Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) peddled a story to Politico of how suddenly she came face to face with rampant inflation when she was recently grocery shopping and says she put back a package of bacon when she saw the price was $9.99 per pound. Politico reports Porter is a single mother of three struggling to get by on the $174,000 annual salary for House members while maintaining two households. Unmentioned by Politico is that Porter’s Congressional finance report valued her assets at between $1.2 million and $2.8 million.
Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), file screen image.
In a follow-up Twitter thread keyed to the Politico article, the millionaire Porter boasted of putting back $6.29 boxes of cereal and spending a lot of time searching for loaves of bread under $5. Ever the dutiful Democrat, Porter blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin and Big Business for the inflation that took off right after Biden became president last year and started enacting inflationary policies.
Only after Rep. Katie Porter put bacon in her cart at her local grocery store recently did she notice that its price had spiked to $9.99 a pound. Reluctantly, she put the package back.
It was a dose of reality that Porter, a California progressive and single mother of three, has long understood. But she’s not sure all of her Democratic colleagues share her interest in connecting to average Americans’ experiences outside the Beltway.
When Porter gave an emotional speech about how inflation has been hitting her family for months during a private House Democratic Caucus meeting last week, she said it seemed like the first time the personal toll of high consumer prices had sunk in for some lawmakers in the room.
“Too often, Congress recognizes issues too late,” Porter, a top GOP target this fall in a swing district, said in an interview. “I had a colleague mention to me, ‘We’re not seeing it in the polls’ … Well, you don’t know what to ask.”
…A few in the room during that Democratic caucus meeting said privately they were surprised by Porter’s emotional remarks about the price of food given her $174,000-a-year congressional salary. Porter’s annual pay is more than double the average American household income. But she’s also required to maintain homes in two of the most expensive areas in the nation: Washington, D.C. and Orange County, Calif. As a single mom flying back and forth across the country, that means the cost of child care, too.
“There’s a lot of shame around having to live on a budget or having to put food back at a grocery store, and I’m not ashamed,” Porter said. “I’m doing the very best I can to make the choices financially for my family.”
Excerpt of Washington Free Beacon report from March 1, 2021 on Porter’s millionaire status (H/t Drew Holden):
Rep. Katie Porter (D., Calif.), a self-styled working-class champion who has criticized the number of millionaires in Congress, has up to nearly $3 million in assets, filings show.
According to her most recent financial disclosure report, Porter has between $1.2 million and $2.8 million in assets. Porter’s leadership PAC, Truth to Power, recently solicited donations with a statement decrying the fact that millionaires comprise “a shockingly large portion of our federal government.”
Porter’s tweet thread on inflation:
In my house, we pay serious and regular attention to the price of bacon. My local store has Oscar Meyer for $6.99/pound. Stocking up! Unlike Washington insiders, who focus on Caucus politics and partisan bickering, my focus is on helping families bring home the bacon. THREAD
What I’m telling colleagues and reporters: Food prices are a real pain point for families. People, myself included, are shopping differently, putting back $6.29 boxes of cereal and spending considerable time looking for sandwich bread for under $5. (2/5) I’m a proud capitalist, and what we’re seeing here is a broken market. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is disrupting food supply and corporate monopolies are using that as a cover to price gouge. They’re getting away with it because they don’t have to compete for consumers. (3/5) Four companies control 82% of American beef-packing. Three companies control 83% of cereal. Four companies control 80% of soybean processing. Healthy capitalist markets—especially those involving essential goods like food—depend on competition. Without it, prices go up. (4/5) We need to lower costs for families. That’ll require stronger antitrust laws and improved enforcement of laws already on the books. I’m backing several bills to do just that, and I will keep pushing until Americans get relief from Wall Street’s greed at the grocery store. (5/5)
A Washington Post reporter posted a brutal summary of the skyrocketing double-digit inflation Americans are facing on key goods and services in the Biden presidency:
As can be seen in her posting a photo of what appears to be one her children dressed up as a slab of bacon, Porter likes playing dress-up. Here she is in Congress in 2019 dressed as Batgirl for Halloween:
