White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki pushed back on Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy’s question about a pun-filled tweet from 1600 Pennsylvania Av celebrating a reported 16-cent drop in the cost of an Independence Day barbecue.
“Planning a cookout this year? Ketchup on the news,” the White House tweeted Thursday. “According to the Farm Bureau, the cost of a 4th of July BBQ is down from last year. It’s a fact you must-hear(d) – Hot dog, the Biden economic plan is working. And that’s something we can all relish.”
“Sixteen cents?” Doocy asked after noting the tweet.
Psaki replied that there has “been a reduction in some of the costs of key components” of barbecuing. Doocy followed-up by asking whether such a discount is truly impactful given the more-than-$1-per-gallon rise in gas prices since Biden took office – as the administration has taken several steps to curtail America’s energy production.
“I would say, if you don’t like hot dogs, you may not care of the reduction of cost. You don’t have to like hot dogs,” Psaki replied, adding that Biden’s “Build Back Better Agenda” continues to produce its intended results.
However, last month the Bureau of Economic Analysis released data showing overall food prices rising 0.4% since March – an entire percentage increase from this time in 2020.
Beef and pork, the most common base meats in BBQ, have seen sizeable spikes in price over the past year, with beef increasing more than 3%, and pork up 2.6% according to the bureau.
In addition, some experts are predicting a potential shortage in propane and propane tanks, which are used for heating not only barbecue grills but pools and mountain cabins as Americans head outside to enjoy summertime.
The Center for the National Interest, a right-leaning think tank founded by President Nixon, recently cited a Connecticut news report as a concerning prediction of a spike in prices for both elements.
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Those concerns have also fueled projections that the U.S. could face a gas shortage come the colder winter months. Antero Resources vice president David Cannelongo told a natural gas trade magazine that U.S. buyers will have to outbid the export market to build enough inventory for Winter 2021.
“That, in turn, will drive U.S. and international liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) pricing higher,” he said.
While the Biden administration touted less than a quarter’s savings on barbecuing, in 2018, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., dismissed thousand-dollar bonuses paid by several companies to employees following President Donald Trump’s tax reform plan as “crumbs”.
“In terms of the bonus that corporate America received versus the crumbs that they are giving to workers to kind of put the schmooze on — it’s so pathetic [and] insignificant,” Pelosi said at the time.
For those who barbecue on their deck, lumber prices spiked more than 30 percent in the first part of the year, but that increase has slackened somewhat as of late as mills attempt to increase production. For the first time since the prices began soaring, June futures fell below $1,000 per thousand-board-feet.
As for the question of whether the alleged 16-cent savings will be felt by Americans celebrating their independence from Britain for the 245th time, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., wrote for Fox News Opinion last month that the overall inflation being felt across the board is a “hidden tax” that likely did not go into Psaki’s calculations.
“It is a powerful (and often unseen and unstoppable) way for a government to pay for its goods and services without raising visible taxes that make people angry,” Gingrich wrote.
Jackie Gingrich Cushman, the former lawmaker’s daughter and a chartered financial analyst, reported that younger Americans will now get a crash course in economics and potentially stagflation, as the Consumer Price Index rose 2.6% in March, and the wholesale Producer Price Index was up nearly double that.
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“Food is more expensive, housing is through the roof and I was shocked at the gas prices just this week,” Gingrich-Cushman said.
The elder Gingrich noted blue-state policies coupled with the Biden administration’s economic plans will undoubtedly mean the price crunch for the working class will continue:
“The Teachers Unions must be paid off. Government employees must be paid off. Blue states with impossible pension burdens and enormously inefficient bureaucracies and work rules must get money from Washington,” he said in May.
“Left-wing activists must be given federal money to increase their efforts to radically change America.”
That, he suggested, leaves little substance or concern for the average American barbecuer:
“Trying to train Americans to give up work and join a dependency society so they rely on government instead of themselves takes an enormous amount of money. It also cuts revenues from taxes (since people quit working) while increasing the cost of taking care of those who decline to work.”
