US inflation had another hotter-than-expected month in March — and continued pain across the grocery aisles is becoming a major political hot potato.
The Consumer Price Index — which tracks the changes in the costs of everyday goods and services — rose a stiff 3.5% last month.
Surging prices for everything from gasoline to housing to car insurance drove the headline number — but an increase in food costs also was a major culprit, according to government data.
It’s the latest uncomfortable month for President Biden, who on Wednesday accused big food manufacturers and supermarket chains for using high prices to pad their bottom lines.
“I’m calling on corporations including grocery retailers to use record profits to reduce prices,” Biden said Wednesday.
While the president admitted that “prices are still too high” for groceries, he claimed that “prices for key household items like milk and eggs are lower than a year ago.”
Nevertheless, the price of meats, poultry, fish and eggs rose 1.3% in March — driven by eggs’ whopping 4.6% increase last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
The price of a dozen grade-A eggs has surged a blistering 103.4% since January 2021 to $2.99, according to data from the US Inflation Calculator, which tracks changes in the price of basic food staples based on the monthly CPI.
Overall, the food at home index — which tracks prices at supermarkets — rose 1.2% over the past 12 months, with fruits and vegetables advancing 2% over the year.
Indeed, every major staple, including bananas, beef, bread, coffee and ice cream — Biden’s favorite campaign snack — have shot up in price since he took office.
Coffee was also among the most hopped-up pantry items, rising nearly 30% since Biden began his term, to an average of $5.96 per pound.
Other staples that rose between 26% and 29% between January 2021 and March 2024: Chicken breast, which now averages $4.11 per pound; as well as ground beef and sirloin steak, which experienced a $1.16 and $2.39 price-per-pound increase in that period, respectively, per the US Inflation Calculator.
White bread was up nearly 50 cents, or 29%, to $2, and rice will run shoppers about $1.01 these days — 28% more than in January 2021.
In addition, consumers looking to keep a sweet treat in their pantry can expect to shell out roughly 40% more, or about $5.15, for a one-pound package of chocolate chip cookies than they did three years ago.
The cost of a one-pound bag of flour has also surged more than 26% during Biden’s term.
As inflation remains stubbornly high, its impact on food costs have been thrust to the center of political debates ahead of the 2024 presidential election in November, where Biden and Donald Trump are expected to go head-to-head.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. weighed in on X on Monday, accusing Biden of “trying to gaslight us into believing that inflation is coming down,” citing how the price of butter, eggs, milk, peanut butter and toilet paper have gone up “since he took the oath of office three years ago.”
“President Biden should be telling Americans that their anger is right and justified,” Kennedy said.
Trump’s official Super PAC, the Make America Great Again Inc. PAC, launched a website last month dubbed “Biden-Mart” that lets users compare Trump-era grocery prices to current costs under Biden’s administration.
Biden-Mart.com features an interactive grocery checklist that encourages users to “check off the items…to compile your weekly grocery list and see how much more expensive your bill has become under Joe Biden.”
There are over two dozen common food staples to choose from. The Post clicked off a grocery list of items to see the impact Bidenomics has had over the last three years.
A two-pound bag of apples, two pounds of ground beef, seven lemons, one gallon of milk and one pound of sugar and coffee each totaled $30.07 — a whopping 57.11% increase from the $19.14 it cost during the Trump administration, per Biden-Mart.
Biden-Mart used data from the United States Department of Agriculture data to compare the prices from January 2021 — when Trump left office — with January 2024.
