Inflation is high, the economy is struggling and voters will look for someone to blame
Thanks to lockdowns, stimulus checks, and stupid-high gas prices, inflation is now at 8.5 percent, rising at the fastest pace since 1981. The Labor Department’s announcement today ensures that the 40-year high inflation rate will severely affect Texans’ — and Americans’ — everyday life.
February estimates suggested inflation will cost the average Texas family around $300-$400 more a month, or about $4,000 a year. And wages cannot keep up. Low- and middle-income families spent 7 percent more in 2021 for the same things they bought the year prior. Where do regular families get an extra $5,000 a year to live on?
While Texans overall may not get hit as hard as some of the country due to our growing economy and lower cost of living, economists at Wells Fargo found that Hispanic Americans face the steepest jump in living costs due to inflation. Nearly 40 percent of the Texas population is Hispanic.
What causes inflation is a multifaceted issue: Shutting down the economy for over a year didn’t help, and pumping money into the economy via stimulus checks was sure to inflate prices. Supply chain problems coupled with dizzying gas prices have created a perfect storm for an economy on its way to a recession by way of inflation.
Whatever the cause, you can be sure it’s one of the only political issues stifling any modicum of success for President Joe Biden. Besides peace, the economy is often the measure by which everyday people measure safety and security.
Money doesn’t buy happiness of course, but as Mark Cuban is fond of saying, it buys comfort and sanity and “takes away a lot of the stress of paying the bills.”
Americans won’t stand to live in a crippled economy, particularly if they think the party in charge caused it — even if it’s more complicated. Optics is everything.
For this, the Democratic party will have to own it and fix it, or the midterms and the next presidential election will be a bloodbath, even though it was Trump who first started handing out stimulus checks. Until then, everyday Texans will be striving to make ends meet.
Editor’s note: A version of this column originally appeared in our opinion newsletter, Worth Discussion. It’s delivered every Wednesday with a fresh take on the news and a roundup of our best editorials, columns and other opinion content. Sign up here.
This story was originally published April 13, 2022 at 3:44 PM.
