Schatz: Trump Is Making People Poorer On Purpose

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) spoke on the Senate floor today about the various ways President Donald Trump is raising prices for Americans, including on food, health care, electricity, home insurance, and Christmas gifts. Schatz highlighted how Trump’s policies, including tariffs and regulatory rollbacks, have sharply driven up prices across Americans’ daily lives. Schatz’s comments come ahead of a Senate vote this week to extend Affordable Care Act premium tax credits and prevent people’s health care premiums from more than doubling starting next month.

“The president of the United States is very focused. He is focused on building a $300 million ballroom in the White House, while the price of everything has gone up: food, housing, health care, electricity, clothes. Costs are up, jobs are down, and wages are flat. And the president is doing worse than nothing. He's going out of his way to raise prices,” said Senator Schatz. “Donald Trump is making people poorer, and he's doing it on purpose.”

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A transcript of Senator Schatz’s remarks is below. Video is available here.

The president of the United States is very focused. He is focused on building a $300 million ballroom in the White House, while the price of everything has gone up: food, housing, health care, electricity, clothes, you name it. Costs are up, jobs are down, and wages are flat. And the president is doing worse than nothing. And I mean that: worse than nothing. Because it would be one thing to not be focused enough on the question of prices. It is another thing to actively raise the price of everything through federal policy. It's not even that easy to find mechanisms to make prices go up. But he is doing that. He's going out of his way to raise prices. That is not a partisan accusation. That's actually what's happening. And so today I want to go over the five ways that Trump is screwing the average consumer with higher costs, on purpose.

Number one: food. Anyone who's been to a grocery store recently knows how expensive certain items have gotten. Coffee is up 20%. 20%. Beef is up 15%. Orange juice is up 27%. Bacon and bananas are up 5%. And why is that? It's because the president thought it would be a good idea to slap tariffs, which are a tax, on everything that comes into the country. Everything that comes into the country – and you are paying for it.

Number two, electricity. According to the Trump administration, electricity prices are rising this year at double the rate of inflation. Double the rate of inflation. So what does Donald Trump have to do with that? Well, electricity demand is soaring. And Donald Trump has effectively implemented a ban on solar energy. Any solar project, not just on federal land, but where the federal government even has a tiny little interest in it, is essentially frozen. 90% of the new projects. And let's be clear, there was a time when coal and gas and all that other stuff was price competitive with solar. Solar is the cheapest new form of energy. Cheap is clean and clean is cheap. And that is a change. Solar energy is the way to provide relief to ratepayers. But there is a nationwide solar ban instituted by Donald John Trump.

Number three health insurance. Millions of Americans are giving up their health insurance because they literally can't afford it anymore. I know three people in this building who are going to have to give up their health insurance. And as I was doing open enrollment, I was relieved. I was relieved to find out that my health insurance only went up by 12%. That's like good news. If you're 12%, you're thrilled. The average is double. If you're on the exchanges, the average is double. People can't do it. That is an intentional policy choice of the president of the United States.

Number four home insurance. And this is a sleeper. If you own a home, you've probably seen your home insurance spike over the last few years. And frankly, the main driver of that is the increased severity and frequency of natural disasters, driven by the climate crisis. And so insurance companies are realizing that if you live in the range of a wildfire or a flood or a tsunami or a hurricane or any number of natural disasters, that's got to be priced in. And by the way, if you are lucky enough to be one of like the 15% of America that doesn't live in a place that's got more climate risk, you're in the same damn risk pool as everybody else. And so your rates are going up, too. And what is Donald John Trump doing about the price of home insurance? He's banning solar energy. He's stopping wind projects that are already permitted. He is exacerbating the crisis that is driving up your prices.

And finally, number five, Christmas gifts. It's the most wonderful time of the year until you look at the price tag for presents. According to one report, shoppers will be paying more than $100 more to buy the same gifts as last year. Meanwhile, trees, decorations, candy and booze have gotten more expensive. And small businesses, far from raking in holiday sales, are losing revenue and being forced to lay off workers.

A good friend of mine used to say, people vote for you for their reasons, not yours. And you know, people vote against you for their reasons and not yours. And the reason the Democrats lost the election last year is because everything was up; is because the prices went through the roof on everything. And Donald Trump seemed like a disruptive enough force in the political system to maybe shake things up and maybe put some downward pressure on price. And the exact opposite has happened. Whatever his other faults, people thought at least he would be good on the economy. But we're now a year in, and that's just plainly untrue. What is true is that Donald Trump is making people poorer, and he's doing it on purpose.

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