Progressive Spending = Lower Standard of Living

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Thanks, Democrats. Friday’s Labor Department report showed the consumer-price index at a 40-year high of 8.6% on an annual basis.

What progressive spending gave to Americans in welfare and new entitlements has been taken away in a lower standard of living, according to the WSJ. Economists have been proven right: Peak inflation continues to “peak.”

Energy and food prices made up much of the May increase, but this is cold comfort for consumers. Americans used to be able to substitute lower-cost protein when beef prices rose.

Low Wage Workers Getting Crushed by Bidenomics

What would we do without the experts? Everything at the supermarket, they say, has become more expensive in the past year

• eggs (up 32.2%)
• chicken (up 16.6%)
• milk (up 15.9%)
• soup (up 13.9%)

Core Inflation Index (ex-energy and food) Up 6%

Economists’ uniform disquiet, and the unavoidable sense that a great social upheaval is in the offing – once intermittent and ignorable – is now constant, writes Jeremy Clarke in SpectatorWorld.

Economists, who claimed inflation was transitory and driven by increases in select categories such as used cars, are belatedly admitting they were wrong, continues the WSJ.

What else can they do? Prices for some goods have moderated in recent months, but inflation is broadening. That’s why the so-called core inflation index that excludes energy and food is up 6% over the past 12 months and 0.6% from April.

• Rents: have risen 5.2% over the last year, though housing websites estimate they’re up double digits in most places.
• Travel has become much more expensive, as hotel (22.2%), airline (37.8%) and restaurant (9%) prices increase. Americans are often paying more for less as businesses scale back services—e.g., no daily room-cleaning—amid labor shortages.

Workers would be better off if Congress hadn’t passed the $2.8 trillion COVID relief package in late 2020 and early 2021. Progressive welfare spending and expanded child tax credits in the name of aiding workers contributed to inflation, which erased the value of those benefits. The federal government has $6.7 trillion more debt than before the pandemic, and inflation isn’t abating.

One lesson is that progressive welfare spending and expanded child-tax credits in the name of aiding workers contributed to inflation that erased the value of those benefits. Workers would be far better off now if Congress hadn’t passed $2.8 trillion in Covid “relief” in late 2020 and early 2021.