Back to Reality

Democrats tried use the January 6th hearing to distract America from the disastrous way they have handled the economy. That ended the second the new inflation number was released.

June 10, 2022
Perspective by Dan O’Donnell

If last night’s January 6th hearing was, as The New York Times put it, a chance for Democrats to “recast the message ahead of the midterms,” this morning’s consumer price index reading was a swift kick back to reality.

Inflation rose 8.6 percent year-over-year in May, and that, combined with the fact that for the first time ever every state in the nation has an average gas price about $5 a gallon will almost certainly spell doom for Democrats this November.  Even their kangaroo court can’t save them now.

When the biggest bombshell is that former President Trump said something offensive (responding to chants of “Hang Mike Pence” with “Maybe they have the right idea”), the first hearing was something of a dud—certainly not the sort of thing that will get the average American to forget that after just 18 months of Democrat rule they can no longer afford anything.

That is reality; the January 6th hearing was just a slickly-produced TV show.  And, like most dramatic television, it was designed to provide an escape.  On January 6th, 2021, the consumer price index was 1.4 percent.  Now it is 8.6 percent, higher than at any point in the Biden presidency, and that’s saying something: Inflation hasn’t been under 7.5 percent at any point this year.

By way of comparison, inflation never topped 2.8 percent at any point in the Trump Administration and averaged 1.88 percent per year.  Over the 16 full months of the Biden Administration, inflation is averaging 5.99 percent month.  This year, it’s averaging 8.16 percent.

On January 6th, 2021, the nationwide average for a gallon of gas was $2.32.  Now it has more than doubled to $4.99.  At this point in Trump’s presidency, the average price was $2.03 per gallon.  Over the four years of his term, the price of gas averaged $2.53.  During the first 16 full months of Biden’s presidency, gas prices have averaged $3.51 per gallon.

It now costs the average family $89.92 to fill up an 18-gallon tank in the family van.  On January 6th, 2021, it cost $41.76.  Does anyone think they care more about another rehashing of the Capitol riot than that?

If they don’t, they will be made to.  That seemed to have been the message from both Congressional Democrats and their allies in the media, who ensured that last night’s hearing was on every channel.  There were no explosive revelations or bombshell evidence, but there was a brief respite from the unrelentingly bad economic news that all but ensures a Republican takeover of both the House and Senate this fall.

In a last-ditch attempt at staving this off, Democrats tried to distract from their own failure by recasting the national focus on January 6th, essentially saying, “Sure, our policies are destroying the American economy, but at least we’re not insurrectionists,” but with this morning’s consumer confidence reading, that lasted a grand total of about 10 hours.

Americans woke up this morning wondering how they will pay for gas, not whether or not Trump said something offensive about Mike Pence.  That was manufactured drama; record-high prices are America’s sad reality.