Many Americans find it tedious to follow the complexities of financial policy coming out of Washington, D.C. — but everyone takes notice when spending power suddenly shrinks.
Consumer prices increased by 5.3 percent in August over the same time last year, though experts said they were hopeful that the trend would cool down and that the economy would surely rebound, according to The Washington Post.
But prices for consumer goods, food, gasoline and a myriad of other necessities have steadily risen in the months since Biden took office as problems such as supply chain disruptions and government spending continue to add to inflation concerns.
And while politicians and establishment media outlets were busy soothing themselves with false hope, real people began to feel the squeeze of rising costs that have taken a bite out of their family budgets, the New York Post reported on Wednesday.
The news outlet followed the story of Allison, a married mother of two who works in education and has noticed that her family’s expenses are rising precipitously.
“I used to spend $70 a week, but all of sudden this summer, I noticed that I couldn’t leave the store without spending at least $120,” Allison told the Post. “There are no more splurges like going to Home Depot to buy an extra plant or eating out.”
The report pointed out that Dollar General has raised its prices on goods, with coffee and milk up by more than 10 percent and a 12-pack of Coke costing 20 percent more in its Southwest locations.
That’s a problem considering the discount chain’s business model specifically offers cheaper goods to depressed communities underserved by grocery stores and big-box retail outlets, according to CNN.
Add to that Dollar Tree — another retail chain that previously sold every item for only $1 or less to the same markets — is now ratcheting up prices for the first time in over 30 years in business.
“Dollar Tree raising prices on some items to above $1 How can Pres Biden still claim inflation not happening?” Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley pointed out in a tweet last week about the lack of concern from the Biden administration.
“Pres Biden: u can’t spend $6 trillion it’s like throwing gasoline on the inflation fires,” the Republican lawmaker asserted.
Dollar Tree raising prices on some items to above $1 How can Pres Biden still claim inflation not happening? Pres Biden: u can’t spend $6 trillion it’s like throwing gasoline on the inflation fires
— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) September 30, 2021
For families like Allison’s and others who live in the real world and far from the ivory towers, these increases are significant and amount to a tax on the middle class.
Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi estimates a family earning $70,000 annually — the nation’s median income — will spend an additional $175 per month because of inflation that is at a 30-year high.
“That’s the equivalent of a full grocery, electric, or cellphone bill,” Zandi said, according to the New York Post.
The U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey released Wednesday reported that 26.5 million households found it was “very difficult” to cover living expenses — an increase of 8 percent from August to September.
Politicians were previously successful in hiding their awful economic failures with pedantic discussions such as raising the debt ceiling or between the pages of bloated spending bills — but American families now literally have the receipts to prove how bad things have gotten under Biden.
Besides paying more for food, Americans are now shelling out an average of $3.24 per gallon for gasoline, a price not seen since October 2014.
And just as much of the country is about heading into the chilly autumn and winter months, natural gas prices are at their highest level since 2008.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are doubling down on inflationary spending by trying to ram through a $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill that few people outside of Washington want.
Add to it that even as the useless COVID-19 lockdowns have all but vanished in the U.S., the fallout from trapping people in their homes for months on end while starving small businesses continues to feed a stressed economy.
Unfortunately, Democrats in Washington show little interest in acknowledging the problem, let alone solving it in the midst of all this suffering.
That’s because while the rest of us live in the real America — where hardworking folks do their best to provide for their families plus a few extras on the side if they’re lucky — politicians are insulated from hard times by living off the government dole and the generosity of lobbyists (and more than a few kickbacks).
Biden and his accomplices in the media may be able to hide his other failures with some success, but Americans notice when they’re struggling more and more just to make ends meet — and that won’t be easily forgotten come the 2022 midterm elections.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.