Here’s one of the greatest certainties facing every household in America beyond the proverbial prospect of death and taxes: Namely, the monthly electric bill, as it arrives like clockwork either in the mail or by auto pay. And, according to Grok 4, there are approximately 143 million customers getting a metered bill each month.
Needless to say, the political hot potato of “affordability” does very much come to mind when you take a gander at the CPI electricity graph below. On a nationwide basis, electric bills rose by +6.7% during the first twelve months of the Donald’s second term, and that was just more of the same punishment to household budgets that has been underway since February 2020.
In fact, the average increase since then has also been 6.7% per year, meaning that there has been no deceleration during the past year; and that the contrast with the longer-term trend prior to February 2020 has not been lost on the voting public.
That is, the CPI for electricity rose by just 1.1% per annum between December 2012 and February 2020, bolstering the impression of very low steady state inflation for basic home utilities. But owing to the abrupt climb since then, the December electric bill for 143 million households came in 40% higher on average than in February 2020.
Needless to say, that’s the part which is top of mind for hard-pressed households. In effect, they voted in November 2024 for relief from the high cumulative inflation depicted by the electric bill CPI below, not merely for a reduced rate of price increase, which in this case didn’t happen either.
CPI for Electricity, 2012 to 2025
The above chart offer a powerful insight as to why the MAGA talking points about the rate of inflation increase slowing doesn’t resonant with the electorate. In case after case of recurring cost of living purchases, households budgets remain impaled on the high price levels for everyday goods and services which have erupted since 2020.
For instance, there are about 240 million beef eaters in the US, and they know damn well that there has been no relief at all from the soaring price of beef. In fact, ground beef prices have risen from $5.61 per pound in December 2024 to $6.69 per pound in December 2025, representing a 19.3% gain during the Donald’s first year.
But that’s not the half of it. During the long 36 year period between 1984 and February 2020, the inflation rate for hamburger was 3.1% per annum. That was no bargain to write home about at all, but, as depicted by the graph below, it was moderate and reasonably steady year-to-year.
No more. At $6.69 per pound in December 2025, the price was up by +72% from where it stood on the eve of the pandemic in February 2020: In round terms, the cost of even hamburger meat has therefore risen at a 10% per annum rate for six years running.
In shirt, that’s were the “affordability” complaint arises from: Washington’s inflation is hitting the dinner table week after week after week, and when you look at the last nine-years of the chart, the MAGA talking point that it’s all Sleepy Joe Biden’s fault doesn’t wash: The $3.13 per pound since December 2016 has been split roughly 50/50 between the GOP and Dem tenures in the White House.
Ground Beef Price Per Pound Increase:
- Trump 1.0 & 2.0: $1.47.
- Sleepy Joe Biden: $1.66.
- Total Increase: $3.13
Ground Beef Average Price Per Pound: 1984 to 2025
Of course, you could always say–let them eat chicken. After all, that’s what the green eye-shades at the BLS do when an increase in the cost of beef causes some households to switch to chicken. But even though chicken is cheap per pound, the sticker shock from cumulative price increases is not less severe than for beef.
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