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Biden-Harris Economy Pushing Parents into Debt with Back-to-School Shopping, Experts Say

August 20, 2024

A new school year is right around the corner, which means parents are busy making sure their kids are prepared for the first day of class. For most, this includes back-to-school shopping, in which index cards, notebooks, pencils, and other items take up most of the room in the shopping cart. This year, however, parents are struggling with the fact that providing basic needs for their children is more expensive than ever. Others are being pushed even further into existing debt.

A July survey conducted by Bankrate found that, out of 2,300 adults, “nearly 1 in 4 shoppers will incur credit card debt, while around 1 in 8 shoppers will utilize buy now, pay later schemes that involve purchasing an item through a series of installments.” Also according to the survey, 32% claimed “inflation did” or “will change the way [they] shop,” 21% said they did or planned “to buy cheaper brands than usual,” 19% said they planned to buy less supplies this year “due to the cost,” 18% felt this year’s costs will “put a strain” on their budget, and 14% felt “pressured to spend more” than they’re “comfortable with.”

As The Daily Caller reported, “While year-over-year inflation has recently fallen below 3% … for the first time since 2021, the rate remains well above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2% and more than double the 1.4% rate from when President Joe Biden first took office.” And to elaborate on the role inflation plays regarding these struggling parents, Dave Brat, Liberty University’s senior vice president of Business Engagement, shared with The Washington Stand, “In sum, prices went up, but have never come down.”

Brat noted, as the Bankrate analysis highlighted, that “the rate of inflation [has come] down from 9% to 3%.” However, “That means that prices are still going up by 3%” and that, ultimately, “nothing has come down.” According to Brat, “[E]veryone knows that reality.” In addition to that explanation, Joel Griffith, research fellow in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, also commented to TWS, “It’s no surprise that school supplies — which easily total more than $500 per child — aren’t such an easy feat for parents this year.”

Griffith continued, “The inflation families are dealing with today is a direct result of the explosion of spending beginning in 2020 and continuing today,” and “much of this was financed by the Federal Reserve printing dollars to purchase government debt.” When analyzing these inflation rates, Brat argued it’s important to acknowledge that “the Biden-Harris team is responsible for ALL of the inflation and higher spending that caused it.”

“There’s a $7 trillion budget … owned by the White House,” he added, and “that spending was ‘validated’ by the Federal Reserve Bank, which printed and still has about $7 trillion on its balance sheet. The money creation is THE cause of inflation.” Ultimately, “[T]oo much money, chasing too few goods, causes inflation,” and what we’re seeing now has happened before, “but the press will cover none of it,” Brat argued.

So, what’s the way forward to decreasing inflation? As Griffith explained, “A return to growing prosperity requires the federal government living within its means rather than be financed by borrowing and the printing presses at the central bank. Otherwise, the threat of yet more inflation and stagnant income growth continues.”

Additionally, Brat emphasized the fact that “the American people are partly to blame.” He argued that voters can’t “keep electing politicians who overspend and appoint the wrong people to the Federal Reserve.” It’s voting “the right way” that helps prevent these financial catastrophes from occurring in the future, as well as prevent people from “having to work two or three jobs to pay for food and school supplies,” Brat contended.

Meg Kilgannon, FRC’s senior fellow for Education Studies, shared with TWS that parents don’t have to wait to start making a difference in the home. “Whether you are getting a child off to college or sending a child back to elementary school,” she said, “increasing prices due to reckless government spending cannot be avoided.” It stands to reason that “parents want to give their children the resources and support they need to succeed, and those supplies come at a much higher price this year.”

But ultimately, Kilgannon underscored, “The very best support children have in school are parents who love them, engage with their teachers, encourage healthy living in both body and soul.” And so, she concluded, when money becomes a source of stress, it’s a helpful reminder that “many of the best and most meaningful things in life don’t cost money, but do require investments of time and attention.”

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.