What Four Years of Biden-Harris Cost You The annual costs of owning a new home and car have soared.

By Ted Cruz and Rick Scott

Oct. 28, 2024 5:12 pm ET

The kitchen table is where the American dream is built. Every month, families

gather there to pay their bills and plan for the future. In a good economy, a

couple can buy a home, purchase a car once every decade and help their kids pay

for college.

But in the past four years, runaway inflation has made it increasingly difficult for

families to make ends meet. Since the Biden-Harris administration took office,

consumer prices in U.S. cities have risen 26% faster than private-sector wages.

Paychecks now buy less than they did in January 2021. During the four years

Donald Trump was in office, inflation-adjusted private-sector wages rose by

8.1%. That means real private-sector wages today are effectively 11.8% lower than

they would have been if the Trump-era economy had continued for another four

years.

Yet the inflation rate greatly understates the “bundling” effect of higher prices.

A new car today costs $47 ,870 versus $40,857 in January 2021. And the total

annual cost to operate that car has soared.

The interest rate on an average new car today is more than 8%, compared with

about 5% in January 2021, increasing the cost of a 60-month loan by $726 a year.

The average annual auto insurance policy cost $1,567 in 2021. By the end of 2024,

it’s expected to hit $2,469. A year’s worth of gasoline that cost $995 in 2021 now

runs $1,281. A family in 2021 paid on average $11,579 to own a new car and cover

its associated costs for the year; today, doing so costs $15,337 a year. The car

price rose 17% but its total annual costs—financing, insurance, and gasoline—

rose 32%.

Home ownership is where families have suffered from the Biden-Harris inflation

the most. The average home cost $303,900 in January 2021. In August, the cost

hit $416,700. But with mortgage rates recently at 6.44% versus 2.77% in January

2021, the total cost of buying and financing a home has more than doubled—from

$14,928 to $31,404 a year. Homeowner’s insurance that cost $1,966 annually in

2021 costs $2,499 today. The average annual electric bill was $1,464 in 2021.

Today it is $1,868. The average annual natural-gas utility bill was $761 in 2021

but now is $965. The cost of owning and living in a home rose from $19,119 a year

in 2021 to $36,736 today. The annual cost of owning a new car and home, then, is

70%, or $21,375, higher than it was four years ago. Do we really want four more

years of these policies?

That $21,375 exceeds the annual in-state tuition for any public university in

Florida or Texas. Given S&P 500 performance, that money annually invested

over four years could provide more than $550,000 for retirement in 20 years.

Families are still burdened by the Biden-Harris inflation. A decade of good

economic policy is likely needed to overcome the failures of the current

administration. America needs to restrain spending, enforce work requirements

in welfare, stop illegal immigration, reduce regulatory burdens and let working

families keep more of their income to build their dreams at kitchen tables across

America.

Messrs. Cruz and Scott, both Republicans, are U.S. senators from Texas and

Florida, respectively.