As consumers absorb tariff-driven price hikes, which a new report estimates will cost households an average of $2,000, Connecticut Democrats are advancing legislation intended to prevent companies from exploiting costly trade policies to inflate prices.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and state Attorney General William Tong discussed some of those efforts during a Monday press conference at Hartford’s The Grocery on Broad. Their remarks followed a new report from The Budget Lab at Yale, which estimated that tariff policies enacted by Republican President Donald Trump would result in the equivalent of $2,000 in lost income for the average American household this year.
“The Trump tariffs are driving prices sky high,” Blumenthal said. “Even the anticipation of rising prices from the gas pump to the produce aisle to the pharmaceutical drug counter, Americans are going to be paying much, much more.”
Ben Dubow, executive director of The Grocery on Broad, said grocers were seeing prices rise on everything from produce to beef.
“Coffee is one that’s going up significantly, and that’s related to tariffs and other issues,” Dubow said.
In addition to inflating the price of essential goods through the highest tariff rates in nearly a century, according to The Budget Lab, the Trump administration had worsened the problem through aggressive immigration enforcement against immigrant workers in key labor markets, Tong said.
“You want to drive up prices? Cut ICE loose on immigrant workers,” Tong said. “Half of all meat-packing and agricultural workers in this country are immigrants and they’re undocumented.”
These Republican policy-driven price hikes created an opportunity for bad actors to further inflate costs under the guise of compliance, leading Blumenthal and Tong to highlight the need for stronger oversight and enforcement tools to protect consumers.
During this year’s legislative session, Connecticut Senate Democrats passed a new consumer protection law, which expanded the attorney general’s capability to crack down on price gouging during disasters. While previous price gouging statutes applied only to retailers, the new law broadened the policy to include the entire supply chain.
Meanwhile, Blumenthal sought to build support for the Price Gouging Prevention Act, legislation that would give state attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission tools to enforce laws against grossly excessive price increases.
“For Trump’s billionaire buddies [price hikes are] no big deal, but for the average American, a lot of pain,” Blumenthal said. “And it will get worse, unfortunately, because on the horizon is not only inflation, but also recession.”
