A $20 Burrito Isn’t The Problem — GOP Mockery Might Be
- Dismissing complaints about $20 burritos misses the broader concern over rising daily costs and economic struggles.
- Mockery generates laughs but fails to lower grocery bills or appeal to voters feeling the financial squeeze.
- Addressing affordability requires tackling policies that drive up costs, not abandoning capitalism.
A $20 Burrito Isn’t The Problem — GOP Mockery Might Be
Tony Katz says conservatives are badly missing the point when they laugh off young voters complaining that a burrito costs $20.
“The argument is not whether or not the burrito is actually $20,” Katz said. “The argument is that the burrito, which we would not consider a luxury, has become in a place of unaffordable. What is happening and how do we correct this?”
The flare-up began after Andrew Kolvet, executive producer of the late Charlie Kirk’s program, shared the affordability frustration of a Turning Point USA college student: “A burrito shouldn’t cost $20.” Kolvet acknowledged inflation’s COVID-era hangover, but said the larger reality remained that basic purchases simply feel too expensive.
That prompted a dismissive response from commentator Marc Thiessen, who wrote that burritos in a college cafeteria are included in a meal plan. Ben Shapiro reportedly offered a similarly blunt retort: if someone is buying $20 burritos, “you’re doing it wrong.”
Katz argued both responses swung and missed.
“Ben missed the mark. That’s not the argument,” he said, warning Republicans not to confuse a gripe about one meal with a broader alarm about the cost of ordinary life.
Then Vice President JD Vance jumped into the fray with a jab at Thiessen’s weight, writing that it was “quite obvious the man has never missed a burrito.” Katz called that response a “scumbag answer” and blasted it as “not tough, not smart, low rent, low class.”
The political danger, Katz argued, is larger than one viral post and one overpriced lunch. Younger voters are confronting high food bills, insurance costs and the feeling that the economic ladder has become harder to reach. Telling them to quit whining is not a strategy. It is an invitation for the left to fill the vacuum with promises of “free this and free that and free the other,” Katz said.
“If the political right wants to play this as a bunch of pseudo-intellectual dummies, they can,” Katz said. “Holy cow, are you missing every part of this.”
Katz was not arguing that every complaint demands another government subsidy, nor that a $20 burrito is a wise purchase. He pointed to a harder, more useful task: identify why daily costs are rising and deal with the policies that make them worse.
That means cutting regulations that drive up costs, confronting corruption in insurance markets and taking a serious look at food production and imports, Katz said. “Hell no, I want actual capitalism,” he said when rejecting the idea that affordability concerns require abandoning the system.
Mockery may generate a quick laugh. It does not lower the grocery bill — and it does not win over voters who feel the squeeze.
Hear Tony Katz break it down live weekdays on WIBC 93.1 FM, or catch the full segment on-demand.
Listen to the “A $20 Burrito Isn’t The Problem — GOP Mockery Might Be” discussion in full here:
