by County Patriot Staff
That is a question often used in presidential campaigns – usually associated with economics. The County Patriot staff researched prices of food and gasoline and how they have changed in the past four years.
According to Forbes magazine, on Nov. 3, 2020, food inflation was running at just 3.9% annually. Fast forward to October 2024, and food prices have risen a whopping 25.8% since then. To put that in perspective, a basket of groceries that cost $100 in November 2020 would now set you back $125.80. That’s an increase of nearly $26 for the exact same food items.
Gasoline prices are up 35.9% in the past four years. The Consumer Price Index shows that all consumer product goods (clothes, consumables, etc) is up over 20% in 2020 vs. 2024. Americans are paying more and feeling the pain at the pump and in the grocery store because inflation is at a 40-year high. 82% of Americans, according to New York Times poll, say the country’s headed in the wrong direction.
Economist Milton Friedman defined inflation as “too much money chasing after too few goods.” He was describing the Biden/Harris economic agenda.
For four years, Biden/Harris policies have flooded the marketplace with federal stimulus while squeezing the supply of goods and services through higher taxes and regulations. The result has been a cost-of-living crisis and an economy in decline.
The system of free enterprise and fiscal responsibility, along with the spirit of hard work and self-reliance that built the largest, most dynamic economy in the world, has been replaced by endless bureaucracy, unbridled spending, and government dependency.
Biden/Harris’s signature legislation, the spuriously named “Inflation Reduction Act,” imposed tax hikes on job creators, expanded Obamacare subsidies for the wealthy, and handed out hundreds of billions of dollars in wasteful tax breaks to green energy corporations.
The president enacted policies that paid people more to stay home than to return to their jobs and waived work requirements in welfare programs for able-bodied adults, creating a labor shortage and trapping a whole new generation of people in poverty and government dependence.
He unleashed a barrage of rules and regulations on small businesses costing hundreds of billions of dollars. And Biden’s whole-of-government assault on domestic energy, the very lifeblood of our economy, has significantly increased production costs across the board.
Americans are not better off economically in 2024 than they were in 2020. President Trump’s economy policy kept inflation under control, was moving America to energy independence, and growing the middle class.
On November 5th, vote to re-elect President Donald J. Trump!
