Exclusive: ‘I can’t continue’: Business owner tells GOP senator of crushing effects from Biden-Harris inflation

A small business owner spoke with Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn about how stubbornly high inflation under the Biden-Harris administration is impacting the company’s bottom line.

Jeni Donahue, the owner of Artistic Printers, a family-owned print shop in Greenville, Tennessee, told Blackburn how rising costs are forcing them to raise prices and limit hiring in a video shared exclusively with the Daily Caller News Foundation. Inflation sat at 1.4% when President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, rising steadily and peaking at 9.1% in June 2022, only coming back below 3% in July, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Obviously I can’t continue to absorb it,” Donahue told Blackburn, referencing the increased cost of doing business. “We have to increase our prices and, because of inflation, this will actually be the first year since my husband and I owned the business that we’ve not been able to afford to hire somebody, and we need it.”

Small businesses employ roughly 46% of U.S. workers, according to Forbes Advisor.

Donahue told Blackburn that the price of the envelopes they use for some of their orders has nearly doubled since 2019 and that the software they use to make designs went from charging a flat annual fee to requiring a separate monthly charge for each computer the program is used on. She also noted that increasing gas prices are cutting into their profit margins as they offer free delivery to local customers.

Gas prices are up considerably since Biden took office, up from an average price of $2.42 per gallon in January 2021 to $3.50 per gallon in August, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

WATCH:

Economic anxiety among small business owners extends beyond Greenville, with national surveys showing that small business optimism had dropped to a low not seen in 11 years in March. About a quarter of owners reported that inflation was their biggest problem and 28% said they increased costs to account for increased expenses.

“I can’t charge my customer another 100%,” Donahue told Blackburn. “I want everybody to be able to come into this store.”

Small business optimism remained below the fifty-year average for the 31st straight month under the Biden-Harris administration in July, according to National Federation of Independent Businesses data.

“What Tennesseans want to see is action to get this inflation under control,” Blackburn said. “I keep working trying to make those tax cuts from 2017 permanent, making certain that we do across-the-board spending cuts and making certain that you have more money in your pocket every month.”

Former President Donald Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is set to expire in 2025, setting the stage for a high-stakes political battle over the tax breaks included in the bill.

The White House and the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

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