As you may remember, yesterday, President Joe Biden informed Americans that “our economy had 0% inflation in the month of July.”
BIDEN: "Today we received news that our economy had 0% inflation in the month of July." pic.twitter.com/RV2cfEOaOO
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 10, 2022
This came as huge news to millions of Americans, particularly in light of the also-huge news that inflation in July went up 8.5% over last year.
Inflation Soars 8.5 Percent in July, Hovering around Four-Decade Highhttps://t.co/79ifHU3AD7
— Ellen Carmichael 🌻 (@ellencarmichael) August 10, 2022
We’re not sure what the Biden administration’s endgame is, exactly, as gaslighting millions of Americans who are hyper-aware of the fact that costs for both luxuries and basic goods and services have only increased under Joe Biden’s leadership seems like not the best political strategy, particularly heading into the midterm elections.
But for what it’s worth, Matt Yglesias thinks that if you notice things like the fact that Joe Biden is lying to you, it’s you who’s the problem:
Can’t believe the Biden White House claimed there was zero inflation in July just because when they July inflation data came in that’s what it said.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 11, 2022
“Sure was hot in July”
“Not if you average in the previous eleven months, asshole!”
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 11, 2022
Wow, Matt. You sure taught us a lesson!
There was not zero inflation in July. It was still 8.5%. There was zero increase, not zero inflation. https://t.co/V0oy4jTLqd
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) August 11, 2022
Guy who doesn’t know inflation is, by definition, a rate of increase. https://t.co/cCwHLCuQuy
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 11, 2022
Matt Yglesias: Guy who doesn’t know that a slower rate of growth than we had a month ago is not a decrease.
Look, it’s just one month — maybe in August or September or October prices will go up a lot again.
But year on year inflation is just a concatenation of months. We already knew that prices rose a lot in the previous eleven months. The new information was about July.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 11, 2022
Matt thinks that big words are enough to hide the fact that he’s wrong. Who wants to tell him?
No change from the previous month does not mean zero inflation. It means inflation is consistently bad.
— Erielle Davidson (@politicalelle) August 11, 2022
This is just not true. Conservatives are making fools of themselves about nothing. https://t.co/nDl14S1OGT
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 11, 2022
It’s not nothing, Matt. And conservatives aren’t the ones making fools of themselves.
On left, 12 months of CPI prints as levels. You can see it went up a lot for eleven months and was flat in July.
On right, 12 months of inflation — rates of change. It was high for eleven months and zero (actually very slightly negative in July).
There’s no trick here. pic.twitter.com/d9QVNWVw2u
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 11, 2022
At any rate, hope everyone is looking forward to redoing this “debate” in 66 minutes when the PPI report comes out.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 11, 2022
The real pain is going to come when Q1 GDP is revised upward to converge with GDI and the “recession” goes away.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 11, 2022
Bless his heart. Would you just bless it?!
So you’re admitting that Biden is playing semantic games here. Thank you. https://t.co/9LxsXg6kQV
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) August 11, 2022
The “semantic game” Biden is playing is staying the statistics accurately and using the words to mean what they mean.
Do rightists think stocks jumped after that CPI print because Dark Brandon deceived financial markets? Stop being such whiny morons. https://t.co/C4Nqy3nwVf
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 11, 2022
Whiny moron, heal thyself.
Matt is really going to die on the hill that prices aren’t high because month over month was zero. You should be press secretary! https://t.co/5HxfXEfIzo
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) August 11, 2022
Karine Jean-Pierre’s got competition for sure.
Wethinks the not-so-gentleman doth project too much.
Absolutely true.
If conservatives had reacted to one month of good inflation news by saying “it’s just one month” I would not have objected. What happened instead was they made false statement so I corrected them. https://t.co/CXWrqVR839
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 11, 2022
I find this is a frequent Twitter dynamic.
Someone says something that isn’t true, I say “that thing you said isn’t true,” and then that person’s ideological allies point out that had the person made some different claim that claim would have been true.
But so what?
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 11, 2022
Cry harder pic.twitter.com/L3qj2HEJIL
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 11, 2022
This dope said, in public, on the internet, that “there was not zero inflation in July.”
I said, correctly, that he was wrong.
Now he admits there was zero inflation in July but he’s lying and pretending he never said it — astounding behavior, like a toddler. pic.twitter.com/BXo8ZRJxFX
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 11, 2022
Who’s the toddler in this scenario, Matt? Is it Noam Blum, who understands that Joe Biden — and his administration — are actively trying to deceive and gaslight Americans who have watched their savings go down and their costs of living skyrocket? Or is it you, who is most definitely defending Joe Biden’s semantic games in order to protect an administration that has been lying to the public since Day One?
Yglesias and his ilk don't comprehend that the average person doesn't see it this way. "We have zero inflation!" and the people looking at their grocery bill or getting a 25% rent hike notice are thinking, "What the hell is this guy talking about?" pic.twitter.com/Qk7YDe2uOy
— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) August 11, 2022
Why, indeed?
The response shouldn't be about "zero percent inflation" in JULY, which is true, as far as it goes; it should be, "Great, so things are just as unaffordable this month as last month! Thanks, Biden administration!" https://t.co/8mpUDvKiv2 pic.twitter.com/7zRqIOGYtX
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) August 11, 2022
The issue about the "inflation rate" is that generally when people talk about "inflation is ___%", they are talking about the *annual* rate, not a monthly rate, so when Pres. Biden emphasizes the monthly rate, it comes across as disingenuous even though it's technically accurate.
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) August 11, 2022
Yep.
I think that the fact that the NEC is out here actually framing this properly supports my claim that Biden did not frame it properly. pic.twitter.com/0v2BffvgCT
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) August 11, 2022
Let me close this by putting it in as simple a way as I possibly can: Don't tell me things are good when things aren't good, even if you can somehow conjure a number that makes things look good.
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) August 11, 2022
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