by WorldTribune Staff, August 18, 2024 Contract With Our Readers
The meat-and-potatoes issue for a substantial number of voters in 2024 is literally meat and potatoes.
Americans are hit with sticker shock every time they go to the supermarket or shop for groceries online.
A new poll by The Financial Times found that food inflation is at the heart of voter anxiety as 78 percent of respondents said food inflation is a major drag on their financial situation.
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"Despite the rhetoric from the White House, which seeks to downplay this issue by pointing to recent moderations in price increases, the fact remains that grocery prices have skyrocketed under Kamala Harris’s watch," Breitbart's John Carney noted.
"Harris played a pivotal role in the legislative agenda that led us to this point. Her tie-breaking votes in the Senate helped push through trillions in spending, which many economists say helped fuel the inflation crisis."
The first 42 months of the the Biden-Harris administration have seen the biggest increase in food inflation under any president since Jimmy Carter. It is the third largest increase over the first three-and-a-half years of a presidential term ever recorded in data going back to 1952, trailing Carter’s record and Nixon’s second term.
By contrast, grocery prices rose just 6.3 percent over the first 42 months of Donald Trump’s presidency.
During his press conference (Harris has yet to hold one) on Thursday, Trump slammed his opponent for her recent promises to get things done on "day one" when she is already has had more than three years to do something.
"Kamala has been promising, ‘On day one, I'll do this.' And for basically four years, she's promised 'this' day one," a reporter asked. "What will you do on day one to turn this country around?"
Trump responded: "So, she is saying, ‘When she gets in.’ She's in now. And especially with Biden, because, I mean, he's not in the best of shape. But you know what, she is in there now. She can do anything she wants. And she's still saying, 'If you elect me, I'll do this.' Why didn't she do it? Here's my one question to her, it's the easiest question .... Why didn't she do it?"
Trump continued: “Grocery prices have skyrocketed.” The former president rattled off official government statistics that show cereals are up 26%, bread up 24%, butter up 37%, baby formula up 30%, and eggs up 46%.
“How can a family afford that?” Trump asked.
“Harris has just declared that tackling inflation will be a 'Day One priority' for her,” Trump added. “But Day One for Kamala was three and a half years ago.”
Breatbart's Carney pointed out: "Polls consistently show that inflation is the top concern for voters, and it’s easy to see why. Under the Biden-Harris administration, the cost of 'food at home' — bureaucratese for groceries — has surged by over 21 percent."
Food prices are still rising. The index for food rose 0.2 percent in July and was up 0.1 percent for the category covering groceries, the second straight month of rising prices following four months of negative readings on the consumer price index for food at home.
Writing for HotAir, Beege Welborn noted: "There's no hope to be had in Harris. The struggling American family knows who she is and what part she's played in the misery they are facing. There's no reboot here for voters sliding further into the #Bidenomics abyss or families suddenly facing it through layoffs."
Critics say it is impossible for Harris to distance herself from "Bidenomics," though her campaign is desperately trying to do so. It is a fact that Harris not only bragged about Bidenomics "working" but positioned herself publicly to take credit for those policies.
The HotAir blog noted: "A mere year ago, her rhetoric was chock full of 'when President Biden and I took office, we decided...' The 'we's' and the 'I's' abound through this brag session."
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