It's "ridiculous" for President Joe Biden to claim that there was "zero inflation" in July, because the raw numbers that the administration is using do not reflect the reality that Americans are facing, Rep. Claudia Tenney said on Newsmax on Thursday.
"We are seeing a 40-year-high on prices, but the actual on-the-ground pricing is high because of the supply chain issues," the New York Republican said on Newsmax's "National Report." "It's also the cost of gasoline alone, and fuel and diesel, and all these things are affecting the ability to get goods to the market."
On Wednesday, Biden said after a report that showed consumer prices staying the same in July that there are signs that "inflation may be beginning to moderate," according to a Reuters report.
"People were still hurting, but zero inflation last month," he said.
The producer price index, used to measure inflation before consumers see it, dropped by 0.5% from June to July, marking the first decline since April 2020, according to reports Thursday. However, the inflation numbers show a 9.8% jump from July 2021 until now, suggesting inflation will continue.
"I've never seen the prices like this in my lifetime, even under Jimmy Carter," Tenney said. "They want to look by month to month [so] that it appears on a static number that it's low, but the actual pain to the consumers is a lot higher."
Tenney also on Thursday discussed the upcoming House vote on the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act, saying she hopes some Democrats "step up" and vote against it.
"If you were to look at this so-called Inflation Reduction Act, it's actually the opposite when you're in the situation we're in," said Tenney, as the United States not only has high energy costs but is lagging in energy production.
"What the Democrats have done is exactly what we shouldn't be doing: raising taxes, taxes on the lower and middle-income taxpayers and hiring 87,000 more weaponized bureaucrats from the IRS," she said, adding that the lower-and middle-income Americans will be the targeted.
"They're not going after the billionaires and the wealthy people because they can afford lawyers," Tenney said. "They're going to go in and shake down people who can't afford it."
She added that she doesn't know "how much pork" was added to the bill to entice Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to sign on.
"Everything in this bill is going to cause greater inflation and greater pain on the middle-class Americans who are struggling to make a living right now," Tenney said.
Tenney also discussed the standoff between New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott over the busing of migrants from Texas to New York.
Adams accused Abbott of being "anti-American" and has said his city can't handle the influx of migrants being sent there.
New York City is a sanctuary city, Tenney pointed out.
"There are 5,000 people a day coming in just one sector of Texas," she said. "Add that to the tens of thousands coming in across all sectors, and the Texas government is being forced to take care of this because Biden and the administration refused to enforce our southern border laws.
"New York City has crime, has drug problems, has violence like we've never seen in so many years, all because of the policies that Mayor Adams refuses to enforce as a sanctuary city."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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