{"id":2646366,"date":"2026-08-18T08:02:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T12:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignblame-mostly-biden-for-high-prices\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T08:06:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T12:06:47","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignblame-mostly-biden-for-high-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignblame-mostly-biden-for-high-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"Blame (Mostly) Biden For High Prices"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignblame-mostly-biden-for-high-prices%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2646366&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the meaningful rise in prices for everyday goods since 2020,highlighting that items costing $40 in July 2020 now cost around $51.55, and those costing $100 have increased to approximately $128.88. Most of these inflationary pressures occurred during President Joe Biden&#8217;s tenure, with inflation rates peaking at 9.1% and the dollar\u2019s value decreasing notably. The surge in inflation is attributed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bidens-inflation-is-only-the-beginning-the-real-problem-is-far-far-worse\/\" title=\"...\u2019s ... Is Only The Beginning. The Real Problem Is Far, Far Worse.\">pandemic-related supply disruptions<\/a> and massive government spending,which flooded the economy with excess money. Federal spending during 2020 and 2021 shattered previous records, contributing to a national debt nearing $40 trillion, with <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >significant interest payments diverting funds<\/a> from tangible government activities.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, inflation under President Trump remained below 3% for most of his term, only occasionally reaching slightly higher levels.The article argues that reducing government overspending and fostering free-market competition are essential to curbing inflation. It criticizes recent trends of market consolidation and cronyism, urging a return to American principles of economic freedom. The piece emphasizes that restoring a decentralized economy and limiting excessive government intervention are key to making goods more affordable for Americans.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Ever wonder why things that cost $40 just a few short years ago now feel like they cost closer to $50? That\u2019s because they do. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), things that would have cost $40 in July 2020 cost an average of $51.55 in July 2026. No wonder everyday Americans are concerned about affordability.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, per BLS figures, prices have risen more in the past 6 years than they did in the 14 years prior to that. Something that cost $100 in 2020 \u2014 just six years ago \u2014 now costs, on average, $128.88. That exceeds the price increase over the 14-year span from 2006 to 2020 \u2014 as things that cost $100 in July 2006 cost $127.32, on average, in July 2020. So, after years of having prices slowly creep upward, they have shot upward since 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The vast majority of the price increases since 2020 took place during the Joe Biden presidency. When Biden took office, the inflation rate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/regions\/mid-atlantic\/data\/consumerpriceindexhistorical_us_table.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">was<\/a> 1.4 percent. It rose to 9.1 percent less than 18 months later, and the overall annual inflation rate across his four-year term was 5 percent \u2014 the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usinflationcalculator.com\/inflation\/historical-inflation-rates\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">highest<\/a> across any presidential term in the past 45 years. (That figure is based on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/regions\/mid-atlantic\/data\/consumerpriceindexhistorical_us_table.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">consumer price index<\/a> for all urban consumers in January 2021 versus January 2025.) On the whole, $100 when Biden took office was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/data\/inflation_calculator.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">worth<\/a> only $82.34 by the time he left just four years later. Not since Jimmy Carter had Americans seen the value of their money drop so precipitously over a four-year span.<\/p>\n<p>Inflation during the Biden years was fueled in part by senseless Covid lockdown policies, which disrupted the supply of goods, and by runaway government spending, which flooded the economy with excess currency. As financial writer John Steele Gordon <a href=\"https:\/\/imprimis.hillsdale.edu\/inflation-united-states\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">says<\/a>, \u201cAs the price of money falls, the price of every other commodity must go up.\u201d He adds, \u201cAnd what causes the price of money to fall? The answer is very simple: an increase in the supply of money relative to other goods and services.\u201d The Covid-era example fits this description: Lockdowns needlessly put a lot of (mostly smaller) companies out of business and limited the supply of goods, while the government went on a spending spree.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to 2020, the federal government had never spent $4.5 trillion in a single year (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/omb\/information-resources\/budget\/historical-tables\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">see Table 1.3<\/a>). It then spent more than $6.5 trillion in 2020 \u2014 breaking the prior record by more than $2 trillion \u2014 and then upped that to $6.8 trillion in 2021, with Biden\u2019s \u201cAmerican Rescue Plan Act\u201d adding $1 trillion to 2021 spending by itself, per the Congressional Budget Office (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/system\/files\/2021-07\/57263-outlook.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">see table A-1<\/a>). Incredibly, in those two years alone (2020 and 2021), the federal government racked up more deficit spending ($5.5 trillion in constant 2017 dollars) than it had across the 43 combined fiscal years from the end of World War II through the 1980s (1947\u20131989), even after adjusting for inflation (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/omb\/information-resources\/budget\/historical-tables\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">see Table 1.3<\/a>). With all of that extra borrowed money sloshing around, it\u2019s no wonder inflation ensued.