The Keystone State is a victim of “Bobflation.”
A new website run by allies of Republican Senate candidate David McCormick shows how voters of incumbent Democrat Bob Casey are being crushed by rising prices between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and all points in between.
According to Bobflation.com, prices for both John’s Roast Pork Cheesesteaks and Primanti Bros.’ Pitts Burgers and Cheese have increased by about 30% since 2019.
A day pass for the popular Hershey Park in central Pennsylvania cost $39.95 five years ago, up from $60 back then – while the price of a 6-inch-wide Wawa sandwich rose from $4 to $6.91 over the same period and admission to the Allegheny Forest doubled to $10.
Prices for household goods such as eggs, bread and milk rose by more than 57%, while petrol for trips to the supermarket – or on a family holiday – rose by 58%.
“Democrats Bob Casey and Kamala Harris have spent THEIR taxpayer dollars recklessly, driving up the cost of Pennsylvania’s most famous products and experiences,” says the website, which was funded by friends of Dave McCormick, who is running against Casey for his Senate seat in November.
“Bob Casey is leading the fight against greedflation to lower costs for working families across the Commonwealth,” responded Casey campaign spokeswoman Kate Smart. “Meanwhile, Dave McCormick of Hershey Park, a Pennsylvania institution, is under scrutiny for lying about his prices.”
Park representatives had complained to X about the price for a day visit listed on the website, saying it was “not entirely accurate – five years later, tickets cost $49.99,” referring to summer prices for children ages 3 and up.
A year-round single-day ticket costs $59.99 for children ages 9 to 61 and $49.99 for children ages 8 and under and seniors ages 62 and over.
Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled a new economic plan earlier this month that would set federal food prices and crack down on alleged corporate “price gouging.” The plan was immediately criticized by economists across the ideological spectrum and could add as much as $1.7 trillion to the widening federal deficit.
These economic policies – which include a proposed $25,000 down payment grant for first-time buyers and an increased $6,000 child tax credit for low- and middle-income families – would not have a deflationary effect, economists previously told the Washington Post.
The experts also pointed out that grocery stores in particular are among the industries with the lowest profit margins – and the accusation of “price gouging” was refuted in May by a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
Casey nonetheless vociferously championed the supposed penalties for corporate “price gouging,” which he had already introduced in a Senate bill, and produced ads in which executives in suits shocked the public by sneaking around grocery stores at night and driving up prices.
“The corporations say your prices have gone up because their costs have gone up,” the three-term senator said in his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week. “They’re selling you a lie. It’s in the bag with the diapers. Prices have gone up because these corporations are plotting to drive them up.”
Former Obama economic adviser Jason Furman sharply criticized the Harris-Biden administration in 2022 for stimulating the economy with trillions in federal spending through programs such as student loan forgiveness.
In June of the same year, inflation reached its highest level in four decades. Consumer prices had risen by 9.1 percent in the previous twelve months. The annual rate of increase has since fallen to 2.9 percent.
Other economists believe that neither President Biden, whose administration increased the federal deficit by trillions, nor former President Donald Trump, whose administration also increased the deficit by trillions, are responsible for the rise in prices of goods and services.
“In my view, neither Trump nor Biden are to blame for high inflation,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told CNBC last month. “The blame lies with the (COVID-19) pandemic and the Russian war in Ukraine.”
