Sen. Tim Scott Notes That 'Skyrocketing Costs' Are 'Bitter

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Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) tweets, “Another Christmas where skyrocketing costs are the bitter aftertaste of President Biden’s policies that have left American families struggling to make ends meet. President Trump and Republicans will reignite an economy that puts savings back on the table!”

Another Christmas where skyrocketing costs are the bitter aftertaste of President Biden’s policies that have left American families struggling to make ends meet. President Trump and Republicans will reignite an economy that puts savings back on the table! https://t.co/d0XZf88iio

— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) December 22, 2024

Prices are rising too high, too fast. It is an ongoing problem, has been for years now. Consumers are paying too much for goods and services, and the residual effect of that infects the entire economy. High prices persist because of failed economic policies.

Let us use the Consumer Price Index as a gauge of prices. It is published monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and it quantifies annual price increases. An increase of 2.7 percent for all items is the CPI recording in November of 2024 from November of 2023. But that is not when this story begins. The CPI recording in February of 2021, the first full month of President Joe Biden’s tenure, from February of 2020 is 1.7 percent. Since that recording, March of 2021 through November of 2024, there is not one annual CPI recording for all items below 2.4 percent. But that still does not tell the full story. For seven months, April of 2022 through September of 2022, the CPI is recorded at upwards of 8 percent, even hitting 9 percent in June of 2022. For 12 months, a calendar year, from December of 2021 through November of 2022, the CPI is recorded at greater than 7 percent. For 17 months, from October of 2021 through February of 2023, the CPI is recorded at more than 6 percent. For 21 months, from June of 2021 through February of 2023, the CPI is recorded at over 5 percent. For 26 months, from April of 2021 through May of 2023, the CPI is recorded at upwards of 4 percent. In seven months of President Biden’s time in office are CPI recordings less than 3 percent, and as mentioned, the only recording less than 2 percent is February of 2021.

The high inflation occurring under Biden is horrible, as are its consequences. A slight cost of living increase periodically is an economic norm, but prolonged high inflation is not. High inflation taxes the entire economy, and the overall economic impact of this period of high inflation would be difficult to quantify.

Democrats push spending, spending, and more spending. If high inflation is too much money chasing too few goods and services, it stands to reason that spending cuts are a method of inflation reduction. An example of where Democrats are is the counterintuitively entitled “Inflation Reduction Act”.

Democrats push tax increases. High taxes affect everyone and everything in an economy. An employee is personally paid less of his earned income due to a higher tax rate, and the employment options are more limited because an increasing amount of corporate revenue is being paid in taxes rather than employee compensation. Higher taxes force those struggling to make ends meet into increasingly basic and survival-based economic decisions. Consumer budgets are tighter due to higher tax rates, so there are less dollars being spent into the economy. As a result of that trickle-down effect of high taxes, there are fewer buying options available to consumers because some entities are taxed out of business and because investors who would otherwise put capital behind innovative, entrepreneurial endeavors and start-ups are paying more of that capital in taxes. High taxes impact the quality of goods produced and services offered because there is less money available in corporate budgets to be spent toward that end.

The regulatory environment must be considered as another contributing factor to high inflation. If a business is forced to allocate more of its economic capital, more of its employee manpower and brainpower, more of its time and legal exposure, and more of its overall resources to comply with federal regulations, some of which are highly questionable, that business is left with less employee manpower and brainpower for its own business functions; it is left with less time for its own work; it must find and pay for necessary legal counsel; and it is left with fewer overall resources. The inevitable results are fewer employment opportunities, fewer goods produced and services offered, and fewer spending and investment dollars flowing throughout the economy.

A go-to political concept of Democrats is the idea of redistribution. Beyond safety nets for those who need them, Democrats talk about soaking the wealthiest and redistributing the product of that to those who are not considered to be wealthy. It may be easy to conceptualize and psychologically soothing for some to think of government in a command-and-control manner redistributing and spreading around the wealth in a nation, but that is not a serious and long-term solution because it bears no long-term investment quality. A government “stimulus” is little more than a momentary economic sugar pop to the nation. Whereas marketplace earnings are meritoriously acquitted, spending is doled out at the government’s pleasure to whom the government pleases to dole it. A nation cannot be economically sustained or economically healed by government spending. Economic recovery and economic prosperity come through markets and private industry. A major problem is that Democrats seem to approach all societal issues through the lens of government.

It is conspicuous how few working solutions Democrats attempt to apply to the continuing problem of high inflation. All Americans would have been better served had Democrats used their political capital to cut wasteful federal government spending, to reduce taxes across the board, and to eliminate onerous regulations without seeking increasingly creative ways to further regulate. Commerce in the United States comes down to employees who work sincerely for their employers and the customers they serve, business owners who are careful custodians of the people they employ and those they serve, innovators who use modern technological advancements to meet timeless challenges, entrepreneurs who recognize and fill pockets of demand, inventors who add to possibilities through new products and services, and many more of the same strain of ethic. Regulation is necessary from time to time, but those who keep the U.S. economy going are most free to create and produce when government is least involved in the creation and production.