Over the hundreds of visits I’ve had with Nebraskans these past few months, one issue keeps rising to the top: everything still costs too much.
The news cycle may have moved on as inflation cooled, but the high cost of living it brought is still the most pervasive problem affecting Nebraska’s families today. Whether it’s single parents forced to leave items out of the grocery cart, seniors struggling to pay rising rents on fixed incomes, or small business owners trying to balance higher energy costs, Nebraskans can’t live the lives they’ve planned as long as prices remain high and salaries don’t keep up.
High costs for basic needs, like groceries, rent, and energy, are especially harmful. Compared to 2021, Nebraska families are paying, per month, $151 more on food, $208 more on housing, and $109 more on energy. Including other cost increases, Nebraskans are now spending $1,138 dollars more per month than they did four years ago. All told, the cost of inflation the last three and a half years for an average family has risen to $30,988.
No one was budgeting for that.
While inflation was a global problem following COVID, there were plenty of steps our government could have taken, or not taken, to bring down prices for families. Unfortunately, this administration not only made inflation worse, but they’ve also been unwilling to put aside their partisan priorities to make life affordable again.
The Biden-Harris administration fueled inflation with wild, unnecessary spending. Take for example the partisan, so-called American Rescue Plan, which cost $1.9 trillion, on top of the Cares Act. Or consider the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which spends almost $370 billion on climate change programs. Combined with other spending, these massive, unnecessary bills kept prices climbing for years.
To make matters worse, the administration imposed costly and inflationary federal regulations. The Biden administration’s regulatory regime has greatly surpassed the past two presidents’ records, more than tripling the cost.
Regulations, like taxes, increase costs. When businesses are forced to spend more to meet certain standards, those price increases get passed on to American families. So far, these regulations have cost the American people $1.37 trillion—and many of them were completely unnecessary.
Take the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations on emissions from heavy duty trucks as an example. The administration saddled the trucking industry with unreasonable new rules to “respond to the urgency of the climate crisis by making deep cuts in emissions from the transportation sector,” in the words of EPA administrator Michael Regan.
This “urgent response” will cause many small commercial trucking operations to suffer. The new financial burdens will also increase the cost of any product transported by trucks, including the basics hit hardest by inflation, like food.
I introduced legislation that would have overturned these regulations, and it passed in both the Senate and House. But when it reached the president’s desk, he refused to sign it into law. As of May 2024, President Biden had vetoed 11 efforts to lower costs for Americans by cutting regulations. The Biden-Harris administration would rather Americans pay the cost of its spending.
As much as anyone can tell, Bidenomics pushed prices higher than they need to go, and then kept them there, all to satisfy a progressive dream that’s failed American families.
No one can afford the political price of Bidenomics. If we’re ever going to lower prices for Nebraska’s families, we need a change in leadership, one that puts the cost of living over politics.
Thank you for participating in the democratic process. I look forward to visiting with you again next week.