EDITOR, The Tribune.

A COLLEAGUE of mine told me that his aunt, who has been residing in New York since the early 1980s, complained bitterly to him about the soaring costs of food in her area. She also informed him that other New Yorkers are also complaining about the inflation crisis. She is black. Unfortunately, the majority of African Americans and other ethnic minorities support the Democratic Party. They associate the Republican Party with the white oligarchy in the United States. This is an all too common perception that continues to hurt the GOP. Ironically, the Free National Movement suffers from the same public relations narrative.

Be that as it may, the Supreme Court in North America ruled that the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, Donald Trump, should not be excluded from the Colorado ballot in the Super Tuesday Primary run-offs this week. Trump’s only serious challenger is former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who’s expected to get steamrolled. Trump currently has 244 delegates to Haley’s 43. He needs 1,215 delegates to secure the GOP nomination. I see no reason why he shouldn’t get it. There’s a reason why the Democratic Party has used the judiciary to block Trump’s nomination. That’s the only way they can beat him. And so it’s beginning to look like a rematch of the 2020 Presidential Election. The Bahamian diaspora living in the US can now make an informed decision as to who to support in November. They’ve lived under both presidencies, which makes this important electoral contest all the more unique.

The question the Bahamian diaspora must ask itself: under whose presidency has it fared better economically? Current President Joe Biden’s Presidential Inflation Rate is a staggering 17.3 percent. In December 2019, Trump’s PIR was just 5.8 percent. When Biden assumed office in January 2021, he inherited an inflation rate of 1.4 percent. The inflation rate had been under 3 percent for 109 straight months from that point. Three months into his tenure in May 2021, the rate had climbed to 5 percent. The inflation rate had remained at 5 percent or higher for 23 months. Between December 2021 and November 2022, it was at 7 percent or higher. Under Biden, whose policies have harmed the domestic oil industry in North America, gas inflation is pegged at 35.1 percent. Under Trump it was 22 percent. Electricity is at 25.1 under Biden. Under Trump it was just 2.2 percent. This means that the average electric bill in the US is nearly 23 percent higher under Biden’s disastrous stewardship of the American economy than it was under his predecessor. Food inflation under Biden is 20.1 percent. This has translated to higher food prices in The Bahamas, which imports over 90 percent of its food items from the US. A 30 ounce jar of Hellman’s Mayonnaise is over $10 in most food stores. A loaf of bread is over $6 in many food stores. A dozen eggs is averaging over $5. In some instances, $7 and $8.

A relative told me that the average price for a MacDonald’s sandwich combo is averaging over $9 in the US. In the Family Islands, the inflation crisis is much worse. Bidenomics and its attendant American Rescue Plan have been utterly disastrous for the average American citizen -- and Bahamians as well. The Biden administration is eerily similar to the Jimmy Carter administration. High inflation dogged that administration also. Biden has simply not been good for The Bahamas. His policies have eviscerated the middle-class. I am appealing to the Bahamian diaspora to please make the right choice in ending this unsustainable nightmare. The Bahamas simply cannot take another four years of Bidenomics.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport,

Grand Bahamas

March 4, 2024.