Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Editor, Times-Union:
I hereby present numbers calculated by the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator. Here is their estimate of “the monthly income needed to maintain a modest but not adequate standard of living. This includes housing, food, childcare, transportation, and other necessities, but not discretionary spending … for a married couple with four children (ages 4, 8, 12, and 16), living in the U.S. ... For example, in a mid-range Indiana county: monthly amount needed is $6,800 - $7,200, or an annual amount of $81,000 - $86,400.”
Other sources estimate the current breakdown of 2026 average costs of specific family and individual needs in the United States as follows:
Gasoline: Reg - $4.478 per gallon; Diesel - $6.45 per gallon
Mortgage rate: 7.1 percent (average existing monthly payment - $2,023 per month — new loan - $2,198 - $2,883; or $24,276 - $34.596 annually)
Utilities: $4,300 annually
Rent: $2,075 per month ($24,900 annually)
New car: $49,800 - $50,100
Used car: $26,300
New home (construction only): $323,000
College: $39,406 annually
Food for a family of four (thrifty plan—all meals prepared at home) $993 per month
Total annual health care for a family of four — with employer-sponsored insurance — averages $37,824 annually (includes premiums, and out-of-pocket expenses like deductibles, co-pays, co-insurance, and pharmacy costs)
Make a list of your own or your family’s expenses, and on November 3, keep these numbers in mind when you vote. Remember who is directly responsible for them. Remember which party’s candidates have done nothing since January 20, 2025, to stop the guy who just recently learned the word “groceries,” the guy who says the word “affordability” is a “hoax,” the guy who has managed to illegally expand his own wealth (while in office) into the billions of dollars, the guy who is illegally spending the hard-earned tax dollars that we the people send him on TV ads promoting his political drivel. Remember which candidates on your ballots support and promote the lifestyles, the cruelty, and the corruption of those currently in power while ignoring your hardships.
Remember which candidates in Indiana and right here in Kosciusko County who have told you they hear you, they personally recognize and feel your pain, they want the chance to make your lives better, and they plan to hold that guy and his devoted, greedy followers accountable for their negligence and disregard for all of us.
Affordability is not a hoax. The numbers do not lie. We the people know the truth. We the people can fix the problem. We the people can vote, and vote we must!
Jeanne Tuka Schutz
Winona Lake, via email
