Rep. Mackenzie Claimed Cost of Living and Inflation Is Down When Stats Show the Opposite

February 6, 2026

Allentown, PENNSYLVANIA — In a recent interview with local podcaster Jon Mcquay at a fundraiser last weekend, Congressman Ryan Mackenzie claimed the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have “reined in a lot of that wasteful spending … that was driving inflation and raising everybody's cost of living.”

So let’s take a look at the facts:

• Pennsylvanians paid an average of $1,734 more last year for necessities like housing, food, clothing, health care, transportation, and utilities.

• Congressman Mackenzie voted for historic cuts to Medicaid, which over 160,000 of his constituents rely on, driving up costs by reducing health care coverage for hundreds of thousands in PA, putting hospitals and long-term care facilities under financial strain that could lead to closures, and threatening tens of thousands of health care jobs in the Commonwealth.

• Families have paid nearly $1,200 due to Trump’s tariffs last year. A report from Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee said, “If monthly tariff costs remain as high as they were in November over the next 12 months, families will pay an average of $2,100 per year due to tariffs.”

• Congressman Mackenzie has voted four times to keep Trump’s tariffs in place while prices for Lehigh Valley businesses and families continue to skyrocket.

• Health care costs have increased by 102 percent for Pennie users in 2026. As a result of these high costs, over 70,000 Pennsylvanians have dropped coverage.

• Congressman Mackenzie allowed critical health care tax credits to expire, skyrocketing prices for those who rely on the marketplace for coverage. Mackenzie’s constituents face some of the highest rate hikes, with a district-wide average premium increase of 178%.

• 25% of buy now, pay later users said they’re using the platforms for groceries, compared to just 14% who said the same in 2024.

• Congressman Mackenzie voted to gut SNAP, critical food assistance that benefits over 112,000 of his constituents. These cuts threaten the very fate of food assistance in the Commonwealth, where 1 in 8 Pennsylvanians face food insecurity. It also harms Pennsylvania’s economy, as over 8 percent of all food and beverage purchases across the Commonwealth are paid for by SNAP.

• Electricity costs have gone up by 11% since January 2025. In Pennsylvania, power shut offs rose 21% last year, with more than 270,000 households losing electricity.

• Congressman Mackenzie voted to repeal clean energy tax credits, raising energy prices, shutting down energy production facilities, and reducing energy supply. In Pennsylvania, experts found that average annual electricity costs would increase by $93 for households and 10 percent for businesses in 2026, the average household would spend $582 more on gasoline annually by 2035, and 6,845 jobs would be at risk.

• Consumer sentiment fell from 74% to 52.9% (21%) from 2024 to 2025, meaning that consumers are feeling less positive about the economy.

“For Congressman Mackenzie to claim that he has successfully lowered costs while his constituents struggle to pay for basic necessities like healthcare, groceries, housing, and their utilities is insulting. It’s directly because of Rep. Mackenzie’s and his Republican colleagues' failure to extend critical health care tax credits that my premiums spiked and now, as a 64 year old retiree, I have to return to keep up with these ever-rising costs,” said David Zins of Bethlehem. “Rep. Mackenzie can say whatever he wants to Instagram podcasters, but he can’t hide from his legislative record. He has actively voted to gut programs that lower costs for working Pennsylvanians, all to give more money to big corporations and billionaires. If Mackenzie wants to boast about how affordable he is making life for Pennsylvanians, he should actually do it by reversing his Medicaid and SNAP cuts, fighting for the restoration of health care tax credits, and standing up to Trump’s extreme tariffs.”

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