Why Biden’s inflation message is out of touch with Americans

Annual inflation hit 9.1 percent in June, the highest rate of price growth since November 1981. Consumer prices rose 1.3 percent last month, driving up the costs Americans face to get groceries and fill up their gas tanks. Biden acknowledged in a statement after the report’s release that inflation remained “unacceptably high” but then downplayed the significance of the new data, calling it “out-of-date” because it does not reflect the decline in gas prices not captured in the June report. Biden has few easy options to tame high inflation, a global problem driven only in part by the trillions of dollars of fiscal stimulus he deployed in March 2021. Economists also see the risks of growing as the Fed ramps up its rate hikes. . . .