The consumer price index (CPI), which measures how much consumers pay for goods and services, last month rose at its fastest annual pace since Dec. 1981. In February, year-over-year inflation was 7.9 percent.
March's inflation rate marks the sixth straight month of inflation surging above six percent – far above the Biden administration's average two percent target.
The core price index, which excludes volatile CPI categories like food and energy, increased by 6.5 percent in March from a year earlier, up from February's year-over-year rise of 6.4 percent. Last month's core CPI increase is the sharpest year-over-year increase since August 1982.
Biden still unable to control inflation
Last year, White House Press Secretary Jess Psaki told reporters that the Biden administration believes year-over-year inflation will increase but no higher than 2.2 percent.
"[The Federal Reserve's] projection continues to be that, while there's a projected increase in inflation this year, it's expected to come back down to about 2.2 [percent] next year," she said in July 2021. "They have not changed that, and that is aligned with a number of outside economists as well." (Related: America about to suffer as Federal Reserve struggles to battle inflation.)
During that time, Psaki even said she is seeing prices go back to the levels they were at in 2019.
On April 11, Jen Psaki blamed the surging inflation on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. She said the CPI reading would be "extraordinarily elevated due to [Russian President Vladimir Putin's] price hike."
Psaki noted that the March CPI report is the first inflation reading that includes a full-month impact of the war in Ukraine. She told reporters that the Labor Department's previous report did not include the majority of the jump in oil and gas costs, which she claimed explained the extreme elevation.
Biden, in a speech in Des Moines, Iowa, announced his plan to tackle high gas prices in the United States by using more ethanol in American fuel during the summer. "I am doing everything within my executive power to bring down the Putin price hike," he said.
But others believe the fault lies in the Biden administration. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a Democrat, claimed Biden did not act fast enough to control inflation.
"The Federal Reserve and the administration failed to act fast enough, and today's data is a snapshot in time of the consequences being felt across the country," he said. Manchin added that it was a disservice to argue that the inflation crisis is a temporary issue and not something Americans have been dealing with for some time now.
Manchin later said bringing prices under control will require "more aggressive action" from the Fed as well as a shift in the administration's energy policies.
The CPI reading has already put immense pressure on the Fed to keep lifting interest rates this year to lower price pressures even though the central bank just raised its benchmark rate in March for the first time since 2018.
There is already concern that, at its next meeting in early May, the Fed could raise its rates by 0.5 percent instead of just 0.25 percent, as was traditionally done.
Incoming Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard recently said at a summit hosted by the Wall Street Journal that the Fed's top goal is to reduce inflation. But the bank is also concerned about actions that might hinder economic growth.
"Everyone is worried about inflation," said former senior Fed staffer Vincent Reinhart. "It is number one in the polls. It is consuming the Fed's bandwidth right now."
Learn more about America's inflation crisis at Inflation.news.
Watch this clip from Steve Bannon's "War Room" as he interviews athlete, mixed martial artist and Republican candidate for Minnesota's fifth congressional district Royce White about Biden's failure to control inflation.
This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.
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