We have a close family friend who voted for Joe Biden. Yup, she’s really a friend -- proving that us semi-fascist conservatives are more tolerant than members of the coexist party. We’ll call her Pat. She voted for gropey Joe even though she disagrees with almost all the radicalism that he and the Democrats are pushing. Her reasoning is quite simple. She refused to vote for Donald Trump because he is too personally offensive to her.

Pat is no puritan. She’s made her share of bad choices in life, and doesn’t hold the occasional mistake against the Donald. But she just can’t get past his personality. The bragging, exaggerating, and needless personal attacks are more than she’s willing to tolerate. Of course, it doesn’t help that Trump won’t do anything to dispel his image as a juvenile schoolyard bully. Did you hear he just called a reporter an unattractive whackjob who’s dumb as a rock because he didn’t like her report about Jared Kushner?

So, Pat has her reasons -- which make perfect sense to her. But that level of Trump hatred does come with a price tag. It didn’t take long to realize that the Trump alternative -- Joe Biden -- came with some hidden costs of his own, that Pat didn’t know about. Now that we’re two years into his presidency, we can actually quantify some of those costs.

Immediately upon assuming office Joe got with his pals in Congress and went on a spending binge. We shouldn’t be surprised. That’s what socialists do -- spend other people’s money. Joe, San Fran Nan, and little Chucky Schumer had a grand time, spending almost five trillion bucks and driving the national debt up another three trillion dollars. But Joe never considered the post-party hangover -- a 40-year high inflation level. That ear-popping inflation isn’t going down either, unless there are some serious changes in fiscal behavior. With the recently passed omnibus spending bill, there’s no indication that anybody, in either party, intends to change behavior.

The Congressional Joint Economic Committee has found that inflation alone is costing American families an additional $635 per month. That’s the equivalent of a nice car payment to fund Joe’s big spending, energy choking, regulation expanding, experiment with banana republicism.

Via inflation, the Biden administration has delivered a $7,620 annual cost increase to the average family. That may not be a big deal to Hunter Biden -- who pulls down $80K per month to snort cocaine and impregnate strippers. But to Pat, it’s a lot. In fact, it’s enough to add 12 years to her retirement preparations. She’ll either need to work 12 more years or get a lot more modest in her post-career expectations.

But the price increases from inflation aren’t the only price of admission to the Biden presidency. To fight inflation, the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates. Now Pat can’t qualify for a mortgage on the home she wanted or afford to buy a new car, take a vacation, or buy any number of luxury items. She’s learning that she’ll just have to do without a few things. But doing without things should be counted as part of the cost of supporting lunch-bucket Joe -- no?

Let’s ignore all of the other wish list items and just focus on the mortgage cost -- because unless you live in California, everybody needs a place to live. At the end of the Trump administration the average house payment was $1,496. But with interest rate increases, a home of the same price now has a monthly mortgage payment of $2,305. Now it’s 800 bucks per month more expensive to buy the average American home. That’s an additional $9,600 per year. Call it the “don’t have to see Donald Trump on the White House lawn” fee.

Pat’s economic problems are further exacerbated by the fact that she’s not making as much under Biden as she was during the 2016-2020 dark ages. When I point out Biden’s remarkable achievement of creating over a million new jobs (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, not the Federal Reserve), she just grits her teeth and gives me the stink eye. You see, she’s one of those people that helped Joe juice up his jobs numbers by trading a single good-paying job for two part-time crap jobs.

So Pat, like many Americans, has been tapping into her savings to pay for luxury items like groceries and heat during the winter. Pat lives in Minnesota, so heat in the winter is kind of a big deal.

According to a Northwestern Mutual study, the average American family’s savings went down by $11,000 between 2021 and 2022. The study is proof that in Joe’s America it costs more to live than you are likely to earn. Pat’s retirement preparations are looking shakier by the day. That drain on savings can’t go on forever. Eventually the savings will be gone, the pipes will freeze, and Minnesotans will start getting cranky.

Between inflation and elevating interest rates, it will cost Pat $68,800 to purchase four years of enhanced decorum in the White House. Except little glitches like:

• Calling a reporter a stupid son of a b***h
• Speeches referring to political opponents as fascists
• And dropping f-bombs on anybody concerned about the border

It’s none of my business what Pat spends her money on, and avoiding Trump’s quirks clearly has some value to her. But almost $69K -- to avoid mean tweets. Wow, she must have more disposable income than I do!

John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He has written for American Thinker, and American Free News Network.  His work has been featured on the Dan Bongino Show, World View Weekend Broadcast with Brannon House, and Steel on Steel with John Loeffler. He can be followed on Facebook or reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.

Image: Paul Sableman