Paying the Price

Talk is cheap, but the price of gasoline and groceries certainly isn’t. In fact, in this Biden economy almost everything we need in order to survive is getting more expensive by the month. I hear President Biden talk about not raising taxes on the middle class, but the price of goods is going up and that is a hidden tax. I hear the Biden-Harris Administration talk about vaccinated Americans not needing to wear a mask and yet businesses and schools still are not fully open. This just shows all that liberal D.C. talk does not match the reality millions of Americans are living in every day. 

 

Rising prices for the things families need to survive come on top of the historically disappointing April jobs report where unemployment for Black men increased to 10.4%.  Just look at the dramatic increase in the average price of regular gasoline in Raleigh, North Carolina over the past three months. According to Gas Buddy, Raleigh drivers were paying around $2.37 in the middle of February, and now in the middle of May, the cost has dramatically increased  to close to $2.94 just for regular unleaded gas. 

 

What are the ramifications for those in the middle class on just that gasoline increase alone? 

Well, imagine if you were making ends meet by driving an Uber or Lyft, or your business requires the use of vehicles like a car or truck. What if you started working for a food delivery company and now you have this increase?  When you earn a living by operating a vehicle, paying more for gas impacts your profits and take-home pay to support your family. That is a crisis.

 

In this Biden economy we have experienced foreign actors testing our will and supply chain. This recent ransomware hack reportedly cost Colonial Pipeline upwards of $5 million, along with leaving millions of Americans paying even more for gasoline due to thousands of gas stations up and down the East coast running out of gas. That is a crisis. 

 

Taking a trip to the grocery store has become unnerving because you do not have to be an economist from an elite business school to know that things have gotten more expensive since Biden took office. Some food prices are increasing by up to 10 percent. Prices for a range of goods, including toilet paper, diapers, and soft drinks, have increased. Even Whirlpool is raising prices of some of its appliances by up to 12 percent.

 

This domestic crisis we are facing will be exacerbated if Democrat leaders keep ignoring the facts, data, and science about re-opening our economy. Things would be a lot better for us if we could fully get back to work, full time. Parents with children should have the choice to put their children in full time, in person schooling five days a week so they can return to work. Additionally, having students back in school full time will allow teachers, custodians, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, counselors, coaches – everyone connected to teaching to also return to work. 

Imagine the frustration of business owners who still can’t operate at full capacity despite us having a successful vaccine created under the Trump Administration positively inoculating millions of Americans for free,  and  new less restrictive mask guidelines from the CDC. Yet local Democrat government officials still say no to them fully reopening in order to survive!  

 

A bright spot is found not in the federal government but in “we the people.” Americans are resilient, hardworking and when presented with challenges, we always come together and rise to the occasion. I find inspiration in people like entrepreneur Tamika Wells who runs Honey Bee Grocery Delivery. There is no doubt this Biden economy and rising costs are hurting her business, but she is working hard by adjusting and doing her very best to help her company survive and thrive. She, like so many other people, is not looking for lip service and empty rhetoric from Washington, D.C. Democrats. Workers, families, and entrepreneurs like Tamika need action, leadership and sound policy that does not cause inflation, create instability, and increase taxes. 

 

America’s Black middle class is paying the price for all of Joe Biden and Democrats’ failed economic policies, as they squander the recovery they inherited and prices of everyday goods are increasing all around the country.  Make no mistake, these rising prices are a hidden tax on lower income and middle-class Americans, and it is, yet another Biden-Harris Administration created crisis.


Paris Dennard is the National Spokesperson and Director of Black Media Affairs for the Republican National Committee (RNC). Follow him on Twitter: @PARISDENNARD.