Montana is a sanctuary where you feel protected from the chaos of modern life. However, not even Montanans basking at the  majestic sights of Yellowstone or the Bighorn Mountains are immune from inflation and the bad policies their Senator Jon Tester voted for.

Compared to January 2021, Montanans are paying:

• $1,128 more per month
• $13, 536 more per year
• $29,799 cumulatively since January 2021

Why did prices go through the roof? Because of the failed economic policies (known as Bidenomics) pushed by President Joe Biden and supported by his friends in Congress— Tester among them.

Tester might sell himself as a no-nonsense, independent Democrat who puts the welfare of Montanans above partisanship. The truth? Tester is a loyal partisan and a fierce defender of the big government spending that brought us inflation.

When push came to shove, Tester wholeheartedly supported all four core Bidenomics bills: the American Rescue Plan, the CHIPS Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the Inflation “Reduction” Act.

These bills unleashed a record $5.5 Trillion of new, special interest government spending on the economy, wreaking havoc both in the federal government’s books and fueling the inflationary spiral that keeps many Americans reeling.

Here’s how Bidenomics and Jon Tester made inflation worse for Montanans.

How inflation happened, and how Tester aided it

Inflation is always caused by the same thing: the government prints too much money. It really is that simple.

Here’s how it works: the value of money depends on supply and demand, just like anything else. When hen there is more money than what the market can use, your money will be worth less.

Well, over the last four years, Washington printed tons of money at a pace the economy could not handle, increasing the money supply by as much as 42% while the economy only grew by 3.6%. Inevitably, inflation happened.

Much of the spending was justified in 2020, as the country was in the pandemic. By early 2021, life was getting back to normal, and Washington needed to restrain spending to avoid inflation.  

However, Biden and Tester apparently didn’t read the memo and successfully pushed to spend an extra $5.5 trillion in the market.

Bills like the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP), the CHIPS Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the terribly named Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) brought new spending and ensured inflation would come with force at the pockets of Americans.

Tester makes the wrong choice, and Montanans pay for it

In his 18 years as a Senator, you would imagine Tester would have learned a thing or two about which bills are good for his constituents and which ones are not. Regretfully for Montanans, Tester’s years in Congress left him none the wiser on economics.

• In 2021, Tester lauded the passage of the American Rescue Plan, saying it would help   with “reviving Montana’s economy as quickly as possible.”

The truth, however, is much different from Tester’s pitch. The ARP not only ensured inflation, but it made it much worse, reaching a 40-year-record high of 9.1%.  

• In 2022, the Senator praised the Inflation Reduction Act, saying it would “lower costs for families” and bring economic growth and stability.

What Tester missed or forgot to tell Montanans is that the IRA did nothing to bring inflation back in control, while giving away billions of dollars to green corporate welfare.

Moreover, Tester’s support for Biden’s economic policies is making a dent on Montana’s key industries, making it harder for Montanans to have good paying jobs:

• Cattle food prices have gone up by 10% since 2021
• Poultry food has skyrocketed 22% since 2021
• Farm machinery costs went up 38.3% since 2021
• Fertilizer rose by 26.5% since 2021
• Diesel went up by 52% since 2021

For 18 years, Tester has carefully crafted an image as an independent-minded senator who values common sense above party politics.

Yet, actions speak louder than words, and when Tester had to choose between his party and the prosperity of his constituents, he chose the party.