Regarding Those Claims of $20 Burritos . . .

On X, there’s been a considerable debate about the cost of living and whether burritos really cost $20.

One of our TPUSA college students gave me his take on affordability:

“A burrito shouldn’t cost $20.”

Yeah, a lot of this is a hangover from Covid and Biden-era inflation, but the lived experience is the same: It just feels like basic things cost too much. https://t.co/GEvmbea57o

— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) August 4, 2026

Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen was unimpressed, and responded, “Cry me a river. The burritos in the college cafeteria are included in your meal plan.”

The vice president of the United States responded to Thiessen, “I’m surprised to hear Mark [sic] say this. If you’ve ever met him in person, it’s quite obvious the man has never missed a burrito.”

You can see Thiessen’s recent appearance on Fox News Channel here, and see for yourself whether Thiessen looks overweight to you. Note that Thiessen is effectively defending the Trump administration’s record on the cost of living (or at least contending that the complaints are hyperbolic), and Vance is calling him fat in response. It is just unthinkable that anyone would want an option besides Vance as the 2028 Republican presidential nominee, huh?

As usual, the sneering back-and-forth on X is conflating multiple issues. First, there’s no getting around it — food has grown more expensive, year by year, since the Covid pandemic. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture:

• In 2022, food prices increased by 9.9 percent, faster than in any year since 1979.
• In 2023, food-at-home prices increased by 5.0 percent. Food-away-from-home prices increased by 7.1 percent.
• Food prices rose by 2.3 percent in 2024 and 2.9 percent in 2025.
• In 2026, prices for all food are predicted to increase 3.1 percent; in 2027, prices for all food are predicted to increase 3.1 percent.

That’s bad! Every year, the increase in food prices has been higher than the 2 percent inflation rate that is “normal” or minimally noticeable. Food is considerably more expensive than it was seven years ago, whether you’re buying groceries or eating out, and political leaders ignore, downplay, or deny this fact at their peril.

Why is food more expensive? A wide variety of reasons. Eggs were particularly expensive around the start of Trump’s first term, in large part because of an outbreak of bird flu. (Eggs are now less expensive than when Trump took office.) Increased fuel prices make transporting food from producers to markets more expensive. Drought and higher costs for feed and fertilizer have driven up beef prices. Tariffs make imported food like coffee, fish, beer, wine, and liquor more expensive.

And labor is more expensive than in 2020. In fact, at the beginning of this year, 19 states raised their minimum wages. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “nearly 8 in 10 workers earning the minimum wage or less in 2023 were employed in service occupations, mostly in food preparation and serving-related jobs.” If the public wants a higher minimum wage, it has to accept paying higher prices for food.

Of course, some unwise consumer habits undoubtedly contribute to the perception of exorbitant prices for food. In a subsequent post on X, Thiessen observed that a burrito that costs $23.36 is more expensive because of a $1.49 delivery fee, a $3.73 service fee, a $2.99 express fee, a $4 tip, and 91 cents in taxes.

In 2025, merchants generated more than $60 billion in sales on DoorDash. Using DoorDash may include a service fee, delivery fee, long-distance fee, regulatory-response fee, small-order fee, weather-impact fee, and an optional express-delivery fee. This is all separate from taxes, tips, and bag, bottle, or other mandatory government-imposed fees. That adds up to a lot of money spent on food that could be avoided by going to the restaurant and ordering takeout, or dining in the restaurant, or buying groceries and cooking at home.

And let us not forget that the cost of taxes and labor can vary a great deal from state to state. Eight states tax groceries. Forty-five states levy a state-level sales tax, and 38 states allow local sales taxes. In Montana, you’re not paying any sales tax; in Louisiana, you’re paying a combined state sales tax and average local sales tax of more than 10 percent.

In 2025, a study found that the exact same McDonald’s Big Mac costs $4.36 in Austin, Texas, and $7.06 in Seattle.

Burritos will become less expensive when the burrito chains figure out how to automate the burrito-creation process.