Op-ed by Summer Lane | Photo: Alamy
This Labor Day weekend, Americans everywhere likely felt the sting of rising prices, whether it was buying simple items at the grocery store or the crushing burden of their monthly mortgage and car payments.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI, there has been a cumulative price increase on goods in the U.S. economy of over 21 percent since 2018, thanks to the runaway inflation crisis that Joe Biden has failed to control.
On his first day in office in 2021, Biden immediately killed the Keystone XL Pipeline via an executive order, arguably the beginning of America’s energy problems. Since 2021, the United States has suffered from cripplingly high gas prices and remained weakly dependent on other countries for oil.
Today, the average gas price per gallon in the U.S. is $3.81, with states like California even rising to $5.32. Last year, national gas prices experienced devastating spikes as the nationwide average rose to a shocking $5.16 in June 2022.
During Trump’s presidency in 2018, the country was moving toward energy independence, driving the price of oil and energy down. In 2018, for example, the national average price per gallon of gas was sitting at $2.86, and California had an average gas price of $3.61.
Gas, energy, and groceries are not the only commodities Americans are paying higher prices than ever for in 2023. United States automobile production has also become increasingly pricy, driving the average cost of a basic car through the roof.
President Trump this year blamed the failing auto industry on Joe Biden’s disastrous “Green New Deal crusade.” He explained, “These extreme left-wing policies are a disaster for families and consumers and are one of the main reasons the average cost of a new car is now over $50,000 dollars—absolutely outrageous. And there’s never been such a price before.”
While in office, President Trump removed the United States from the infamous Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and axed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in favor of the USMCA trade deal, which delivered “fairer and more reciprocal trade for the American people.” These moves were a terrific boon for the American auto industry during the 45th president’s first term in office.
In 2023, another dream far out of reach for young Americans under the Biden regime is the dream of home ownership. The average median price for a home today in the United States is a whopping $416,000, which indicates a 26 percent increase in price from 2020, during Trump’s presidency.
According to a report from USA Today, the average U.S. homebuyer’s monthly payment is clocking in at around $2,605, pricing out many young American workers whose wages have not kept up with rapidly rising inflation.
In a potential second term of his presidency, President Donald Trump has vowed to implement core tenants from his “Quantum Leap” initiative, which would kick start a modern industrial revolution built around “Freedom Cities” and once again bring down the prices on homes.
Trump promised in an Agenda47 policy video, “In other words, we’ll actually build new cities in our country again. These Freedom Cities will reopen the frontier, reignite American imagination, and give hundreds of thousands of young people and other people, all hardworking families, a new shot at home ownership and in fact, the American Dream.”
On Sunday, President Trump remarked on Truth Social that Americans should ask themselves an important question. “Ask yourself: WERE YOU BETTER OFF TODAY, OR FOUR YEARS AGO?” he wrote.
Four years ago, Trump boldly and efficiently led the country by utilizing policies that put America’s economic welfare first. His approach resulted in a higher standard of living for everyone, as well as attainable housing prices, affordable grocery bills, and conceivable automobile price tags.
There is no doubt about it: Americans were much better off four years ago under the Trump administration.