By what slight of hand is the government maintaining the fiction that inflation is under control?

Here in the Midwestern U.S. freaking stew meat is approaching (or at/over) $5 a pound and gasoline is again near $4 a gallon. I got a 6” sub at Subway yesterday and it was just a few cents from $5. Seems like just yesterday that all foot-longs were only $5!

How can the government maintain the fiction of inflation being under control, and why are we, the citizens, swallowing it?