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   From: slimeballs@clintonfoundation.org   
      
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    wrote:   
      
   President blames 'Putin's price hike' for 8.5% US inflation   
      
   President Biden has gone through painstaking efforts to shirk   
   responsibility for the state of the economy, blaming everyone   
   from Russian President Vladimir Putin to meat conglomerates for   
   record inflation that hit a new 40-year high last month.   
      
   The consumer price index rose 8.5% in March from a year ago,   
   marking the fastest increase since January 1982, when inflation   
   hit 8.4%, according to a new Labor Department report released   
   Tuesday. In a speech addressing the dismal report, Biden blamed   
   "Putin’s price hike" for the rising prices.   
      
   BIDEN PREDICTED INFLATION HIT ITS ‘PEAK’ IN DECEMBER, BUT MARCH   
   NUMBERS SHOW CPI AT 40-YEAR HIGH   
      
   "Putin's invasion of Ukraine has driven up gas prices and food   
   prices all over the world," Biden said. "So everything is going   
   up. We saw it in today's inflation data. Seventy percent of the   
   increase in prices in March came from Putin's price hike in   
   gasoline."   
      
   Biden’s blame game has evolved over the past several months.   
   When inflation started accelerating a year ago, the White House   
   largely downplayed it as "transitory."   
      
   "The overwhelming consensus is it’s going to pop up a little bit   
   and then go back down," Biden said in June 2021 after inflation   
   increased to 5%.   
      
   "These disruptions are temporary," Biden said in July 2021 after   
   inflation jumped another 5.4%.   
      
   "It’s the peak of the crisis," the president said in December,   
   after inflation hit a whopping 6.8%. "You’ll see it change   
   sooner, quicker, more rapidly than people think."   
      
   At the time, Biden was primarily blaming the COVID-19 pandemic’s   
   effect on global supply chains and corporate greed for the   
   rising costs.   
      
   At a Dec. 13 press briefing, White House press secretary Jen   
   Psaki pointed a finger at "the greed of meat conglomerates" for   
   hiking prices on food during the pandemic. The North American   
   Meat Institute later slammed the White House for distorting the   
   "fundamentals of supply and demand."   
      
   Biden’s own economic advisers also reportedly objected to claims   
   that corporate greed is the problem. In February, members of the   
   White House Council of Economic Advisers pushed back against the   
   administration’s claims tying inflation to corporate   
   consolidation and monopoly power, the Washington Post reported.   
      
   Then on Feb. 24, Russia invaded Ukraine, presenting the White   
   House with two new villains to blame for rising prices: Putin   
   and the oil and gas industry.   
      
   Less than two weeks after the invasion, Biden coined the phrase   
   "Putin price hike" to further cushion the blow from rising   
   inflation and energy prices.   
      
   "I’m going to do everything I can to minimize Putin’s price hike   
   here at home," he said in a March 8 speech announcing a ban on   
   U.S. imports of Russian energy.   
      
   INFLATION SURGES 8.5% IN MARCH, HITTING A NEW 40-YEAR HIGH   
      
   But gas prices at home were already soaring to levels not seen   
   since the Great Recession before the Russian oil ban.   
   Republicans have blamed the rising prices on Biden’s green   
   energy agenda, including his axing of the Keystone XL pipeline,   
   for bolstering America’s reliance on global oil markets.   
      
   After gas prices hit an all-time high in the country last month,   
   Biden responded by tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve   
   (SPR) and calling on Congress to force oil companies to pay fees   
   for unused leases, accusing energy producers of "hoarding" wells   
   on federal lands.   
      
   "For U.S oil companies that are recording their largest profits   
   in years, they have a choice," the president said on March 31.   
   "One, they can put those profits to productive use by producing   
   more oil, restarting idle wells, or producing on the sites they   
   already are leasing, giving the American people a break by   
   passing some of the savings on to their customers and lowering   
   the price at the pump. Or they can, as some of them are doing,   
   exploit the situation, sit back, ship those profits to the   
   investors while American families struggle to make ends meet."   
      
   In addition to his energy policies, critics have also blamed   
   Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan for the inflation   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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