And does he believe Trump’s nonsense?
(Illustration credits: Fanniemae.com and Eatthis.com)
The Guardian newspaper commissioned a recent survey that found “Ninety-five per cent of Americans believe the US is suffering an affordability crisis, as many report trouble with the rising cost of groceries and gas.” Further, “Two-thirds of Americans – including 49% of Republicans – said they have little faith that the federal government will improve the cost-of-living crisis they face.” That “federal government” these Americans disdain consists of President Donald Trump and Congress, including Sixth District Rep. Juan Ciscomani.
To be fair, affording a good life in the US was becoming difficult for the average American before Trump was inaugurated in January 2025. But that doesn’t excuse him and his Republican yes-men such as Ciscomani from making things worse. Much worse, in fact.
From the high-altitude view of the US economy, it looks pretty good. Unemployment is holding steady and the stock market’s mostly booming. But it’s the everyday things that are making people despair:
- CNBC, the business TV streaming service, reports that “Shoppers are buying fewer items than a year ago, and grocery sales are declining as weakening unit sales are now outweighing rising prices…“That big grocery stock up trip that costs you $300 in 2019, now costing you $400,” said Kurt Grichel, head of Bain’s [the management consultants] Americas retail practice.”
- Contemplating buying a new, or first, home? The Associated Press tells us, “The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbed this week to its highest level in nearly 12 months, pushing up borrowing costs for prospective homebuyers at a time when rising oil prices are already squeezing household budgets.”
- Housing is the biggest affordability problem: “Of the various dimensions of the affordability crisis weighing on US families, housing probably weighs heaviest. The typical home price has risen above five times the annual income of the typical family. The monthly cost of owning a home has hit record highs.”
- And, of course, there’s the price of gasoline. It shot up when Trump, with Ciscomani’s support, began his ill-conceived war against Iran, and was drifting down when hostilities heated up again on July 8. Now regular gas in Pima County costs 13 percent more and diesel (which has an insidious effect on inflation, since it’s used by delivery trucks, construction equipment and the like) is up nine percent as of yesterday. Our old friend, Gasbuddy.com, has a Tucson price chart to show you.
The increase in price since the beginning of March that looks like Mount Everest is a result of Donald Trump’s ineffectual Iran War, which Congressman Ciscomani, supports. That part of the blue line on the far right going up like a Space X rocket ship is the result of Trump’s desperate resumption of the war.
The Democratic members of Congress’s Joint Economic Committee estimate that Americans have paid $56.4 billion more for gas ($1.3 billion in Arizona) since the war began and crude oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz slowed to a trickle. And that’s just not the shock at the gas pump. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told National Public Radio the war’s hit amounts to $1,100 on each US household when one includes costs like deliveries to stores and homes (that diesel fuel, remember?) and rising interest rates.
Hidden in those rising prices are the costs of the tariffs Trump has imposed on imports, using trade protection power as foreign policy (to use the word loosely) to punish countries with whom he has a beef (and there are so many). He’s at it again as we write this, in fact, threatening 50 percent tariffs on some Canadian goods. Often Trump pulls back on these threats. As a Canadian minister said in response, “we’ve seen these things before.”
But Trump’s on-again-off-again spew of tariffs has taken a toll on the consumer. The Joint Economic Committee Democrats say that families could pay more than $2,500 for the tariffs this year. Yahoo Finance, reporting on the committee’s findings, terms tariffs a “$330 billion consumer tax.”
Juan Ciscomani, lest you forget (and we won’t let you) had a chance to vote against Trump’s “policy” in February and declined to do so.
How are people paying for all this price disruption? Zandi says consumers have “cut back on their saving…Saving rates are now about as low as they’ve been…They haven’t cut back on their spending, but I suspect if the war continues on…they’ll have to pull back.”
If you are super-glued to Trump, as Ciscomani always is, what has become known as the Affordability issue is a frightening thing to behold. Real Clear Politics, a reliable polling reporter, has Trump’s rating on the economy in a month’s worth of recent polls at negative 21.3 percent. And the Big Boss isn’t helping his, and Ciscomani’s cases, either.
When asked about the effect of renewed Iran bombing on US energy prices and the economy, Trump answered, “the word affordability, it’s a fake word made up by the Democrats.” He has made some ineffectual public relations attempts to show how he is on the side of the common man. Sunday, he announced that he had convinced the Giant Eagle regional supermarket chain in the Midwest to lower its prices. But Giant Eagle customers were on to his trick. They had comments: “Did someone just hand him a weekly sales flyer?” and “Just an FYI. Giant Eagle price lock/everyday savings is not a new thing, not a price reduction per se. Every quarter, they rotate featured products they believe will highlight good prices on everyday items…Every grocery store does something like this.” The president, perhaps, does not go to the grocery store very often.
Trump is the best at taking credit when something good happens, even though he has not done anything substantial. In that respect, Juan Ciscomani is great at the same. However, nothing good is happening to make life more affordable for working people, and neither Ciscomani or Trump is doing anything to make it better.
Ciscomani’s Democratic opponent, JoAnna Mendoza, has real things to say about Affordability. From her campaign website: “As a working mom, JoAnna knows what it’s like to stretch a dollar and worry about rising costs. Right now, families are paying too much – for groceries, gas, healthcare, housing, and utilities. Instead of getting ahead, families are falling further behind.” That’s the story Donald and Juan fail to see, although it’s right in front of them.
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