Republicans Are Outraged at Joe Biden for Accurately Describing the Economy

Along with critical race theory, “wokeness,” the deep state, and other recent conservative obsessions, it appears we can now add the basic language of economics to the list of things Republicans have decided to go to war on.

Take the latest round of inflation statistics. On Wednesday morning, the U.S. got its first bit of truly good news about the rising cost of living this year. The Consumer Price Index, which has been surging in recent months, remained essentially flat in July. That was largely thanks to tumbling gas prices, which canceled out rising costs elsewhere. (Technically, the index actually declined a tiny amount, but the change rounded to zero.)

Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, and is watched closely by economists and the markets, rose at a 3.8 percent annual rate, its lowest reading since September 2021.

At a White House press conference, President Joe Biden unsurprisingly took a moment to celebrate the welcome reprieve. “Today we received news that our economy had 0 percent inflation in the month of July,” he said. “Zero percent. Here’s what that means. While the price of some things went up last month, the price of other things went down by the same amount. The result, 0 inflation last month.”