NC’s Affordability Crisis Is Real. Trump Says It’s a “Scam.”
Financial pressure builds during the holiday season. The heater gets turned on. We have more seats filled around the dinner table. There’s more mouths to feed, gifts to purchase, and flights to book. It’s a time of year when your credit card statement becomes a jump scare and your checking account shrinks like it’s a cotton sweater in the dryer.
Most years, Black Friday is a welcome break from high costs for shoppers, a helpful shot in the arm for businesses. But Trump’s tariff-ridden economy made it feel a bit different this year. Shoppers saw a 7% jump in the average selling price of online goods. It wasn’t any better for retailers, who saw a decline in transactions and units sold per transaction.
Some of the goods that saw the biggest price increases were those exposed to tariffs. For example, online prices on home goods (furniture, appliances, dining, etc.) spiked 24%. Trump placed tariffs on furniture in October, as well as on countries where America imports furniture from, such as Vietnam and India. In total, the Yale Budget Lab estimates that Trump’s tariffs will cost the average family about $1,700 this year.
Outside of holiday shopping, groceries continue to rise. Average grocery prices are higher than they were a year prior as the cost of essentials, like coffee, ground beef, bacon, and orange juice, are all rising. Turkey is up 40% from a year ago, beef prices have increased by around 15%, and coffee prices are up 20%.
Unfortunately, next year won’t look much better as cost increases are expected in health care and electricity. In North Carolina, ACA health insurance premiums will increase by an average of 28%. Meanwhile, Duke Energy is seeking a 15% increase in electricity rates over the next two years– a move enabled by the Republican-led General Assembly.
Maybe more frustrating than the GOP economy is how they’ve been trying to sell us on it. Here’s five quotes from the President that show how out of touch Republican leadership is with the economy they’ve created:
- “I always say ‘tariffs’ is the most beautiful word to me in the dictionary. Because tariffs are going to make us rich as hell.”
Tariffs are taxes, plain and simple. They’re taxes paid by Americans. They’re taxes that raise prices and threaten economic growth. Trump’s tariffs have amounted to an average tax increase of $1,100, and are projected to reduce the country’s GDP and eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs. But you don’t need the stats to fact check this one– do you feel rich as hell from tariffs?
- “I couldn’t care less if they raise prices.”
Trump made the comment in regard to auto-makers raising their prices in the wake of one of his earlier rounds of tariffs. This year, the average new car price surpassed $50,000, a record high. Maybe we should care more if they raise prices?
- “[Affordability] doesn’t mean anything to anybody… The word affordability is a con job by the Democrats. The word affordability is a Democrat scam.”
To be fair, if you’re a billionaire who has thrived on family handouts and fraud your whole life, affordability probably doesn’t mean anything to you. But the reality is that about 1 in 4 Americans live paycheck to paycheck. 46% of Americans– including 37% of Trump voters– believe that the cost of living is the worst they can ever remember it being. The affordability crisis isn’t a con job– it’s a reality for many Americans.
- “I AM THE AFFORDABILITY PRESIDENT. TALK LOUDLY AND PROUDLY.”
Trump went from saying that affordability is a scam to saying that he is THE affordability president– excuse me, THE AFFORDABILITY PRESIDENT. We see the rising cost of living in stores, on our receipts, in our bank accounts. What is he talking about?
- “Another word, it’s just groceries. It’s sort of an old-fashioned word, but it’s very accurate. They are coming down.”
Grocery prices are rising (in part due to Trump’s tariffs), and Trump has repeatedly insisted that they are actually coming down. The lack of awareness of rising costs, coupled with his amusement that people even use the term “groceries,” doesn’t leave us with the sense that he understands what everyday people are going through.
- BONUS: “Grocery prices are down. I mean, it’s absolutely a fact.” – Michael Whatley
Michael Whatley, former NC GOP chairman and current Republican candidate for Senate, also insists that grocery prices are coming down. The DC insider seems to be spending more time studying Trump’s talking points than being out in the community, listening to the North Carolinians who he hopes to represent in Congress.
With everything so expensive, we can’t afford to buy this BS too. In this pivotal moment, we need clear-eyed leaders who will tackle the affordability crisis head-on. We need leaders who know how tough it is to make ends meet, leaders who understand the challenges facing North Carolinians and will get to work to solve them.
