MESQUITE, Nevada – Households here and across swing state Nevada are making an average of $1,196 more per month than before. “Bidenomics” And after this inflation took hold, Joint Economic Committee of Congress informed in August.
But in this retirement community, where three casino resorts draw customers from Utah about 40 miles to the north and a small part of Arizona next door, inflation has had a mixed effect on locals who spoke to The Post.
While not every voter said their ballot choice would translate into their bankbooks, almost all said the state of the economy was on their minds this year.
Mike Massong, 77, lives in a Sun City Mesquite home in a community of residents 55 and older. Unlike most of his neighbors, his home has a Harris-Walz sign, one of two visible, while there are four Trump signs and one Trump-lettered American flag.
The retired manufacturers representative, who was visiting from Littleton, Colo., said that although he and his wife, Janice, were “stable” financially, their financial situation overall was “very good.”
“The big thing is that they hold Biden responsible for inflation,” Massong said. “Inflation is due to the pandemic. Every country in the world had inflation problems, even Japan. “Japan had 2% inflation, and there has rarely been inflation.”
He said the Biden-Harris stimulus spending — which critics say has driven inflation to 9.1% over the past three years — was necessary.
“What would have happened if they had not done this? What would have happened to a lot of these people, and a lot of these businesses would have closed, and a lot of these people would have been in serious trouble,” Massong said.
But retired Washington state employee Wally Posey, who moved to Mesquite nine years ago, said he and his wife now have nothing better to do. Speaking to The Post while loading groceries into his car from a local supermarket, he blamed higher food and gasoline prices under Biden-Harris.
“We’re voting for Trump,” Posey, 79, said. Asked if that was because he believed the former president would tackle inflation once he came into office, he replied, “That, and a few other things.”
Sue Berkey, a former Californian who first lived in Reno before deciding with her husband on Mesquite, said they are doing better financially since the house they sold to the north was converted into their new residence. More money came in than it cost.
But inflation is taking its toll, especially with food prices. “My husband loves food, so it costs money,” she said, smiling.
Burke said she would vote for Trump, telling The Post: “I think he did a lot of things the last time he was there, but as soon as he left, he changed everything, like the pipeline, Oil pipelines and then the border and things like that. So I think he needs to get back there to do something.
Even people in small Arizona towns adjacent to Nevada live in the shadow of the Silver State’s economy. Scenic, a small town of about 2,500 people about five miles from Mesquite, has no supermarket, so residents go to Smith’s Supermarket for grocery shopping.
At the Scenic General Store, the town’s only retail business, lines can be long when the Powerball or MegaMillions jackpots are high. Customers come from as far away as Nevada and Utah in hopes that the store’s “luck” – it has sold some big winners – will come in handy.
The store’s owner, Alexandria Carlson, 55, tells The Post she is doing “not at all” better financially than she was four years ago.
“Insurance companies have more than quadrupled their rates on homeowners and auto insurance,” he said. “And food prices, of course, have skyrocketed.”
Carlson’s solution?
“You just work harder. You have to diversify your investments and your time,” he said.
The entrepreneur said she’s still going to vote for Trump, “period.”
“Our economy was good when we had Trump in office,” he said.
(Tags to translate) politics
