Kelly on inflation: 'Normal people already know it’s bad because they’re living it every day’

Politicians and others talk about inflation every time the Consumer Price Index summaries come out, but the average American doesn’t need government numbers to convince them we’re in an inflationary economy because they are living it, one radio show host says.

“Today is the day politicians and pundits will talk about inflation because the official number came out, but they all talk about it like it happened today,” Jesse Kelly, host of the “The Jesse Kelly Show,” said on Twitter Thursday. “Normal people already know it’s bad because they’re living it every day. Don’t stop your economy for a virus.” 

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Thursday issued the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI), which found that prices increased by .4% in September, and the overall inflation rate stands at 8.2% for the last year. In the past year, the cost of food has increased by 11.2%, energy prices have risen by 19.8%, gasoline prices have risen by 18.2%, the cost of fuel oil has increased by 58.1%, the cost of new vehicles has risen by 9.4%, and the cost of transportation services has increased by 14.6%. 

The day before the new CPI numbers were released, President Joe Biden was briefed on what to expect. 

"This morning, I met with my National Economic Council Director to receive a briefing on the economy,” he tweeted ahead of the publicized news. “We still have a lot of work to do, but we’re in a strong position to navigate through this economic transition.” 

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas announced in late September that after a period of high job growth in July, the state's economy slowed, and "job growth ground to a halt in August," Kera News reported. 

“July job growth, month over month, was 7.6% and then we went to zero in August,” Pia Orrenius, vice president and senior economist at the Dallas Fed, told Kera News. “It was kind of shocking.” 

The North Texas Food Bank and its network of food pantries are also seeing proof of the pinch. The pantries are providing an average of more than 12 million meals each month to Texans who are struggling to make ends meet, the Texas Tribune reported. 

“Due to inflation, the need for food assistance is greater today than it was at the height of the pandemic,” Jeff Smith, who works with the North Texas Food Bank, said in that report. 

Biden downplayed inflation during a “60 Minutes” interview in September, stating that the inflation rate has "hardly" risen, and that the month-to-month rate was "up just an inch, hardly at all," Fox Business reported. Interviewer Scott Pelley pointed out, "It's the highest inflation rate, Mr. President, in 40 years." Biden responded, "I got that. But guess what we are? We're in a position where for the last several months, it hasn't spiked, it is just barely, it's been basically even. And in the meantime, we created all these jobs.”