Republicans’ cost-raising agenda – which Burt Jones, Chris Carr, and Brad Raffensperger all enthusiastically support – is hurting Georgia families, according to Georgia’s top Brian Kemp-appointed economist.
This week, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported that state economist Robert Buschman told legislators that “consumers and businesses are feeling the pinch” from Trump’s tariff tax increases, and that “slow job and income growth, rising prices and record business bankruptcies” paint a very negative picture for Georgia’s economy and business climate.
Georgia’s affordability crisis comes after 23 years of Republican control of the state, and which has been exacerbated by DC Republicans’ cost-raising policies like the Trump tax law and tariff tax increases that the GOP candidates for governor enthusiastically supported all the way.
As a result, families across Georgia are “[struggling] to make ends meet” – but the GOP candidates for governor clearly didn’t get the memo. The cost of living in Georgia has increased nearly $1,200 since Trump took office, but Jones, Carr, and Raffensperger continue to recklessly push for policies that will make life even more expensive for hardworking Georgians.
Read more from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about how cost-raising MAGA policies supported by the GOP gubernatorial field are wrecking our economy:
- Georgia’s top economist projected slow job growth and persistent inflation in the year ahead as many Georgia families struggle to make ends meet.
- But [Robert Buschman] said slow job and income growth, rising prices and record business bankruptcies suggest a mixed economic outlook for 2026.
- But Buschman said job growth stalled in Georgia and across the nation last year. The state gained just 3,200 nonfarm jobs in 2025 through November, and the economist warned of economic headwinds.
- He said President Donald Trump’s tariffs have raised prices for businesses and consumers and threaten to undermine Georgia’s trade-dependent economy.
- Mortgage rates remain relatively high, limiting the sale of homes.
- Not surprisingly, Buschman noted that consumers and businesses are feeling the pinch.
- He said business bankruptcies are at record highs, and a recent survey of CEOs found 64% expect a slowing economy with higher inflation — or “stagflation.”
- Consumers surveys show sentiments “typically associated with recessions,” Buschman said.
- Throw in the risk to Georgia trade, uncertainty about the employment impact of artificial intelligence and “political instability” in the United States and across the world, and Buschman’s forecast was not a rosy one.
- “Anything that pushes inflation higher again is likely to make matters worse for the average consumer,” [Buschman] said.
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