As Donald Trump prepares to speak on the economy and affordability in Rome, Georgia, costs are skyrocketing for Georgians as a result of his administration’s failed policies. Trump’s approval rating in Georgia, a state he won in 2024, is deep in the red at around negative 19 percentage points. Instead of addressing the affordability crisis, Trump has cut thousands of jobs, jeopardized over $4 billion in Georgia energy investments, and ripped away hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for health care and food aid. Trump and Republicans in Congress have worked in lockstep to reward their rich and powerful friends at the expense of everyone else. They are obliterating the economic security of millions across the country – and working families are the ones paying the price.
The Peach State Affordability Crisis
- COST-OF-LIVING IS GEORGIANS’ TOP CONCERN: Georgia residents are facing high prices due to Trump’s economic policies. According to a recent report ranking states on family-rearing, Georgia ranks 47th on affordability. Georgia importers paid the fourth-highest tariff bill in 2025, with the cost of Trump’s tariffs running around $12 billion in the state. In the first year of Trump’s second term, Georgians paid an average of $1,178 more in goods and services. Trump’s tariffs have cost Georgia households an average of $514 each so far.
- FOOD COSTS ARE UP: Food costs are rising nationwide thanks to Donald Trump’s tariffs and America-last trade policies – especially in Georgia. Food prices in the Atlanta area rose 5 percent last year alone – more than five times faster than overall area prices. Georgia is now among the top 15 states most cost-burdened by groceries, meaning household incomes in Georgia are not keeping up with rising grocery prices in the state. One in three Georgians is concerned they will not be able to afford the cost of food over the next 12 months.
- GEORGIA HEALTH CARE COSTS ARE UP THANKS TO TRUMP & REPUBLICANS: The Trump-GOP Big, Ugly Bill cuts $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Now, more than 720,000 Georgians stand to lose their health care, and over 42 percent of Georgians are concerned they will not be able to afford the cost of health care over the next 12 months. Georgians who buy health insurance on their own through the Affordable Care Act are facing an average premium increase of 25 percent for 2026. More than 1.4 million people across the state are seeing their coverage costs at least double on average this year. Georgia hospitals are also estimated to lose $217 million a year due to Medicaid cuts alone. 13 Georgia hospitals and clinics are closing, have already announced cuts, or are at risk of closure in the wake of the Trump-GOP bill.
- GEORGIA SMALL BUSINESSES ARE SUFFERING: Georgia’s small businesses, from beauty shops to chocolatiers, have been disproportionately hurt by Trump’s economic policies. The state is home to over 1.3 million small businesses. Georgia’s Black-owned businesses, long a community mainstay, are especially vulnerable, due to many of these businesses facing higher input costs, running on thinner profit margins, and starting with less access to capital. The Trump-GOP plan to rip away ACA tax credits is hitting Georgia’s small businesses especially hard. Over 270,800 small business owners in the state rely on the ACA for coverage – nearly 1 in 5 ACA enrollees in Georgia.
- HOUSING CRUNCH: Many Georgia families are being priced out of homeownership as Georgia faces a housing shortage, especially in the Atlanta metro area, made worse by Trump’s tariffs. Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, and Gwinnett counties are short more than 200,000 homes, partly because homebuilders and homebuyers are heavily impacted by Trump’s tariffs. Trump’s tariffs on building materials are expected to increase the price of a new home by about $9,200. More than half of Georgia renters and nearly a quarter of homeowners are cost-burdened. Georgia ranks seventh in the nation among cost-burdened renters.
- ENERGY COSTS SKYROCKETING: Georgia already ranks 35th in energy affordability in the country, but Georgia Power hiked rates last summer anyway. In November, Georgians ousted two incumbent Republicans from the Georgia Public Services Commission by 25-point margins, which regulates utilities, in an election Georgia’s Republican Attorney General and Secretary of State called a referendum on energy affordability.
- JOB LOSSES & LOST INVESTMENT: Trump has threatened over $4.4 billion in Georgia energy investments, cancelling, delaying, and forcing layoffs at seven energy-related projects, leading to nearly 3,800 jobs threatened or lost. The Trump administration also slashed the budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is headquartered in Atlanta, by 5 percent, slashing an estimated 500 jobs.
- HELP RIPPED AWAY: Trump’s budget cuts are ripping away vital assistance for health care, food, and more from hundreds of thousands of Georgians. Trump and Republicans in Congress cut $187 billion in food assistance, which helps give nearly 1.4 million Georgians access to food. These cuts leave an estimated 154,000 Georgia families at risk of losing their food aid and will leave Georgia without nearly $1.5 billion in annual federal funds – a 43 percent reduction.
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