Biden front-runner for ‘Lie of the Year’ award as many in media look the other way

“I just want to say a number: zero. Today, we received news that our economy had zero inflation in the month of July. Zero percent. Here’s what that means: While the price of some things go up — went up last month, the price of other things went down by the same amount. The result? Zero inflation last month.”

That was President Biden speaking to the country Wednesday. His administration has attempted to redefine what infrastructure means (it’s not only about improving roads, bridges and power grids but also about paid family leave and child care) and what a recession means (it’s not two straight quarters of negative gross domestic product growth anymore). But it just moved into the lead to win the “Lie of the Year” award with the claim that the U.S. economy is experiencing zero inflation. 

The facts: Inflation still stands near a 40-year high and came in at 8.5 percent in July.

“Prices have risen across a wide range of goods and services, leaving most Americans worse off,” The Associated Press reported this week. “Average paychecks are rising faster than they have in decades — but not fast enough to keep up with accelerating costs for such items as food, rent, autos and medical services.” 

In other words, the money coming into the average household still isn’t keeping up with the cost of everyday items. But the president and this administration decided to turn the most basic economic norms on their head for cheap political gain by arguing that since the inflation rate fell by six-tenths of a percentage point to 8.5 percent in July compared to the same month of last year, that somehow means zero percent.

As a fun game to play on a summer weekend, imagine what would have happened if the previous president attempted to spin numbers with alternative facts in this fashion. The U.S. media would have screamed about the need for transparency and truth, and the fact checks and scathing editorials would commence. Yet that didn’t happen here with his successor. 

A check of Politifact shows that the site has not conducted a fact check of the president’s zero inflation claim since he made it five days ago. It has fact-checked former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on three occasions this month, however. 

Fact-checker Snopes also has not fact-checked Biden’s zero inflation claim. And as for FactCheck.org, same result: Crickets on the president’s economic argument. 

How about The New York Times? Surely at least one columnist has put pen to paper to hold the Biden administration accountable on the issue that ranks as Americans’ top concern.

To underscore this point, a recent Monmouth University poll shows that 63 percent of voters say either “inflation, gas prices, the economy or everyday bills/groceries is their family’s top concern.”

The Times has published a column on the latest inflation numbers, but it includes the kind of effusive praise for the Biden administration that one has come to expect from columnist Paul Krugman, who, with the Biden administration, consistently downplayed inflation concerns last summer.

“Finally, Some Good News on Inflation” is the headline. “When President Biden declared, accurately, that we had zero inflation in July, many on the right accused him of lying, because prices in July 2022 were 8.5 percent higher than they were in July 2021. Do they really not understand the difference?” scolds Krugman. 

To understand this logic, let’s apply a football analogy since the season is right around the corner. 

Let’s say Team X is beating Team Y 42-0 in the third quarter of a game. But in the fourth quarter, neither team scores, and the game ends 42-0. 

Team Y’s coach runs to the podium of a post-game press conference and declares his losing team tied Team X 0-0. Team Y’s coach ignores the first three horrible quarters in making his argument and focuses on just one quarter in declaring the tie. 

At the risk of overdoing the football metaphors, too many media pundits have moved the goal posts in judging how the Biden administration is performing on the economy.

“It’s cynical. It’s a destruction of the meaning of words. It’s Orwellian at its worst,” pollster and strategist Frank Luntz told CNBC on Thursday of the administration’s inflation claims. “More than 70 percent of Americans have trouble making ends meet because of inflation.”

To Luntz’s point, all the spin from Democrats isn’t going to change what people are experiencing. In an ABC-Ipsos poll, nearly 7 in 10 Americans, or 69 percent, “believe the U.S. economy is getting worse and headed in the wrong direction.” That’s not spin; that’s reality. 

Aided by a sycophantic media, the Biden administration continues to change basic definitions of the English language. Many more lies will be uttered over the next five months, especially as the midterm elections draw close. But at this point, Biden must be considered the front-runner for “Lie of the Year.”

Joe Concha is a media and politics columnist.