Are you or someone you know struggling financially to cope with the soaring cost of inflation? Well, according to NBC business correspondent Stephanie Ruhle on Sunday Today, the “dirty little secret” is that the American public can afford inflation just fine and they’re just bellyaching. But you just might have to sell your home or tap your 401K to survive the winter.
Following a report where she admitted inflation was at a 30-year-high at 6.2 percent, there were fewer discounts on holiday shopping items, gas prices were up 60 percent, and home heating costs would see a roughly $500 increase, Ruhle went off on those who were concerned about making ends meet.
“And the dirty little secret here, Willie [Geist], while nobody likes to pay more, on average we have the money to do so,” she declared. And Ruhle’s ranting was prefaced by her suggestion that she needed “put this in perspective.”
According to her, “Household savings hit a record high over the pandemic. We didn't have anywhere to go out and spend. And as we said a moment ago, we're expecting retail sales this holiday season to break records.”
But for the millions of Americans who lost their jobs because of the lockdowns, what income did they have to save? In fact, during the pandemic, NBC made a disgusting habit of aggressively pushing for lockdowns and other measures to shutter small businesses and then ran reports showing the despair and pain those policies caused in the form of long lines at food pantries. Something this author dubbed “despair porn.”
And those predicted holiday sales numbers would be boosted by inflationary costs.
“For those who own their homes and the value of our homes are up. And while the stock market isn't the economy, you have over half of American households with some investment in the markets and the markets have hit record highs,” she followed up.
But those aren’t the most liquid of assets. So, is Ruhle’s advice for people to sell their homes or to take out a loan on them to afford to eat? What about the people who rent? What about those who rent and were relying on the eviction moratorium?
And those household investments in the stock market are mostly retirement savings squirreled away for later. Is her advice here for viewers to tap their 401Ks early and incur more taxes and penalties?
She also argued that some demographics were receiving more money anyway:
So, it's why you see things like that expanded child tax credit. You’ve got the families of over 60 million kids on average getting $430 a month. For people on fixed incomes, older people on Social Security, they're getting those fixed payments adjusted next year up 5.9 percent or inflation.
But that child tax credit evaporates when it encounters the rising cost of food. Some basic foodstuffs have seen price percentages jump by double digits: eggs are up 12 percent and bacon is up 20 percent. And those upped Social Security payments weren’t helping NOW, plus they didn’t cover the full cost of inflation.
This segment came the same day ABC’s Good Morning America rolled out a new poll they did with The Washington Post where they found President Biden’s approval rating was down to 41 percent and 70 percent said his handling of the economy was atrocious.
That’s the crux of her report: trying to spin things for the administration to save them from themselves while trying to gaslight the public.
NBC’s tone deafness against the plight of Americans struggling to make ends meets was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Progressive, Tylenol, and AARP. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
NBC’s Sunday Today
November 14, 2021
8:21:01 a.m. EasternWILLIE GEIST: And Stephanie joins me now live. Steph, it’s great to see you. As you say, inflation over six percent, numbers we haven't seen in more than 30 years. So, how much higher can these prices go and when do you see them coming down?
STEPHANIE RUHLE: Well listen, Willie, nobody knows when exactly they're going down but you have to put this in perspective. This inflation is not in isolation and the government predicted it was going to be a challenging recovery, recovery all tied to COVID.
So, it's why you see things like that expanded child tax credit. You’ve got the families of over 60 million kids on average getting $430 a month. For people on fixed incomes, older people on social security, they're getting those fixed payments adjusted next year up 5.9 percent or inflation.
And the dirty little secret here, Willie, while nobody likes to pay more, on average we have the money to do so. Household savings hit a record high over the pandemic. We didn't have anywhere to go out and spend. And as we said a moment ago, we're expecting retail sales this holiday season to break records. For those who own their homes and the value of our homes are up. And while the stock market isn't the economy, you have over half of American households with some investment in the markets and the markets have hit record highs.
So, we need to put all of this in perspective. This time last year, when you and I were talking, Willie, nobody had a vaccine. Now 200 million Americans do and we're seeing this push of demand and that's pushing up pricing.
GEIST: It’s a good look at it.
