But they do. Why do people never actually look at the data so they know what they're talking about? Table 1 of the CPI First item listed: Food and beverages. Then Housing, including home energy costs. Motor fuel is farther down.They're "lying" in the sense that when they compile CPI data, they don't include food and energy.
Down at the bottom, under "special indexes" they do show the CPI minus food, minus energy, minus food and energy, minus medical costs etc, but that's not the main index.
Same thing for the CPI-W, which is what's used for Social Security adjustments.