Kamalaflation is Putting Retirement Out of Reach for Most Seniors

Self-inflicted inflation by the Harris-Biden regime is devastating income and retirement accounts just when seniors need it most

With inflation jumping as high as 20 percent under Kamala Harris, seniors preparing to retire may struggle need to account for the inflation eroding their savings and investment portfolios. 

Beginning in 2021, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden implemented massive government spending and borrowing measures that created record-high inflation, diminishing the value of every dollar earned. For seniors planning to live on a fixed income, many will either need to delay their retirement or curtail their lifestyle expectations. By comparison, seniors who decided to retire back when Donald Trump was president benefited from historically low rates of inflation. 

The figures are startling. During Trump’s four-year term, general inflation rose by 8 percent; yet under the Harris-Biden administration inflation is up by 20 percent as they near the end of their term. 

But even these figures do not tell the full story. Inflation rose just slightly above 1 percent during Trump’s last four months in office yet jumped to more than 9 percent just 18 months after Harris and Biden laid waste to American consumers. 

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a division of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics which measures the average change over time in the price paid by consumers, has an inflation calculator that shows how prospective retirees in the final year of the Harris-Biden administration are drowning in higher costs. The CPI calculator also shows how retirees were substantially better off under Trump. 

So, the question becomes how should today’s retirees be expected to pivot and adjust toward these stark realities? Unleash Prosperity, a group of free market economists working to educate policy makers , seizes on the example of a retiree with an Individual Retirement Account worth about $1 million during the time Harris served as vice president. That account has suffered real losses of about $250,000, according to its Oct. 2022 study. 

In other words, anyone planning on leaving the workforce with $1 million in their IRA would need to work another decade to regain what has been lost under Harris in less than four years. 

401k retirement plans have also taken a hit during the Harris-Biden years losing 12.7 percent or about $17,000 on average since they took office, according to the report.

In its analysis, Unleash Prosperity also goes into detail about how “elevated levels of federal government expenditures and borrowing by the Treasury Department with unprecedented actions by the Federal Reserve,” produced 40-year-high inflation figures.

So what’s the solution?

Unleash Prosperity recommends the Harris-Biden administration work with Congress to cut the federal budget and reduce borrowing by the U.S. Treasury Department.  “Such reductions are necessary to relieve the upward pressure on both interest rates and inflation rates,” the report says. “Additionally, lower government expenditures will reduce crowding out of private sector activity, increasing economic growth, which is highly correlated with return on investment.”