Unfortunately, Thanksgiving is going to look different this year. Don’t believe me? Just look at your receipt from the grocery store after buying next week’s essentials and you’ll see exactly what I mean. For the High Country, the 5^th District, and the entire country for that matter, every aspect of our Thanksgiving meals will come with an unsightly price tag thanks to Bidenomics. For context, just last month, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased at an annual rate of 3.2%.

Think about this: since Joe Biden took office, prices for the most basic of commodities that Americans rely on daily have surged by 17.1%. Within the context of preparing a Thanksgiving meal and buying all the necessary food and ingredients, here are a few examples of how prices continue to trend upward:

• Prices of frozen vegetables are UP 10.7%.
• Prices of sugar and sugar substitutes are UP 8.8%.
• Prices of sauces and gravies are UP 7.5%.
• Prices of uncooked turkey are UP 7.2%.
• Prices of dinner rolls are UP 5.7%.

Bear in mind that when Joe Biden took office, inflation was sitting at just 1.4%. Don’t just take these figures as evidence that things have gotten much worse for Americans under Bidenonmics – consider the sentiment from everyday Americans. According to a recent AP/NORC poll:

• “About two-thirds of adults say their household expenses have risen over the last year.”
• 73% of respondents describe the state of the national economy as “poor”.

What’s more, a survey published by Bankrate reveals that just 21% of Americans think their financial situation has improved since Joe Biden became President. House Republicans remain committed to confronting inflation head on and clamping down on the reckless spending habits that are directly tied to Washington Democrats. Fiscal responsibility must be allowed to flourish.

My Latest Op-Ed

Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly agree classrooms should be safe havens for learning, not political battlegrounds. Through faulty study findings and tens of millions of dollars’ worth of political gamesmanship, opportunistic leftist groups and a complicit media have now distorted the efforts of parents to keep sexually explicit and inappropriate material off the shelves of school libraries. These “book banning” lies threaten parent-teacher relationships that are crucial to creating the best learning environments for America’s children. In my latest op-ed with Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee Chairman Aaron Bean (R-FL), we expose the efforts of left-wing groups, like PEN America, to mischaracterize efforts by parents to ensure school libraries do not include sexually explicit material.

To read our joint op-ed, click here.

Pursuing Accountability

On Tuesday, I sent a letter alongside six other House Republicans to Minnesota Commissioner of Education Willie Jett questioning the Minnesota Department of Education’s role in what has been described as the “largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the nation.” The letter comes after the U.S. Attorney charged 60 individuals associated with Feeding Our Future with allegedly defrauding the United States Department of Agriculture of over $250 million—money intended for feeding hungry children. Given these disturbing events impacting some of our nation’s most vulnerable, we wrote this letter requesting information as we continue our oversight of the USDA’s and the Minnesota Department of Education’s (MDE) administration of Federal Child Nutrition Programs and Feeding Our Future.

To read our letter, click here.

Quote of The Week

“The lesson is clear. Inflation devalues us all.”

-Margaret Thatcher

Have a blessed weekend,