WASHINGTON — “Before every election our representatives would like to make us think we are getting a tax break, and they are able to do it while at the same time actually raising our taxes because of a bit of magic they have in their kit bags. That magic is inflation. They reduce the tax rates, but the taxes we have to pay go up, because we are automatically shoved into higher brackets by the effect of inflation. A neat trick. Taxation without representation.”—Milton Friedman
Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) released an inflation report earlier this week in which he outlined how the massive spending by government and massive money printing from the Federal Reserve is destroying the middle- and lower-income Americans.
In a Jan. 18 press release, Paul stated:
“$4.9 trillion in COVID-19 stimulus spending has led to one of the highest and most sustained levels of inflation in U.S. history. While government stimulus spending was intended as a form of relief, and low and middle-income families as well as small business owners were promised that their taxes would not increase, Americans everywhere are now paying a hidden tax called inflation. In recent months, prices on nearly everything from gas, food, and clothes to electricity, car prices, and rent, have all increased, and unfortunately, it’s only going to get worse. Congress needs to realize that further spending at this time of rapidly rising prices is only going to continue the trend of rising prices on this nation’s already vulnerable businesses and families.”
The report breaks down several categories of good to take a look at the price inflation. Keep in mind, Paul is using the official numbers from the government when in reality the data is far worse than what’s being reported.
The official number showed a 7% rise in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures price inflation, last year. The Producer Price Index (PPI), the cost to do business, rose 9.7%.
Of households with an annual income under $40,000 a year, 71% are reporting economic hardship due to rising prices. Households over $100,000 a year report 29% having hardships. The lower-income bracket spends 40% of their income on food, gas and cars as opposed to 10% for the higher income families.
An average tank of gas jumped from $25.32 to $38.04. Used cars jumped from $10,000 to $13,730. An average grocery cart rose from $100 to $106.30.
Categorical percentage increases: gasoline (49.6%), fuel oil (41%), used cars and trucks (37.3%), utility piped gas service (24.1%), new vehicles (11.8%), tobacco (9%), food and electricity (6.3%), apparel (5.8%), transportation services (4.2%), rents (between 3.3% and 3.8%), healthcare services (2.5%), alcohol (2.3%) and medical care commodities (0.4%)
Small businesses are harmed the most on the PPI side with 82% stating they’ve raised prices, 45% raising prices by over 20%, 44% raising prices by 15%, 11% raising prices by 10% and 45% of small business report taking loans to deal with the rising prices.
The report states that big corporations “have reported consistent profit margins.” Even so, the big guys like Target are still expressing concerns.
Small business polling shows: 86% worried about price inflation, 84% seeing operating costs rise, 81% stating the pressure from rising prices continues to get worse and 74% say it has negatively affected their fiscal health.
Of course, the hidden tax that is price inflation is here to pay for the massive spending, trillions of dollars, by both Joe Biden and Donald Trump with help with their bipartisan colluders in Congress to fund the so-called “stimulus” as they shut America down.
“A simple statistic does not reflect the reality of the struggle small business owners, workers, and consumers have faced in the last year,” Paul’s report states. “While Congress was able to unite in 2020 in spending $4.9 trillion, 17 unity does not always lead to virtuous outcomes, and this particular example of unity left Americans with the most difficult economic conditions in recent history.”
As economist Peter Schiff describes it, the Federal Reserve is a moneymaking enterprise that doesn’t care about how their actions are harming every American.
In the last two years, 80% of all U.S. Dollars ever in existence were created.
“Since March of 2020, Americans and the world alike have watched from the sidelines as power hungry politicians have ushered in draconian lockdowns, shutdowns, police state measures, and brought the economy to its knees,” Matt Agorist wrote for The Free Thought Project. “While governments around the planet used their central banks to devalue their currencies by printing money to fund their tyranny, the US led the way down this road to fiscal horror.”
And remember this, the criminals at the Federal Reserve and central banks around the world know exactly what they’re doing. Why else would they be reporting record stockpiles of gold?
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