The Biden administration is telling Americans to brace for “extraordinarily elevated” inflation just 15 months after taking office, but is laying the blame on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who is leaving the White House to host a web show, confirmed the looming inflation numbers while speaking to the press this afternoon.
“We expect March CPI headline inflation to be extraordinarily elevated,” said Psaki, “due to Putin’s price hike.”
PSAKI: "We expect March CPI headline inflation to be extraordinarily elevated due to Putin's Price Hike." pic.twitter.com/xImSTGKCnV
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 11, 2022
Democrats have repeatedly insisted that the high prices Americans are paying for virtually all goods and services – but most notably gasoline, new and used cars, and houses – are in fact due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24 of this year.
Joe Biden took office in January of 2021, and prices began steadily rising soon after. Most charts suggest they were exacerbated by the invasion of Ukraine.
However, fact checkers will complain if you credit Biden for the record inflation.
Politifact asks, rhetorically: “Blame Joe Biden for inflation?” The fact checkers then answer, “Most government spending came earlier.” That article was written in July of last year.
When confronting the Democrats’ claims that Putin is responsible for inflation in the United States less than one year later, Politifact again suggested that Biden is not to blame, specifically for high gas prices.
This time, it wasn’t reckless Republican-led spending during the pandemic, either. In fact, the Democrats were right, judges Politifact. We should all blame Putin, at least for high gas prices.
“Putin’s invasion clearly caused the single biggest gas price spike during this period. And gas prices did rise during the four-month-long build-up to the invasion,” the internationally accredited fact checkers claim.
They do give Biden some credit for the higher prices that will see Americans pay thousands of more dollars for basic goods over the course of a year.
“What Biden’s comment leaves out is that the gas price rise following Putin’s military buildup accounted for a fraction of the overall rise in gasoline prices,” Politifact admitted.
Still, they rate the claim that Russia is responsible high gas prices to be “mostly true.”
