Lankford, Other Republicans Take Aim At Rising Inflation Dubbing It The 'Biden Tax'

Republican Senators said President Biden’s policies have created what they call a ‘Biden tax’ on American families, referring to the current 7.5 percent rate of inflation. That is the highest inflation has been in 40 years.

“Moody’s Analytics estimates that the average U.S. household is spending an extra $270 a month because of inflation,” said Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) at a news conference Wednesday.

The Senators also pointed to a recent Penn-Wharton study indicating that the average family in America would have to spend $3,500 more now than for the exact same consumption one year ago.

“Half the population of the country right now has never experienced inflation like this in their lifetime,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) who spoke at the news conference.

The last time inflation was this high was in 1982, under President Ronald Reagan. It had been even higher under his predecessor Jimmy Carter.

But Democrats said they're not to blame and point to the massive profits recently reported by big oil — “the highest level in over 7 years,” tweeted Bernie Sanders Tuesday. “The problem is not inflation. The problem is corporate greed.”

While the administration acknowledges prices have gone up, they blame a pandemic-hobbled supply chain. They said their policies have helped spur historic economic progress in the past year.

“In 2021, the economy created 6.7 million jobs,” said Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary, “the strongest year of job growth on record.”

Lankford said those numbers are misleading and, “unless your paycheck went up 7 1/2 percent or more last year, you’re literally losing ground and you feel it.”

Sen. Lankford acknowledged economies around the world have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, but he said inflation in other countries isn’t as bad as it is right now in the U.S.

“This is an American issue from all this over-spending on the federal side, along with trying to be able to recover out of Covid,” said Lankford in an interview following the press event. “It was just the wrong formula last March to be able to spend $2 trillion (on the American Rescue Plan) and we’re still suffering the consequences for that in just our normal every day life.”