NW Valley Times

Monica Yelin, a Peoria resident and member of the St. Charles Borromeo parish, said "families are struggling to put food on the table" and pay their bills with rising costs under the Biden-Harris administration's policies. 

“Families are struggling to put food on the table, worried about inflation and paying their bills; sometimes they have to pick," Yelin said. "They always think before they go anywhere and are not taking the roads they would normally take because it costs a lot of money to drive everywhere."

"Gas prices drive prices for everything else, and the cost of living goes up," she said. "Of course, we want to be energy independent again, that's what Trump ran on, and that's what happened.”

The national average for gas prices is currently $3.39 a gallon, which is 35.9% higher than gas prices in January, 2020. 

“From January 2020 to June 2022, gas prices nearly doubled (an 89.5% increase), but since then, they’ve fallen 28.3%” reported Pew Research Center.

While gas prices have fallen in the past year, under the Biden-Harris administration, gas prices reached an all-time high with the national average reaching $5.01 on June 13, 2022. 

Across the country, average Americans are impacted daily by the increased gas prices. Higher gas prices affect the way Americans shop, travel, and even the type of vehicles they drive. 

An analysis from The New York Times detailed how pessimism and disapproval of the presidential administration increased as gas prices rose, due to the immediate and consistent impact higher gas prices have on the everyday life of Americans. 

“When prices go up, we have this feeling of oppression that we can’t do everything we want,” Patrick De Haan, head of Gas Buddy, told the New York Times.

“The most absurd thing that Kamala says at her rallies is that on day one I’m going to tackle the food and housing affordability crisis in this country. Day one for Kamala Harris was three and a half years ago and everything that she has done has made the affordability problem worse,” said Vice Presidential Nominee JD Vance in an interview with Fox News. 

Many other everyday costs have steadily increased under Kamala Harris’ watch, impacting the average American household, making it harder for Americans to live comfortably.