Like the beginning of a new year, transitioning from one presidential administration to the next is a good time to reflect on the past while remaining hopeful for the future.

Over the last four years, Joe Biden brought disaster and left a massive mess to clean up. As a result, the American people fired him and his sidekick, Kamala Harris, and rehired Donald Trump to take out the trash.

This last election taught us, once again, that what concerns Americans the most is whether or not they can pay their bills and put food on the table. While Democrats continue to claim inflation is under control, ask anyone on the street, and you’ll hear some sobering stories. Biden’s mouthpieces have lied for the past three and a half years that inflation is actually under control. It’s all in our minds, they condescendingly crooned.

However, Americans know better than any DC bureaucrat or politician that the price of basic goods and services leaves them in the lurch, forced to choose between buying groceries or paying the rent. The fact that Biden and Harris kept telling us we were imagining inflation made it all the more injurious and insulting.

As William McGurn writes at The Wall Street Journal, “Probably the most infamous example of Democratic deception concerned inflation. First there was denial. Then the American people were told it was transitory. Then they were told it was licked. ‘Bidenomics is working’ wasn’t a winning appeal to workers who saw that their paychecks weren’t going as far.”

The reason Democrats didn’t see the writing on the wall is because they kept trying to tell the American people what they wanted the “kitchen table” topics to be instead of listening to what they actually were. The Left wanted to talk about abortion, racism, and sexism when people care more about inflation, immigration, and crime. The disconnect between the Democrats’ message and the reality in the homes of American families was the key reason that “We the People” sent Trump back to the White House.

“The economy ranks as the most important of 22 issues that U.S. registered voters say will influence their choice for president,” Gallup reported before the election. “It is the only issue on which a majority of voters, 52%, say the candidates’ positions on it are an ‘extremely important’ influence on their vote. Another 38% of voters rate the economy as ‘very important,’ which means the issue could be a significant factor to nine in 10 voters.”

After the election, Data for Progress announced similar findings: “Voters in Pennsylvania and Michigan — two key swing states — made their decision on the economy and that inflation and high prices were the most important aspect of the economy that voters took into consideration when choosing a candidate. Voters believed Donald Trump would address this core issue of the economy more than Harris. Voters also heard more from Trump on economic issues than they did from Harris, and considered Trump to be the ‘change candidate.’”

The data, including soaring credit card debt, evidence the reality of inflation. Sure, Americans have had a love affair with credit cards for many years, but now we use them because there is no money in our bank accounts.

The lack of money carried over to the gift-giving season.

Lending Tree reports, “Among Americans who’ve gone into debt due to gift-giving, 46% attribute their overspending to inflation and the rising cost of presents. For the 31% of Americans opting out of gift-giving this year, 52% cite cost as a reason.”

More critical than gift-giving is the growing burden of debt on American consumers. Fox News reports, “During the first nine months of 2024, lenders wrote off more than $46 billion in seriously delinquent credit card loans, according to a report from the Financial Times citing data analyzed by BankRegData. That’s an increase of 50% from the first three quarters of 2023, and the highest since 2010.”

Americans have responded to high inflation during the Biden years by taking on second jobs to make ends meet, staying at home instead of traveling, and eating at home rather than taking the family out for dinner. Others have had to eat less altogether and choose which bills to pay from month to month. In other words, the reckless spending by Democrats left Americans stressed as a result of the financial insecurities and scarcities they have been experiencing.

During the election, Donald Trump and the Republicans won the support of working-class Americans who, for good reason, lost faith in the Democrats. After the inauguration, they’ll need to back up their political rhetoric with policies that unleash the financial power of our economy for the good of all Americans.