For the party not in the White House, Tuesday's disappointing inflation report offered a bit of good news for their political fortunes. And they pounced.

"Roses are red, violets are blue, but eggs are so expensive, they're romantic now too," the House’s third-ranking Republican, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MI), tweeted shortly after the government reported a 0.5% month-over-month increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in January.

The 6.4% jump in prices over the last year and the 5.6% annual increase in core CPI, which strips out food and energy, both came in higher than expected as well.

Immediately after the news, social media feeds and Washington inboxes were filled with Republican lawmakers focused on food prices — and multiple mentions of those egg prices. The GOP flurry also came after other recent robust economic numbers, from a strong jobs report to a solid GDP print, allowed President Biden and other Democrats to crow, while Republicans largely stayed mum.

A focus on the debt ceiling

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) focused his response on overall costs, blaming “the Biden economy” for continued inflation as “the president refuses to change his spending habits and negotiate a responsible debt ceiling deal with Republicans.”

House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-MO) also zeroed in on the debt ceiling, saying the talks represent “an opportunity to come to the table and work with Republicans to find common-sense solutions to root out wasteful spending that is fueling inflation.”

President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met at the White House recently to begin talks around the debt and the overall fiscal situation, with both sides reporting it was a productive conversation.

A report that shows ‘disinflation is on pause’

Economists also weighed in on the less-than-stellar numbers Tuesday morning, highlighting how the inflation issue isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Morning Consult Chief Economist John Leer said: “Inflation may have peaked, but it’s not showing signs rapidly returning to the Fed’s long-run goal of 2 percent.”

Peter Earle of the American Institute for Economic Research added that “today's number is a clear sign that disinflation is on pause."

In a statement of his own, President Biden said that “inflation in America is continuing to come down [and] real wages for working Americans are up over the last seven months, delivering welcome breathing room for American families.”

But “there is still more work to do,” Biden acknowledged. He hit on food prices specifically with a more positive spin, saying "inflation for food at the grocery store came down again last month."

He also argued that Republican plans — such as a proposal to repeal the so-called Inflation Reduction Act — "would make inflation worse, shower billions of dollars on Big Pharma, and increase the deficit."

Ben Werschkul is Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.

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