Cost of Living and Jobs

Tony believes the best way to grow our economy is by supporting our greatest asset — our people.

My parents immigrated to the U.S. and worked hard and sacrificed so my brothers and I could get an education and decide what we wanted for our lives. It’s become harder for families to do what my parents were able to do. Families like mine have to work multiple jobs, make hard choices between paying rent or for prescription drugs, and many can’t afford childcare so they can go to work.

Now, inflation has created an even bigger economic crunch with rising costs at the gas pump and the grocery store and housing and childcare shortages. Congress needs to take this seriously, take action to get costs under control, and put more money back in people’s pockets. Let’s create better paying jobs, pass a middle class tax cut, reinstitute the expanded child tax credit, lower the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs, ensure affordable child care, and guarantee paid family leave to workers.

Part of the solution is also doing all we can to help Nebraska companies create Nebraskan goods and Nebraskan jobs, with family-sustaining wages. That includes a fair tax system that puts small businesses on an equal playing field with multinational corporations, and trade policies that level the playing field for our agricultural and manufacturing industries here in Nebraska, and allow our producers to compete and sell their products across the globe. And we need to hold China accountable for cheating the system. We are in a race with other countries and we have to position our workers and businesses to help us win, and we can create good paying Nebraska and U.S. jobs to do it.