NYT’s Stephens: Many People Will Say They’re Worse Off than They Were Four Years Ago Due to Inflation

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” New York Times columnist Bret Stephens stated that many people would say they were better off in 2019 than they are today because of inflation and that while inflation has tapered, it’s doing so after prices spiked and host Bill Maher said that prices for things people buy every week aren’t going down.

Stephens said, “Here is a reality I think a lot of Democrats, including those who really admire Biden, have to confront, which is, if you asked many Americans, were you better off in 2019 — the last full year of the Trump presidency before COVID — or today? They’re going to say 2019. Because their groceries didn’t cost as much money, their gas didn’t cost as much money, their mortgage wasn’t — mortgage rates weren’t as high. That’s just a political fact that Democrats are not getting their arms around. And I hear them say, well, inflation is coming down, for example. Yes, but it went way up, and now it’s tapering. It’s not actually falling. That’s a real problem.”

Maher then said, “Well, and also…it’s chicken, gas, meat, something else that — eggs, the things that people actually buy every week. Those didn’t come down. Not to mention rent.”

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