Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress promised lower prices, and instead they’ve delivered the opposite. With the midterms weeks away, mortgage rates are closing in on 7%, gas and diesel are at multi-year highs, inflation is red-hot, and the Federal Reserve just raised interest rates for the first time in three years — all while Trump picks petty fights, wages a forever war, and pours money into personal vanity projects instead of fixing the affordability crisis he created. Read more below:
From housing to gas to groceries, everyday expenses cost more under Trump, and the Fed’s rate hike confirms it. The Wall Street Journal reports that, just weeks before the midterm elections, prices are skyrocketing. Consumer prices are up 3.4% year-over-year as of August, diesel just hit a record $6.40 a gallon, and mortgage rates are quickly approaching 7%. Trump’s tariffs and his forever war in Iran are driving the squeeze on family budgets, but he’s blasting the Federal Reserve on social media instead of owning the inflation his agenda created. Read more →
- “Mortgage rates close to 7%. Gas prices near their highest levels since 2022. A Federal Reserve interest-rate hike for the first time in three years. Everything from buying a house to filling up your gas tank now costs more than even a week ago—putting affordability back in the spotlight just before midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.”
- “Consumer prices were up 3.4% from a year earlier in August, extending five years of price pressures on Americans. For five months, wage gains haven’t kept pace with inflation and, especially with the sharp increase in gasoline prices over the past few weeks, they aren’t likely to keep up this month, either.”
Trump’s war with Iran is about to make winter brutal for families who heat their homes with oil. The New York Times reports that Trump’s war with Iran is sending heating oil prices through the roof, spiking 60% since the war began. High heating oil prices are leaving millions of households, mostly concentrated in the Northeast and Alaska, bracing for bills far beyond what they paid last year. Nonprofits that help cover heating costs are warning their aid won’t stretch nearly as far this year, a direct casualty of the chaos Trump’s foreign policy has unleashed on energy markets. Read more →
- “The price of heating oil, a fuel that is very similar to the diesel used in trucks, is up roughly 60 percent since Israel and the United States started attacking Iran on Feb. 28.”
- “Many Americans are heading into a ‘much more expensive’ winter, said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which represents state officials that help dispense government aid to residents who meet certain income-based qualifications. The organization urged Congress in July to offer more financial assistance to families struggling with rising energy costs.”
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