By Jason Smith, member of Congress
It’s a tale of two realities. This week the Consumer Price Index showed that inflation over the last 12 months continues to remain near a 40-year high, coming in at 8.3 percent. This year alone, families will pay $5,200 more for goods and services because of the inflation caused by reckless Washington Democrat spending. To add insult to injury, many Washington Democrats are just now starting to realize the impact record high inflation is having on American families. In fact, it wasn’t until some lawmakers recently felt the effect on their pocketbooks that they started caring.
In a recent interview, a liberal California Democrat Congresswoman told a story about how she was horrified to see the price of bacon spike to $9.99 a pound, and how the price caused her to put it back on the shelf. She went on to talk about her own experience with inflation during a closed-door Democrat Caucus meeting and how the reality of high inflation was resonating with hardworking Americans across the country. I’ve got news for my colleagues in Congress: welcome to the reality that working-class families have been living from the moment Joe Biden took office.
The story of bacon is actually the perfect example to illustrate how the Left never seem to make the connection between their policies and the harm being caused to American families. The Biden Employment Crisis and the Biden Supply Chain Crisis are already driving up costs for farmers. Layer on top of that laws passed in states like California which require pigs to be raised in pens larger than those operated by all but 4 percent of pork producers in America. The law shows how elites enact laws that they themselves are able to afford but that make it more expensive for everyone else.
President Biden and Washington Democrats have been warned since day one – repeatedly – that their reckless agenda would result in skyrocketing inflation. Even economists from their own party sounded the alarm. They didn’t care. Democrats’ only priority was to pass their socialist agenda at any cost necessary. And they did! President Biden’s $2 trillion so-called “Rescue Plan” ignited the inflation crisis, doing anything but rescuing Americans. In fact, since President Biden took the oath of office, inflation has gone up 11 percent!
One of the worst examples of the Biden agenda and its impact on working families is what has happened to gas prices since Biden took office. This week, prices hit an all-time high and have now risen 88 percent since Biden took office. Why? Maybe it’s because of his insistence that we shouldn’t produce American energy. This week, the Biden administration canceled three new lease sales that could have helped produce more oil and gas to make America energy independent.
One tool that can help lower inflation is higher interest rates, but this too hurts families and small businesses. Last week, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by half a percentage point. This single action makes it even more expensive for families to buy a house, small businesses to grow, or for farmers to buy equipment. It also massively expands how much the federal government has to pay just to meet its growing debt. As our nation’s debt climbs higher and higher, higher interest rates on the federal budget will make it more expensive to service our debt, which will impact our ability to fund other programs functions. Private investment in our economy will also dwindle.
What is President Biden’s plan you ask? Well, at first he denied inflation existed and then said it was transitory. As time went on, Biden couldn’t avoid the elephant in the room any longer, so he blamed American businesses and our supply chain. And most recently, in sheer desperation, President Biden blamed Russia for the high spike in prices despite the fact inflation had already risen 7.5 percent before the invasion of Ukraine.
Inflation continues to skyrocket, there is a massive worker shortage, parents are struggling to find formula to feed their babies, and our debt is rising to unsustainable levels. It is time we make some changes. As your representative, my top priority will always be helping working class families to be able to make it in Missouri.