Some candidates talk about kitchen table issues, but my question to them is whether they sit at the kitchen table trying to figure out how to make ends meet when rent and bills are due at the end of the month. I sat at the kitchen table debating whether I should pay rent this month on time, or do I pay for my sister’s medication, who suffered from Renal Failure and congestive heart failure. Do I pay my utility bill today or make a car note payment? These are issues that I know many of my constituents are facing. The cost of living in San Diego, CA is high — and when you layer on high grocery costs, it can add up quickly. Grocery prices in San Diego tend to be 10–15% higher than the national average.
For a single adult living in the city and cooking mostly at home, a typical monthly grocery budget might be $250 – $400–$450 (though this depends heavily on dietary habits, preferences for organic/specialty items, and how often one eats out). For a family or for someone eating more luxuriously (organic produce, meat/fish, etc.), that number can grow significantly. So, if groceries are “high-cost” e.g., buying a lot of meat, organic produce, specialty items — the grocery-related portion of a budget may become a nontrivial monthly expense.
What I will commit to, once in Congress is to get rid of the Tariff the Trump Administration imposed on all imported products. Second, break up corporate price-setting and monopolies. I will enforce anti-trust laws aggressively, block mega-mergers in food and retail, break up price-fixing cartels, Fund DOJ & FTC investigations into grocery price manipulation, and make price-gouging illegal at the federal level during inflation spikes or disasters.