<\/p>\n<p>Following the blowout spending of 2020 and 2021, the government has yet to spend less than $6.1 trillion in any subsequent year or have less than $1.3 trillion of that be borrowed money. The national debt \u2014 fast <a href=\"https:\/\/fiscaldata.treasury.gov\/datasets\/debt-to-the-penny\/debt-to-the-penny\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">approaching<\/a> an astonishing $40 trillion \u2014 is now so high that, per the CBO (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/system\/files\/2026-02\/61882-Outlook-2026.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">see p. 2<\/a>), more than $1 trillion of Americans\u2019 hard-earned tax dollars this year will go to paying interest on the debt \u2014 more than will go to discretionary defense spending ($885 billion) or discretionary non-defense spending (just under $1 trillion). In other words, huge chunks of Americans\u2019 tax dollars are buying nothing tangible. They\u2019re just the bill due for prior irresponsible deficit spending \u2014 a bill that gets higher each year.<\/p>\n<p>The inflation rate during President Trump\u2019s second term has usually <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/regions\/mid-atlantic\/data\/consumerpriceindexhistorical_us_table.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">been<\/a> under 3 percent and has cleared 4 percent in just one month (hitting 4.2 percent in May of this year). In other words, even Trump\u2019s worst month was less than half of Biden\u2019s peak of 9.1 percent and well below Biden\u2019s overall average of 5 percent. Under Biden, Americans experienced 21 consecutive months of inflation that surpassed 5 percent, whereas under Trump inflation has never hit that mark (in either of his terms).<\/p>\n<p>The problem for Trump is twofold: First, inflation is higher now than it was before he commenced America\u2019s undeclared war with Iran. After <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/regions\/mid-atlantic\/data\/consumerpriceindexhistorical_us_table.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">averaging<\/a> 2.6 percent over the first 13 months of his second term, the inflation rate has averaged 3.6 percent over the past five months. Second, inflation is slightly higher now (3.4 percent in July, the most recent month available) than it was during the month when Trump took office (3.0 percent).<\/p>\n<p>The same things that propelled inflation to 40-year highs under Biden can potentially work in reverse under Trump. The federal government needs to stop spending so much borrowed money and exercise a modicum of fiscal restraint, especially when it comes to the \u201cauto-pilot\u201d spending (so-called \u201cmandatory\u201d spending plus net interest payments on the national debt) that is eating up an amazing 99 percent of our tax revenues (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/system\/files\/2026-02\/61882-Outlook-2026.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">see p. 2<\/a>). Only 1 percent of tax revenues are left for discretionary spending, so almost all discretionary spending utilizes borrowed money. And the government needs to encourage free-market competition and resist \u2014 and reverse \u2014 consolidation. When United Airlines <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/business\/airlines\/united-approached-delta-last-year-about-merging-airlines-af83fc64\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">approaches<\/a> American and Delta about the possibility of a merger, it\u2019s not because United wants to benefit Main Street.<\/p>\n<p>With many Democrats now openly embracing a declared socialism that\u2019s hard to differentiate from communism, the Wall Street Journal\u2019s Gerard Baker recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/opinion\/socialism-is-the-wrong-answer-but-the-questions-are-real-53bb3f65?mod=author_content_page_1_pos_1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">replied<\/a> in a fine column that we need more \u2014 not less \u2014 of a free market. Baker blames our current economic woes on a version of \u201ccapitalism that has mutated into a system run by and for large corporate interests.\u201d He laments the existence of \u201coligopoly-level industrial concentration in almost every sector,\u201d \u201ccronyism,\u201d and hyper-regulation \u2014 in short, \u201cthe steady accretion of market, economic and political power by a business-political class that promotes its own well-being at the expense of competition, the market and ultimately the people.\u201d When the Wall Street Journal is highlighting the pitfalls of consolidation, you know it\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n<p>The consolidation and centralization of money and power is the enemy of a free economy and a free people \u2014 and makes things less affordable. The way out is to embrace the American spirit of freedom and decentralized control, particularly emphasizing the economic freedom of the everyday American. As Americans continue to struggle with high prices due mostly to rampant Biden-era inflation, embracing these longstanding American principles is a key to limiting inflation going forward.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Jeffrey H. Anderson is president of the <a href=\"\/\/www.americanmainstreet.org\">American Main Street Initiative<\/a> and served as director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2017 to 2021.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why $40 items now cost nearly $50, per BLS data<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2106,"featured_media":2646367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Prices.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[3620,4202,5708,5894],"class_list":["post-2646366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-biden","tag-economic","tag-inflation","tag-politics"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Prices.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2646366"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2646370,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646366\/revisions\/2646370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2646367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2646366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2646366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2646366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}