Untamed Turkey Day inflation may mean menu adjustments

Thanksgiving travel is expected to get close to pre-pandemic levels this year. But with 90% of Turkey Day travelers taking a car — and the price of gas being what it is — some menu adjustments may be necessary. 

My suggestion is this: Instead of having a bunch of leftovers from Thanksgiving, consider having leftovers for Thanksgiving. 

Today’s $3.62-per-gallon Arizona average is 12 cents higher than last week and $1.40 higher than last year.

It seems like gas going up is part-and-parcel, though, as prices for almost everything appear to be up. And the reason they appear to be is… prices are up for just about everything.

The federal government reported this morning that U.S. consumer prices jumped 6.2% in October, the biggest inflation surge since 1990 — more than 30 years.

That’s back before “Friends” debuted (an important moment in history for my wife) and it’s long before you could be friends on Facebook because there really wasn’t an Internet yet.

While 1990 isn’t so far back that there weren’t cars, today’s bad news may have you thinking about a horse and buggy to get to go over the river and through the woods to granny’s.

We’re paying way more for way more than just gas too: utilities are up 28%; used cars, up 26%; bacon is up 20%; and eggs, fish, pork chops and things like washing machines and furniture are all up by double digit percentage points price-wise.

That makes the inflation of my belly post-Thanksgiving look like nothing.

So what do people in Washington think will fix consumers’ woes? 

More money flowing directly from the government.  

Much of what’s in President Biden’s proposed “Build Back Better” bill would definitely improve a lot of people’s lives.

But as I discussed this almost $2 trillion plan with Arizona Congressman Greg Stanton this morning, I realized one of the features that he and other Democrats believe will help pay for it could leave most of us paying even more for many things.

“The proposal is to create a corporate minimum tax,” Stanton said on Arizona’s Morning News on KTAR News 92.3 FM. “When you read about some of the largest companies in America paying zero dollars and zero cents in taxes, that’s not fair to the rest of us.”

It’s not fair — and loopholes should be closed. “Corporations should pay zero taxes,” said no one ever.

But at a time when businesses are already struggling with supply chain issues and labor costs, what do you think increasing corporate taxes will do to the already-inflated cost of their goods?

Yup. Bad things.

Bad, that is, unless prices weren’t high enough for you already.

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