GOP Rep. Estes: 8.3% Year-over-Year Inflation Lowballs How Bad Things Have Gotten — Gas Decline Due to China’s Lockdowns, Less Demand

On Tuesday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “National Report,” Rep. Ron Estes (R-KS) argued that the decline in gas prices has happened due to people driving less and China’s lockdowns decreasing the demand for oil. Estes also said that the 8.3% year-over-year inflation number doesn’t reflect how bad things have gotten under President Joe Biden.

Estes said, “Obviously, [gasoline prices] have a big impact for so many Americans in terms of what they do, and we saw a huge drop in gas prices. But that’s pretty typical. Two things happened: One, after the Fourth of July, driving starts to taper off as people — kids start to go back to school. And then also, China has kept their economy cut down. So, that’s stopped the price increase in gas. But everything else is going up. I mean, take a look — you look at food, something that’s really, on a day-to-day basis, through everybody’s mind, food’s still up 40% on eggs and nearly 10% on bacon or fruits and vegetables. And so, that’s the part that’s really hitting the pocketbook of individuals.”

Estes later pointed out that while the year-over-year inflation number is bad, it doesn’t capture the entirety of the rise in prices since the beginning of the Biden administration.

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