If you have been to a grocery store, filled up your gas tank, or tried to buy a home in Manatee or Hillsborough County in the past three years, you already know the answer: prices are dramatically higher than they were a few years ago. The question most families are asking is not an economic one — it is a political one. How did we get here, and what is Congress going to do about it?
The short answer is that inflation is not an accident. It is the predictable result of specific policy decisions made in Washington — and it can be addressed by making different decisions.
How Government Spending Fuels Inflation
When Congress spends trillions of dollars more than it takes in — as it has done in every recent year — the federal government must borrow or print money to cover the gap. This floods the economy with dollars without a corresponding increase in goods and services. The result is inflation: more money chasing the same amount of stuff. The pandemic-era spending packages, however well-intentioned, injected extraordinary amounts of money into the economy at a time when supply chains were already constrained. The inflation that followed was not a surprise to economists.
What Drives Up Prices at the Local Level
For families in Bradenton, Riverview, and Brandon, the inflation story has specific chapters. Housing costs have surged partly due to federal policies that constrained home construction and flooded the mortgage market with cheap money. Grocery prices were hit by supply chain disruptions, energy costs passed through to transportation, and labor shortages driven in part by extended federal unemployment benefits. Insurance premiums — already a crisis in Florida — were made worse by inflation in construction and repair costs.
What Congress Can Actually Do
John Peters believes in a straightforward approach to fighting inflation: stop adding fuel to the fire. That means passing a balanced budget amendment, cutting wasteful federal spending, ending regulations that raise the cost of domestic energy production, and reducing the regulatory burden on small businesses that drives up the cost of goods and services.
Washington cannot repeal the laws of economics. But it can stop making things worse — and start making them better. Florida families deserve a representative who understands that.