“For every complex problem there is a simple solution, and it is wrong.”.
H.L. Mencke
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump preached a steady diet of simplistic remedies for the kitchen-table concerns and complex challenges affecting so many Americans. With the Democrats seemingly incapable of providing credible alternatives, voters naively swallowed Trump’s Kool Aid solutions and voted to return him to the White House.
His rhetoric was highly-focused on immigration and the inflation driving up prices for everyday staples, most notably food prices … pledging to “bring down costs quickly”, although predictably never providing any specifics.
Not surprisingly, by late December the president-elect began walking back several of his campaign promises. Where grocery prices are concerned, he said, “I’d like to bring them down. It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard,”
The reality, presidents have little, if any, ability to materially control the prices of food products!
Rather, the weather (think climate change), transportation costs (primarily driven by global oil and gas markets), distribution channel costs (set by private-sector wholesalers and retailers), labor costs (which could escalate dramatically if all the undocumented farm and food processing workers are suddenly deported), and even diseases such as the bird flu (resulting in some 123 million chickens being killed) combine to drive the prices paid for the groceries on which Americans depend.
Unfortunately, other populist campaign promises, notably including Trump’s boast to eliminate the right of citizenship to all persons born in the United States although guaranteed under the 14th Amendment, face equal or far greater hurdles for his incoming Administration.
