Happy Thanksgiving today! I hope everyone is taking time out to be with family and have a wonderful day.
Many folks are sitting down with a beautiful turkey and that’s a great thing.
In order to have that nice dinner, however, we had to shell out a lot more this year for all the fixings, including for the bird.
This year’s classic Thanksgiving feast has jumped more than 14% from last year’s average, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual Thanksgiving dinner cost survey. That’s in large part because the cost of a turkey is up nearly 24% from last year. The cost of chicken breasts, meanwhile, has jumped 26% over the past year, according to Labor Department data. [….]
That, in addition to the highest gas prices the U.S. has seen in seven years, is making this year the most expensive Thanksgiving in the country’s history.
Turkey prices? Up 24%
Pie crusts? Up 20%
Russet potatoes? Up 16%
Dinner rolls? Up 15%
Cranberries? Up 11%
Gravy? Up 9%
Sweet potatoes? Up 4%— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) November 23, 2021
Indeed, inflation is at a more than thirty-year high.
But the White House and the rest of the Democrats apparently couldn’t get together on their messaging to deflect from the weight of the Biden inflationary smackdown on all of us.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tried to minimize the rise in price of the bird as she deflected from a question about Joe Biden spending the holiday on Nantucket at the home of a billionaire from Fox’s Peter Doocy.
Doocy: “What message does it send to the middle-class Americans President Biden says that he’s trying to help who are struggling this wk to cover the cost of the most expensive Thanksgiving ever that [he] is going to take a few days off at a billionaire’s compound in Nantucket?” pic.twitter.com/HEHujl2Do5
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 23, 2021
“I don’t know if you’ve cooked a turkey before, but a 20-pound turkey is a pretty big turkey. I think we can all agree. They’re about one dollar more. So, not to minimize that — any increase in prices is something the President is concerned about, as is evidenced by his announcement today and as his efforts to push forward on additional relief for the American people,” Psaki said. “But I just want to be clear that there are abundance of turkeys available. They’re about one dollar more for a 20-pound bird, which is a huge bird if you’re feeding a very big family. And that’s something that, again, we’ve been working to make sure people have more money in their pockets to address it as the economy is turning back on.”
Notice she avoided answering about the tone-deafness of Biden’s spending Thanksgiving with the billionaire in Nantucket.
Meanwhile, as the White House was downplaying the rising prices, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was trying to suggest it was criminal gouging by poultry companies and other food producers.
Americans are paying record high prices for their Thanksgiving turkey while big poultry companies are paying billions in dividends, giving CEOs raises & earning huge profits. These companies are abusing their market power. I’m asking DOJ to investigate.https://t.co/G70KyaUd1Q
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) November 23, 2021
Wondering why your Thanksgiving groceries cost more this year? It’s because greedy corporations are charging Americans extra just to keep their stock prices high. This is outrageous. https://t.co/ZGhL7c3piR
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) November 24, 2021
So if you don’t buy the White House’s argument that there really isn’t a rise in prices, here’s the left’s alternate argument — that the rise in prices is due to the “greedy corporations.” This was similar to what the Biden Administration said about the oil companies. This fits with their overall effort to demonize the rich and corporations.
Here’s a big question for Warren, Biden, and others who try this kind of an argument: Why are the evil, greedy corporations suddenly more evil this year as opposed to prior years? Why did they wait until now — under Biden — to launch their evil plans?
Warren apparently didn’t even read the story she tweeted about that noted, “Labor and supply-chain challenges have raised costs for companies selling consumer products.” So no, it’s not the evil corporations, it goes back to the issues that Biden hasn’t resolved and/or has made worse with his policies.
“You name it, equipment, fuel, labor, everything,” Kyle Scott, who co-owns Old Glory Farm in Wisconsin with his wife, Deanna, told Fox News. “There’s just inflation. Everywhere we look, every direction we turn, everything seems to be more expensive.”
Deanna Scott said: “The price of the poults has gone up. The price of the feed has gone up, the price of shipping has gone up, the price of labor has gone up. And unfortunately, to be turning any kind of profit, the price of the turkey has to go up.” [….]
Meanwhile, Kyle Scott told Fox News: “Now, where everything is just wild inflation and everything is tighter, all the costs that we have that it takes to raise these birds are higher. So in order for us to continue our operation and serve our customers, we need to pass those costs onto our customers. Otherwise, we won’t be here anymore.”
Rather than ignoring inflation or pretending it is transitory, as they did for months, or blaming the greedy corporations, how about addressing the underlying causes of the inflation? But then Biden and the Democrats would have to address the fact that their policies are bad and that’s what they don’t want to do.
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