Tom Emmer is the House Majority Whip — the third-ranking Republican in the House, and the person whose job is counting votes. On Wednesday, September 16, he went on Fox Business to argue that Republicans need to talk more about the groceries that have gotten cheaper.

Then he named one.

Eggs are at pre-pandemic prices. Ah, beef is at, ah, less than $2 a pound for ground beef.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks that exact number every month. In August 2026, ground beef averaged $6.92 a pound across the country.

He was off by about five dollars a pound.

When it was actually $2

The Bureau's price series for ground beef goes back decades, so the claim can be checked precisely rather than argued about.

The last month ground beef averaged under $2 a pound in the United States was July 2003, at $1.88. It crossed $2 the following month and has never gone back. That was twenty-three years ago, during George W. Bush’s first term.

Here is what the same series shows for the period Emmer was actually describing, the stretch since Donald Trump took office and Republicans took control of Congress:

Ground beef has not gotten cheaper on their watch. It is up about $1.38 a pound, or roughly 25 percent, in nineteen months.

Local reporting noted the same gap. Bring Me The News pointed out that the claim came two days after Emmer had himself acknowledged that beef prices are up.

That is the part that is hard to file under "misspoke." He knew. He said it two days earlier. Then he went on television and said the opposite.

He has done this before, with different groceries

This is not a first draft of a talking point that came out wrong. It is the same talking point he made in August, with the groceries swapped.

In August, on Fox Business, Emmer said eggs cost 78 cents a dozen and milk was under $2 a gallon and suggested Americans just have a "perception" problem about prices. Federal data at the time had eggs at $2.14 a dozen and milk at $4.32 a gallon — more than double what he claimed on both.

Six weeks later, same network, same argument, new grocery item, same result.

Notice also what he said about eggs this time: "at pre-pandemic prices." That is the softer version of the claim he made in August, and he is still making it.

What it costs at the register

The gap here is not academic. Pull it into a shopping cart.

At Emmer's price, five pounds of ground beef — a week of dinners for a family — runs under $10. At the real August price, it is about $34.60. The difference on that one item, every week for a year, is roughly $1,280.

That is the number a family in Minnesota's 6th District is looking at. And the man who represents them, who is third in line in the House Republican leadership, went on national television and described a price that has not existed since George W. Bush's first term.

There is a reason this keeps happening in the same direction. When a member of the House Republican leadership tells Republicans to point at groceries that got cheaper, the list is short — so the numbers have to come from somewhere other than the data.

What the record shows

Tom Emmer, the third-ranking Republican in the House, told Fox Business on September 16 that ground beef costs "less than $2 a pound." The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the national average at $6.92 a pound in August 2026, up from $5.55 in January 2025 — and the last month it actually averaged under $2 was July 2003, twenty-three years ago. He had publicly acknowledged two days earlier that beef prices were up. It is the second time in six weeks he has gone on the same network and named grocery prices that federal data contradicts by more than double.

Source

Bring Me The News, "Tom Emmer draws reaction after claiming ground beef costs 'less than $2 a pound'", by Brianna Kelly, September 17, 2026. Price data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics average price series for ground beef, 100% beef, per pound. Photo via Bring Me The News.