Issue Position: The Middle Class Squeeze and Rising Cost of Living

Issue Position

During the Obama "recovery," median household income has declined, yet the cost of living -- from groceries to energy to health care to education -- has continued to climb. Americans have to work longer and harder just to keep pace with rising costs.
Bad policies emanating from Washington have contributed to this: subsidies and cronyism benefitting particular industries have directly led to increases in the the price of food, regulations and mandates on energy place upward pressure on gas and electricity prices, ObamaCare has caused the health insurance premiums to skyrocket, and government loan and accreditation policies fuel increases in the cost of higher education. Of course, the easy money policies of the Federal Reserve have devalued the purchasing power of the dollar, which disproportionally harms elderly citizens living on a fixed income. All told, the hidden cost of these government interventions can rival the costs imposed on families by direct taxes.
Government needs to stop picking winners in losers in the marketplace. We must utilize America's energy resources in a way that benefits the American consumer. We must authorize different accreditation regimes so students and families have alternatives to the ever-increasing tuition at traditional brick-and-ivy colleges. We must liberate American consumers from the burdens of ObamaCare. And we must audit the Federal Reserve so that the American people can see the extent to which the Fed manipulates the economy.

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