McDonald’s has been in the headlines recently, but fewer and fewer Americans can afford to eat at the classic hamburger chain.
Perhaps the best summary of Bidenflation, soaring inflation under the Biden-Harris administration, can be found in the wisdom of Craig Ervin, a welder in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Ervin told me: “I used to go to McDonald’s and get 10 cheeseburgers for 10 bucks. Now it costs me 30.”
Across Wisconsin, families are feeling the pinch of Bidenflation. The cost of living for Badger State households has risen a staggering $1,400 higher per month—or $16,800 per year—since January 2021, according to The Heritage Foundation’s Personal Inflation Calculator.
Ervin put it bluntly to me: “I’ve got to decide between a tank of gas or a meal at a restaurant.”
And he’s not alone. I’m from Eau Claire, too, and I know families are hurting.
The typical Wisconsin family spends over $750 more a year on gasoline compared to January 2021. The typical contents of a grocery cart are 22% more expensive for the same period, costing families over $1,300 more per year.
To distract from reality, progressives claim that inflation is simply the result of corporate price-gouging that can be fixed with government price controls. But that’s not true.
Inflation is the result of the Biden-Harris administration’s obscene government spending, including a deficit of almost $2 trillion in fiscal year 2024.
Socialist policies like price controls will lead only to the same type of shortages, whether it’s the oil shortage of the 1970s or the hunger and poverty seen throughout the 20th century in the Soviet Union. History has shown time and again that these empty measures simply shift the harm onto workers and families.
The answer is simple: Decrease the size of government. When the government borrows and spends trillions of dollars, it floods the economy with money. This surge outpaces the production of goods and services, causing the dollars in our pockets to lose value—the very definition of inflation.
In response, the Federal Reserve raises interest rates, making borrowing more expensive for banks, businesses, and normal people living in Wisconsin, like Ervin.
With prices going up, fewer and fewer folks can afford the American dream of owning a home. Indeed, higher interest rates have hit the housing market particularly hard, with the cost of a 30-year mortgage in Wisconsin skyrocketing by a staggering $345,000 compared to just a few years ago.
But this dramatic increase in borrowing costs is just one facet of Wisconsin’s complex housing crisis.
Exacerbating the problem is the fact that when the demand for housing increases because of the flood of newly printed inflationary dollars, it takes time for supply to catch up. This supply crunch is made even more acute by excessive regulations on homebuilding. As a result, prices tend to rise even faster.
Adding to this pressure, the influx of nearly 10 million illegal aliens encountered at the border since January 2021 has further strained an already tight housing market. These “newcomers,” like everyone else, need a place to live—and often are handed extra government funds to crowd Americans out of the housing market.
Just ask the people of Whitewater, Wisconsin—a small town of 15,000—who’ve had to compete for housing with more than 1,000 Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who have arrived since 2021.
To truly address these crises, we don’t need more of the same government solutions. Bad policy and the reckless growth of government is the problem. The government needs to slow its reckless spending, which fuels inflation, and eliminate onerous regulatory barriers to new construction.
Fundamentally, a large government is at odds with large families. Only by removing the problem, and allowing people to keep the money they earn, can we restore the American dream and make it attainable once again for hardworking Wisconsinites.
