Inflation is still bad. It's both Trump and Biden's fault. Who will fix it?

It started with former President Donald Trump and it ends with President Joe Biden. Not the election, the economy. Specifically, inflation. Something for which neither candidate wants to take responsibility, though both should.  

According to the March consumer price index report, inflation has surged again. Overall prices for everyday goods have increased 3.5% from last March and are up from 3.2% in February. The typical household spent $202 more in July than they did a year ago to buy the same goods and services, according to Moody's Analytics.

Rent, gas and food are the culprits, as any American who drives a vehicle or goes to the grocery store can attest.

Inflation is being felt by Americans on a daily basis

For everyday Americans – the national median household annual income was $74,580 for 2022 – and especially for folks on a fixed income, inflation is affecting their bottom line.

In March, the average price of a dozen eggs was about $3, an increase from January of more than 18%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2018, eggs cost almost half that.

The prices of some products have improved, such as used cars and appliances, but those are typically purchases people make every few years.

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It’s the cost of daily goods, like rent and food, that have increased and that make people really feel the pinch.

Trump's COVID stimulus started us down this path

Trump, Biden and Congress share the blame.

Inflation began to surge as a result of the pandemic. Well-founded fears of a recession or worse drove the Trump administration to pour trillions of borrowed dollars – Trump’s infamous stimulus – into the economy to keep things afloat.

Such an idea was bound to lead to a surge in prices, or inflation, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

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Biden ignores the the impact inflation has on our lives

In a 2022 interview, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she failed to realize just how bad inflation would get and how long it would last.

The Biden administration still fails to acknowledge the reality of what inflated prices on everyday goods for average Americans does to their finances. This is where he shoulders his share of the blame.

He not only fails to acknowledge that the economy is tough and that his Bidenomics plan stinks, he is also spending his share of taxpayer dollars.

In a speech about the economy to union workers last year, Biden said he cut the debt. But fact-checking by CNN showed that "the national debt has continued to increase under Biden. It is the deficit that has declined."

The U.S. government’s debt actually has passed $34 trillion, a new record.

Now Biden is wiping out more than $1 billion in student debt loans for millions of Americans? This is unfair for folks who have paid their student loans or skipped college because it wasn’t right for them or they couldn’t afford it. Those are the people who absorb the cost.

In a speech Tuesday on the Senate floor, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the president “and the leaders of his administration have tried to downplay the impact of inflation, but the American people aren't buying it.”

Cornyn is right.

Gaslighting Americans isn’t just wrong, it’s foolish. Even if wages are outpacing inflation, they have catching up to do. People don’t know how the overall economy is doing because most folks aren’t economists. They’re just purchasing goods their families need. So they know if they’re spending more than normal – and they are.

Biden would earn considerable political capital if he would be honest with Americans about inflation, where it came from, his role in perpetuating it – and propose a plan to lessen it.

Instead, he placates to a base with student loan forgiveness, continues to spend furiously and tells everybody Bidenomics is working, even when their bills have increased every year for the past few years.

Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids.