Rising Costs: What’s to blame?

Gas and heating oil are hitting Maine households hard. Gas is now $4.43/gal and households have already spent an extra $706 since the war began. Heating oil hit a record $6.02/gal, adding $1,540 for a household using 700 gallons.
Diesel hit a record $6.51/gal in Maine, up 68% from a year ago, raising costs for trucking, farming, construction, and deliveries
Ocean shipping costs have surged — rates from China to the US are now four times higher. Jet fuel prices have nearly doubled, increasing costs for air travel and freight.
Fertilizer costs jumped 52% — farmers are being forced to choose between paying more or using less, threatening yields and pushing up food prices.
Mortgage interest rates are up to 7.26% largely due to war-induced inflation, adding about $122K in interest over 30 years on a $400K mortgage

Consumer prices are up 5.4% since January 2025, with tariffs adding $1,100 to the average family’s costs annually
New cars cost about $1,200 more, and used cars about $1,300 more
Clothing and food are both up more than 4%
Construction materials cost 15% more, adding about $11,000 to the average new home
Steel prices are up 43%, copper 53%, and aluminum 57% — raising costs on everything from beer to fire trucks and manufacturing equipment

Congress let enhanced health care tax credits expire, more than doubling the average Marketplace premium payments for millions who received them
Congress eliminated energy-efficiency tax credits, including residential and vehicle clean energy tax credits worth $57M to Maine households
Trump tax cuts resulted in the richest 1% of households paying $9K less and middle-income households paying $900 more
The tax code rewards wealth over work — the poorest 20% pay nearly 60% more of their income in state and local taxes than the richest 1%
When corporations avoid taxes, everyone else carries more of the cost – Tesla received over $1B in tax breaks, earned $5.7B in income, and paid $0 in federal income taxes last year.

Corporate consolidation is estimated to cost the average American household $3,700 a year
Hospital consolidation drives up costs, and Trump’s FTC is fueling more
Drug companies fighting Medicare price negotiations raked in $480B in 2024 and returned $67B to shareholders — while Americans still pay the world’s highest drug prices
The largest health insurers have raked in $371B since the ACA became law, while Maine premiums rose 30% in the past year
Investor-owned utilities raised electricity rates 49% more than inflation over the past three years — even as Trump promised to lower power bills
Decades of weak antitrust enforcement have left four grocery retailers with nearly 60% of grocery spending — crushing small businesses and normalizing higher prices

Instead of easing cost burdens of health care, housing, food assistance, child care, direct care, and renewable energy, taxpayers instead subsidize:

$4.5T in tax breaks that mostly benefit the ultra-rich
$970B in interest on a national debt ballooning from tax cuts for the rich
$282B for “Trump-class” battleships & icebreakers — not built in Maine
$269B on Trump’s mass deportation program that primarily targets law-abiding residents — Maine taxpayers shoulder $800M of that cost
$45B on the Iran war to date, plus $73B requested
$30B to bail out US farmers hurt by Trump’s trade wars
$20B to bail out farmers in Argentina — a direct US competitor
$4B to cancel offshore wind projects
$480M for a White House ballroom, bomb shelter, and visitor center
$162M for Trump vanity projects, including a triumphal arch and statue garden

Data updated September 28, 2026