Editor’s note: This editorial was published last week. During the Super Bowl on Sunday, President Biden posted almost the exact same complaints about “shrinkflation” as Sen. Warren did. So we’ve updated the editorial.

President Joe Biden was too tired or confused to agree to a Super Bowl interview — surely one of the most softball interview opportunities any president could hope for — but did take time to record a video addressing the nation’s most pressing problem: “shrinkflation.” Not only is his complaint utterly misguided, he plagiarized his post from Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Biden said:

“When buying snacks for the game you might have noticed one thing: Sports drinks bottles are smaller, bag of chips has fewer chips, but they are still charging us just as much … As an ice cream lover, what makes me most angry is ice cream cartons have actually just shrunk in size, but not in price.

“Some companies are trying to pull a fast one by shrinking the products little by little and hoping you won’t notice. Give me a break. The American public is tired of being played for suckers.

“I’m calling on companies to put a stop to this.”

Here’s what Warren said in a campaign email:

“Have you ever finished a bag of Doritos and thought, ‘Whoa — there should have been a lot more chips in here’? You were right,” she exclaims.

“It’s called ‘shrinkflation’,” she goes on. “Corporate executives thought we wouldn’t notice, but they were wrong. We caught on. And we’re not buying their excuse that it’s all about inflation.”

She says “It’s time to crack down on shrinkflation and corporate greed.”

Biden and Warren can’t possibly be this obtuse, can they?

Think about it for two seconds. Inflation is running rampant, giving manufacturers a choice: raise prices, or keep the price the same and cut back on the quantity.

Either way, consumers are paying more per unit, which is easy enough for them to tell because pretty much every grocery store in the country lists per-unit costs along with the sticker price.

Some consumers – like those on a tight budget – might actually appreciate the fact that companies are holding the price steady while cutting back on the number of items in the bag.

What about the claim that companies are employing this clever trickery to fatten profits? Well, if it’s that easy to boost the bottom line using “shrinkflation,” why wouldn’t companies do this all the time? Why wait until now?

And how, exactly, will Biden or Warren “crack down” on this nefarious practice? By mandating that each bag of Doritos and every roll of toilet paper contain a government-mandated number of chips and sheets?

There’s also the cognitive dissonance in these complaints. After all, she thinks climate change is our “existential crisis” that, to listen to her and other climate zealots, can only be solved if we all consume less. They should be cheering on shrinkflation!

Biden is clearly looking for any way he can to pass the blame for the inflation that his own profligate spending policies unleashed. A while ago he said:

“Inflation is coming down. It’s now lower in America than any other major economy in the world,” Biden said. “The cost of eggs, milk, chicken, gas, and so many other essential items have come down.”

“But for all we’ve done to bring prices down, there are still too many corporations in America ripping people off: price gouging, junk fees, greedflation, shrinkflation,” Biden said.

“Well, it’s going to stop. Americans, we’re tired of being played for suckers. And that’s why we’re going to keep these guys — keep on them and get the prices down,” he said.

Is anybody buying these pathetic attempts at blame-shifting? Thankfully, no, which is why the public overwhelmingly disapproves of how Biden has handled the economy.

Americans know that Biden and his fellow big-spending Democrats such as Elizabeth Warren -– not Frito-Lay or Kimberly-Clark – are to blame for the strain on their family budgets.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board