation hurts everyone and runaway inflation is the hidden tax impacting every American that pays for our nation’s massive deficits by destroying the value of the dollar.  Somehow, I don’t think that anyone signed up for a 6.8 percent tax increase when they voted one year ago, but the combination of last year’s COVID recovery spending and this year’s stimulus bills have brought the chickens home to roost.  It is time for Congress to stop spending and for the President to evaluate all of the appropriated spending and ask for Congress to rescind much of the money that is in the pipeline to be spent.  I don’t expect them to do that, but our best hope is that they stop appropriating additional spending so our nation can work through this inflationary cycle without it turning into an economic catastrophe.”

For media availability contact Catherine Mortensen at cmortensen@getliberty.org or 703.478.4643.

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Congress needs to stop spending to staunch rapid inflation rise

June 16, 2021

This sustained and substantial increase in the producer cost of final goods is akin to finding a dead canary in the mine shaft of government spending excess.

Fairfax, Va. – The prices that suppliers are charging businesses and other customers rose again last month, adding to inflation pressures bubbling through the U.S. economy.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that its producer-price index rose 0.8% in May from the prior month, up from the 0.6% increase in April from March. The average rise between 2017 and 2019 was 0.2%.

The producer -price index is an inflation measure of what it costs those who make or produce the goods, services and equipment we consume, and as such, it is generally seen as a precursor to future inflation in the economy.

Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning offered the following analysis and policy recommendations:

“The unadjusted producer-price index increase of an annualized 6.6 percent in May, is up from 1.6 percent when Joe Biden took office. This sustained and substantial increase in the producer cost of final goods is akin to finding a dead canary in the mine shaft of government spending excess.

“America is out of the low demand driven deflationary cycle experienced during the pandemic-induced economic shutdown, and now faces a dangerous price surge which is a function of the rapid increase in the money supply.

“Congress can and should act now to stop this obvious trend in its tracks by freezing federal spending at the normally appropriated levels of 2020 as well as ending all new and unspent COVID emergency spending. By stopping our nation’s double digit money supply growth, lawmakers would undercut the primary inflation driver.

“Inflation is dangerous because it is the ultimate hidden tax. Inflation means that our money becomes worth less, making the cost of things we purchase more expensive. The result right now is that real wages (how much you make versus how much it costs to buy the same things with that money) are going down and the higher the inflation rate the less a paycheck will buy. Naturally, that causes people to demand higher wages, which has the perverse effect of increasing the cost of goods and services creating a vicious cycle that is directly due to the federal government’s money supply increase.

“America had to do what was necessary to fight the Chinese lab originated virus, but now the war is against the ravages of that spending on our economy. To win that war, Congress must reinstate the sequestration policies that the Republican House of Representatives forced upon the Obama administration just ten years ago, which lowered federal government spending, and led to dramatic drops in the budget deficit. In 2019, regularly authorized and so-called mandatory spending by the federal government was just under 4.5 trillion dollars, a level which should stand as the pre-pandemic baseline that Congress should strive to achieve when approving spending bills this year.”

For media availability contact Catherine Mortensen 703-478-4643 or cmortensen@getliberty.org.

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