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joint economic committee
Trump Inflation Hit Average US Family With $1,625 in Higher Costs Last Year: Report
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), the ranking member of the JEC, said in a statement that "President Trump has imposed reckless tariffs, driven up healthcare costs, and created economic uncertainty. And because of these choices that he made, Americans are paying over $1,600 more than when he came into office."
“While the president pledged that he would end inflation and now claims that prices are down," Hassan added, "the data reflects what families are experiencing every day: higher costs that make it harder to make ends meet.”
The JEC report was released just weeks after Trump falsely proclaimed in a year-end address to the nation that "inflation is stopped" and "prices are down." CNN fact checker Daniel Dale noted that inflation data released on the morning of Trump's December 17 speech showed that "average consumer prices were 2.7% higher in December than they were a year prior and 0.3% higher than they were in November."
Trump also used his primetime speech to hail the supposed successes of his tariff regime. But a report released Monday showed that US consumers and businesses, not foreign exporters, are shouldering nearly all of the burden of the White House's import taxes.
"Despite President Trump’s claims that 2025 was the 'greatest first year in history' for an American president, Americans’ attitudes about their economic security and the latest economic data say otherwise," experts at the Center for American Progress wrote Tuesday. "With increased costs of everyday items due to tariffs and fewer job opportunities, families are feeling the direct impacts of the Trump administration’s harmful economic policies."
The Trump Administration's $3 Meal: 'A Piece of Chicken, a Piece of Broccoli, Corn Tortilla, and One Other Thing'
"So there is a way to do this that actually will save the average American consumer money," Rollins continued, pushing back against host Connell McShane's inquiry about whether the new guidelines expect people to spend more money on food.
The Guardian noted that "data from the consumer price index, as referenced by McShane, showed that food prices kept rising in December, increasing by 0.7%, the biggest month-to-month jump since October 2022. Prices for produce rose 0.5%, coffee increased by 1.9%, and beef went up 1% over the month and 16.4% compared with a year earlier."
Responding to the clip, Chasten Glezman Buttigieg, an author and teacher married to former Democratic Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, said, "Private jets and tax breaks for them and their rich friends, and one piece of broccoli *AND* a tortilla for you!"
Noting a similarly mocked statement from President Donald Trump before the holidays, Civic Media political editor Dan Shafer said: "You will eat one piece of broccoli and your child will have one Christmas toy. This is the Golden Age."
Other critics, including Democratic lawmakers, used artificial intelligence programs to generate images of what they called Rollins' proposed "depression meal."
"Due to Trump's tariffs, last month was the largest spike in grocery prices in three years. So now this is what the Trump administration suggests you can afford for a meal," wrote US Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), sharing the image below.
(AI image: Rep. Ted Lieu/X)
Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said: "Trump gets a gold-plated new ballroom. You get a piece of chicken, broccoli, and one corn tortilla."
(AI image: Rep. Jason Crow/X)
"MAHA!" declared Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, invoking a phrase seized on by Trump after he won the support of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., "Make America Healthy Again."
(AI image: House Ways and Means Committee Democrats/X)
Sharing an edited video clip of Rollins' interview, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said, "What a slap in the face to struggling working families."
Marlow Stern, who teaches at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, suggested that "you should eat prison meals" was "prob not the best message" from the Trump administration to the public.
The video went viral as the congressional Joint Economic Committee's (JEC) Democratic staff on Thursday released a report showing that "a typical American family paid $310 more for groceries" during the first year of Trump's second term compared to 2024.
Some of the biggest estimated jumps in annual cost documented in the report were for coffee (+$76.06), ground beef (+$70.99), eggs (+$51.66), candy (+$47.21), potato chips and salty snacks (+$22.59), orange juice (+$14.18), whole chickens (+$12.51), and chicken breasts (+$11.55).
"Despite President Trump's promises that he would lower grocery costs, families across America are paying higher prices at the cash register," said Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), the JEC ranking member. "This report provides proof of what the American people are experiencing every day: Costs are too high, and Trump's policies are only making them worse."
Under Trump, Inflation Is Costing Average US Family $700 More Per Month
Deploying the same methodology that Republicans used to track cost increases under former President Joe Biden, JEC Democrats found that the average US family is spending roughly $700 more per month on basic items since Trump took office in January, pledging to bring prices "way down."
"While President Trump claimed that he would bring down prices, the reality is that Americans have seen their costs soar even higher since he took office," said Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), the JEC's ranking member. "As families across the country spend more to pay their bills and put food on the table, Democrats and Republicans should be working together to lower costs. Instead, President Trump is pushing ahead with reckless tariffs that continue to fuel inflation and drive prices up even higher."
In some states—including Alaska, California, and Colorado—average families are spending over $1,000 more per month to maintain their living standards as costs continue to rise, in part due to Trump's erratic tariff regime.
The report's findings run directly counter to Trump's triumphant rhetoric on inflation and the US economy more broadly.
CNN's Daniel Dale noted earlier this week that Trump has been on a "lying spree about inflation," falsely claiming that "every price is down" and that "everybody knows that it's far less expensive under Trump than it was under Sleepy Joe Biden."
"None of that is true," Dale wrote. "Prices are up during this administration. Average prices were 1.7% higher in September than they were in January, according to the most recent figures from the federal Consumer Price Index, and 3% higher than they were in September 2024. There has been inflation every month of the term, and far more products have gotten costlier than cheaper."
"Inflation not only very much continues to exist but has been accelerating since the spring," Dale added. "As of September, the year-over-year inflation rate had increased for five consecutive months."
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