Scott Horsley

Nearly half the country heats with natural gas, so that's driving up winter heating bills.

We also use lots of natural gas to generate electricity, so those prices are climbing too.

Mark Wolf heads a group of state agencies that help low-income families cover their energy costs, and he says about one out of six households is now falling behind on its utility bills.

Grocery prices were also up sharply last month, along with airfares and the price of clothing.

Overall, the cost of living in December was up 2.7% from a year ago, the same annual inflation rate we saw in November.

So we're kind of in a holding pattern.

Well, the president generally downplayed concerns about affordability when he was in Michigan.

Instead, he boasted about the strong GDP growth we saw this summer.

Now, to be sure, GDP growth was strong in the third quarter, but it's not the case.

We have almost no inflation.

Prices are still going up faster than most people would like.

What's more, that GDP growth has not come with a lot of new jobs.

You know, the president toured a Ford motor plant yesterday, but U.S.

auto manufacturers lost 28,000 jobs last year.

Manufacturing overall lost 75,000 jobs.

So the economic picture is not quite as rosy as the president would like us to think.

Yeah, the Fed is cutting interest rates, but not as quickly as Trump would like.

Most forecasters think the Fed's going to hold rates steady when policymakers meet later this month because inflation is still too high.

And yesterday's cost of living report just cemented that expectation.

Trump wants much lower interest rates, and his administration's gone to extraordinary lengths to push the Fed in that direction.