Even as workers face a slow job market and sweeping layoffs, prices are up 3% across the board over last year: That’s 2.7% for food, 5.1% for electricity, 3.6% for shelter, and 3.9% for health care Cantwell: “Contrary to the Administration’s talking points, the data shows that American consumers still are not seeing their costs of living come down.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its latest Consumer Price Index showing that inflation rose 3% compared to this time last year.
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, issued the following statement:
“Contrary to the Administration’s talking points, the data shows that American consumers still are not seeing their costs of living come down. In the last year, electricity is up 5.1 percent, the cost of meat, fish, poultry and eggs is up 5.2 percent, and housing is up 3.6 percent. Now, families are confronting unaffordable health insurance premiums because the Republican Congress refuses to do anything to help. We hear a lot of speeches but do not see any real attempt to negotiate solutions. It is time for Congress make addressing the affordability problem its number one priority.”
The Consumer Price Index report released today showed that over the last 12 months, the costs of most goods and services that American households rely on have continued to rise:
- All groceries rose 2.7%. Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs rose 5.2%.
- Electricity increased 5.1%
- Natural gas rose 11.7%
- Shelter rose 3.6%
- Transportation rose 2.5%
- Medical services rose 3.9%
President Donald Trump made bringing down prices a cornerstone of his campaign: “On Day 1, we will end inflation,” he said at a rally in August 2024. Despite Trump’s promises, prices have only gone up under his watch.
One major driver of rising prices under President Trump is his slapdash and chaotic approach to imposing tariffs on the United States’ trading partners. Earlier this year, Sen. Cantwell introduced the bipartisan Trade Review Act of 2025, which is modeled after the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and would reestablish limits on the president’s ability to impose unilateral tariffs without the approval of Congress. Her bill has since picked up 12 additional cosponsors – an equal mix of Republicans and Democrats – and been endorsed by multiple major U.S. business organizations, including the National Retail Federation, which is the largest retail trade association in the world. A bipartisan companion bill was subsequently introduced in the House.
Prices are also rising thanks to Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which he signed into law in July. The bill included multiple provisions expected to drive up health care costs, including deep cuts to Medicaid, new hurdles to accessing coverage under the Affordable Care Act, and failure to extend the Enhanced Premium Tax Credits, which help subsidize health insurance for more than 214,000 Washingtonians and will expire at the end of 2025. Yesterday, Sen. Cantwell released a case study showing the actual, shocking increase in health premiums for a sample middle-class family across all 39 Washington state counties, due to the expiration of the tax credits. The sample family – a married couple, the man aged 60 and the woman aged 55, with a household income of $120,000/year, who purchase health insurance on the ACA marketplace exchange – will see their health care premiums rise at minimum $880 and up to $1,325 per month next year due to the tax credit’s expiration.