It’s the time of year when our social media feeds are loaded with pictures of kids heading back to school. But, behind those bright, smiling faces are a lot of hidden costs for everyday American families. The new clothes, the backpacks full of school supplies, the daily trek back and forth to school and afterschool activities—this all adds up to more money out of families’ household budgets. According to CNBC, one third of families say back to school expenditures will put them in debt.

And, over the last few years, we’ve seen those costs increase astronomically. Inflation under the Biden-Harris Administration was up nearly 20 percent on average. Gas prices reached an all-time high of over $5/gallon back in 2022 partly due to Biden-Harris’ extreme green-at-any-cost energy policies. Today, gas prices are still over 40 percent higher than they were under former President Trump.

And, that is what Vice President Kamala Harris likes to call a “root cause.” Energy fuels everything in our economy. And when the price of energy goes up because of short-sighted, politicized policies that hurt our American energy producers, the cost of everything else goes up with it. Unfortunately, what we are hearing so far from newly-minted presidential candidate Harris would only take us back to those days of skyrocketing costs—just as we were starting to see hope on the horizon.

If the Democrats’ convention rhetoric is any indication, Harris plans to double down on the big-spending ways of Biden’s comically-named Inflation Reduction Act with billions in subsidies to prop up “green” energy. And, her weird initial policy proposals that include banning price-gouging by grocery stores misses both the mark and the “root cause” of the high costs American families have been shouldering throughout her term as vice president.

This time of year, Americans should be focused on class schedules, textbooks and that ever-important first day of school outfit. What they shouldn’t need to worry about is the price tag for the annual haul of school supplies or the cost of the gas they are burning in the pick-up line at school skyrocketing because of bad energy policies. But, with another four years of an anti-American energy agenda from a Harris presidency, that’s the reality we will go back to.

For more information about the affordable, reliable and clean energy plan for America’s families, check out TEA’s Energy Security ARC.