The One Thing That Should Terrify Republicans Just Dropped and No One Noticed
The Democrats are putting into play the one thing that could really destroy the Republicans
Politico ran a story that should send ice into the collective heart of the GOP.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Monday that the first bill of a House Democratic majority will concentrate on lowering costs. Jeffries send a letter to all House Democrats announcing five working groups focused on developing affordability legislation targeting housing, gas and utilities, groceries, caregiving, and health care.
“Each of the working groups will meet this week to begin discussions about what will go into Democrats’ H.R. 1 — shorthand for a majority party’s signature bill,” Politico reported.
This is exactly what the GOP should be doing—and isn’t.
I see people online mocking this effort. They don’t think much of what the Democrats will come up with.
The thing is, people are so broke, they won’t care. They want to see that their financial struggle is a priority. And they just aren’t getting that from the Trump administration right now or from any Republican legislators.
The administration keeps saying the economic pain is just vibes. It’s not. Inflation is currently eating up wage growth and then some. Gas is $4.50 a gallon as we head into the summer travel season. The producer price index is up 6 percent. Savings are at an all-time low. 13% of credit card balances are now over 90 days delinquent, the highest since 2011. The stock market is doing great, but average Americans are being squeezed.
And there’s one thing someone struggling to put food on the table really, really hates to hear: how great the stock market is doing.
There’s something I find unbearable to contemplate, and it’s an American who worked themselves to the bone all day, and after they tuck their kids in at night, lay awake staring at the ceiling knowing a bill is coming that they cannot afford to pay. Millions of Americans in that situation voted for Donald Trump so they could sleep at night knowing they could pay their bills, that they’d have some money at the end of the month to put away for a home or retirement. And now they are back to staring at the ceiling with dread in their hearts.
This is a fire alarm fire and the administration doesn’t seem to realize it.
Trump won the working class in 2024, and it’s his own supporters who are hurting the most. Working class people don’t like handouts; they want higher wages and more take home pay. But when they are this broke, they’ll take a handout over nothing.
If the administration doesn’t figure out how to help working-class Americans with the cost of gas and groceries in the near future, it’s going to be an absolute bloodbath come November.
I get that it’s hard to bring down costs. And I do believe Trump’s policies raise wages; we saw that in the first year of his second term, as well as throughout his first term. But with the war in Iran, costs have exploded, and he needs to convey to the American people that he feels their pain and that there is a plan in store.
I get notes from people every single day telling me how difficult life is—people who voted for Trump and support his agenda. They need help and they need it soon.
I have called for a stimulus check to get working-class Americans through the negotiations with Iran, which could take another month or two. It also seems to me the President could limit oil and gas exports, which would create some relief at the gas pump. And an immediate moratorium on farm foreclosures is essential to protecting food costs.
But more important than any individual policy is the commitment at the highest levels to finding ways to bring down the costs of health insurance, electricity, groceries, and housing—just as the Democrats have committed to doing.
This is the one thing Americans truly need from their President, and they need it now.
What is the administration’s plan to bring down electricity costs, or health insurance costs? How will Trump tackle food costs? Farmers are going bankrupt, getting foreclosed on, committing suicide.
Where is the Trump team’s response to that?
If there are ideas being worked on, the administration needs to make them known. And if there aren’t, they need to start.
It’s not just the political consideration. It’s the moral one. What do you owe the people who put you in office?
When a Democrat says “lowering costs” he means “force taxpayers to subsidize costs” or “force others to provide services at lower cost”. He never, ever means “get government out of the way so that services can actually be provided more cheaply.” The Democrat attitude to the economy parallels that of Leonid Brezhnev to Eastern Europe - the governments galloping, metastasizing growth may sometimes briefly have to slow but they will fight to the death to prevent any shrinkage. Big government is their bread and butter.
The problem is also that the Democrats will come up with all of the WRONG solutions to this very real problem.