Opinion: Ohioans are hurting, but help is on the way

The American economy careens into a ditch thanks to the disastrous policies of President Joe Biden and his dependable ally on Capitol Hill, Congressman Tim Ryan. The economic news recently provides ample evidence of this economic carnage.

For instance, two massive retailers, Walmart and Target, both reported hugely disappointing earnings results, sending each company’s stock price melting down to the worst single-day performance since the historic crash of 1987.

As America’s largest store chain, Walmart’s results represent an especially dire warning for the health of our consumers and economy. Its CFO detailed that "consumers are watching their spending closely and gravitating to private-label brands and half-gallons of milk."

Think about that reality? In 2022 America, mothers in Ohio are cutting back their milk purchases for their children because of soaring prices. Is this the kind of economy Ohioans should accept?

Well, my opponent Tim Ryan has spent two decades in the Washington Swamp wholeheartedly supporting exactly the globalist, corporatist policies that bring America to this awful economic predicament. In fact, according to statistical analysis of Congress from FiveThirtyEight, Ryan votes with Biden an astounding 100% of the time.

Ryan talks tough when he visits Ohio. He tries to sound like some renegade, and some populist who advocates for working people. His radical record reveals the truth of a corporatist lackey who dutifully gets behind Biden in every single vote.

Looking at our supply chains and America’s massive overdependence on foreign sourcing for critical goods, consider that during Biden’s 50 years in Washington, Ryan’s bestie has always championed horrible trade deals that decimated Ohio. Specifically, China was warmly welcomed by Biden and the DC Establishment into the World Trade Organization in 2001, on incredibly generous terms for Beijing. From that point until Donald Trump’s election, Ohio lost a staggering 120,000 manufacturing jobs to China, per the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

Think about the destruction unleashed by losing masses of high-paying, family sustaining jobs all across Ohio, from the Miami River to the Mahoning Valley?

Looking at the present situation in Ohio, inflation now crushes the citizens of our state as real wages plunge lower, meaning pay adjusted for the cost of living. Those same forces strangle small businesses across Ohio, as well. Recently the head of the Ohio restaurant association, John Barker remarked about the inability of independent restaurants to handle the soaring input costs: "You don't have to be a mathematician to understand that equation doesn't work over the long term. So, inflation is a real big problem."

On that point of surging food prices, the national average reveals a huge 10.8% increase annually as a result of the exorbitant amount of spending propagated by Biden and his congressional toady Tim Ryan. Because of this runaway inflation, food banks in northeast Ohio report severe strains on resources. The Greater Cleveland Food Bank called the crisis a "perfect storm" and observed that "families are really feeling the pinch, as well as seniors, too."

Here is the reality: Tim Ryan owns this Biden economy and this inflation storm. He cannot distance himself from a president whom he supports 100% of the time when it counts, on the floor of the U.S. House.

But amazingly, Ryan ignores his own record of economic failure for Ohioans and brazenly asks them for a promotion! He wants to upgrade from the House to the Senate. Why? So that in the Senate, he can do even more damage to the economic well-being of working-class Buckeyes?

Ryan has worked his whole professional life on the public dole, first as a bureaucrat and then spent this century as a typical politician, speaking like a moderate and acting as a radical.

I present a whole new approach. As an outsider and a businessman, I buck the establishment and bring to the race the experience of building businesses in the private sector, paying employees and creating success in Ohio.

I will demand that we onshore again, to make things again in Ohio, rather than relying on dicey supply lines from Asia. I will also insist that the open borders madness of Biden and Ryan end, in part to lift the wages of Ohioans who should never have to compete in the job market against unlawful and unjust competition from illegal migrants.

Ohioans are hurting. But help is on the way.

J.D. Vance, a Cincinnati resident, is the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, investor and author of the best-selling memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: J.D. Vance: Ohioans are hurting, but help is on the way