"Given that the entire point of the Federal Reserve is to promote inflation"
No, that's not what they do. Too much inflation is bad, but you need a little bit. So they seek to maintain a "healthy" amount of inflation. Typically around the world this is something like 2-3%.
Real monetary expansion is much greater than 2-3% on average. The price inflation they calculate might be 2-3% but look at college or healthcare costs. That new money finds a home somewhere and I'll tell you now that that's where it ends up these days.
I don't know about the cost of healthcare or college in the US, but those are affected by other non-inflationary factors.
Eg: political changes, supply and demand, changes to the definition of the service. i.e. Imagine the difference in what treatments are covered by healthcare today as opposed to say 25 years ago.
Don't forget the "new money" also finds a home through population increases and export of actual money (black and white market).
No, that's not what they do. Too much inflation is bad, but you need a little bit. So they seek to maintain a "healthy" amount of inflation. Typically around the world this is something like 2-3%.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_targeting