Carbondale Reporter

State Representative Paul Jacobs addressed the issue of inflation in a Facebook post dated October 11. He said, "According to the USDA, all food prices rose by 25% between 2020 and 2023, with some household staples reaching even higher. In that same three-year span."

"There's no denying that Illinois families are paying outrageous prices at the grocery store," said Jacobs, according to Facebook. "According to the USDA, all food prices rose by 25% between 2020 and 2023, with some household staples reaching even higher. In that same three year span."

In his post, Jacobs detailed the changes in grocery item pricing: "Milk prices rose by 23% (milk averaged $3.32/gallon in 2020). Bread prices rose by 28% (white bread averaged $1.54/loaf in 2020). Beef prices rose by 31% (ground beef averaged $4.12/lb in 2020). Egg prices rose by 46% (eggs averaged $1.51/dozen in 2020)."

Screenshot of State Rep. Paul Jacobs' Oct. 11 Facebook post. | State Representative Paul Jacobs' Facebook page

According to USA Today, inflation reached a three-year low last month, despite consumer prices increasing by 2.4% from September 2023, which is still lower than August's increase of 2.5%. The core inflation rate, excluding food and energy items, increased by .3% in September, raising core inflation to 3.3%, up from August's 3.2%.

Food prices overall increased by 0.4% in September, with egg costs rising by 8.4%, attributed to an ongoing bird flu outbreak; bacon prices went up by 1.6%, raw ground beef increased by .4%, and chicken prices saw a rise of .2%. Breakfast cereal and bread experienced price drops of .4% and .2%, respectively.

In September, Austin Goolsbee, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, commented on the Federal Reserve's half percentage point interest rate reduction during a report from WTTW on September 23. Goolsbee had previously suggested that inflation could decline without causing a recession—a notion experts initially doubted and mocked him for proposing. "But that is what happened," Goolsbee said in the WTTW report. "And now we’ve got to stick the landing... Inflation came down from, it’s been cut more than in half, and there wasn’t a recession."

Jacobs was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 2020 after serving as an optometrist and owning Von Jakob Vineyard in Alto Pass. His background includes service in the US Navy from 1965 to 1971; he has four grown children and ten grandchildren.