It's the "affordability" stupid!
TAT readers,
I hope everyone’s first week back from the Thanksgiving holiday has gone better than expected. After the Republican government shutdown, more bizarre tariff actions, more draconian immigration raids against much of America’s workforce, instability throughout government and the results of failed political leadership, it’s us working Americans, that pay the price, especially in our household budgets. Government spends, politicians boast, corporations reap record profits, and our hard-earned dollars, earn less by the day. Working Americans can no longer afford the overt kleptocracy of our current administration and their covetous band of favorite oligarchs.
“It’s the economy stupid” was a phrase coined by James Carville in 1992, when he was advising Bill Clinton in his successful run for the White House. In 1992, the US was experiencing an economic recession and the incumbent president, George HW Bush, was perceived as out of touch with the needs of ordinary Americans. Carville told campaign staffers to hammer on the importance of the economy at every chance they got – he even went so far as to hang a sign in campaign headquarters reading, in part, “the economy, stupid.” The phrase became a mantra for the Clinton campaign.” - politicaldictionary.com
For most working Americans, the most common evidence of “affordability” concerns, comes when checking out at the supermarket. Inflationary expenses in other areas critical to our lives, like health insurance, unforeseen events, accidents, school, etc. also begin to take their toll on our financial stability. The fact that these costs go up constantly while that our paychecks do a poor job of keeping pace, are in most informed opinions, creating a simmering pot of voter dissatisfaction on both sides of the aisle. This type of voter dissatisfaction, must be unwelcome news for an administration already circling the wagons for the required release of the Epstein Files by December 19th.
The issue of affordability worsens for working Americans in the coming year or so, when the worst impacts from the Big Ugly Bill begin to hurt them too. Over the same period, very few will see bigger paychecks, while that inflation continues to whittle away at our household budgets. Regardless of how mainstream news services are framing the affordability issue, it is certainly not the “hoax” or “con-job” as described by Trump and his administration. This is not their only conspiracy theory about our nation’s economic health. As I like to say, “truth is what people, groups, nations or companies do… not what they say.”
For decades, the US middle class has been the engine of American progress and productivity. In the past few years, America’s load-bearing middle-class has been declining in size and as the stabilizing anchor of our economy. Today’s Republican administration, high on their Project 2025 dismantling of our republic, is seeing to it that the middle class evaporates even further. The impact of the failed economic policies of this administration in particular, is the devolving the middle class into “lower-middle class status,” therefore diluting the pool of taxpayers capable of keeping our government afloat, even further. It is among the lower and middle classes of American workers, that affordability has become a frightening word. It should terrify the CBO or Congressional Budget Office, as well.
I very much believe that over the holidays, we should all give some serious consideration to the palpable anxiety among consumers and retailers alike. Affordability affects everyone in the food chain of commerce. Consider that jobs are waning and with the moment-to-moment advances in technology, AI could consume millions of jobs within the next few years. The nation needs a serious strategy to face the future. Paying tribute to a wannabe king, is not a strategy, it’s a commitment to failure. We must figure out how to navigate a wondrous and terrifying future filled with uncertainty, but also do so, in a manner that is constitutionally and morally sound. Subjecting our citizenry to ever-increasing financial and physical abuse, for the benefit of the few, defeats any chance for a future economy, that is both moral and constitutional.
Summary
Today’s essay has been my musings regarding the legitimate fear and anxiety among voters over the issue now popularly called, “affordability.” The issue is nothing new to our current times. The US has faced down oligarchy multiple times throughout our history. We are currently in one such phase, albeit the worst of the bunch, due to the corrupt complicity of the ruling Republican Party. Don’t let the left off the hook either, because the tentacles of corporate influence, reach deeply into nearly every aspect of our system of government. Our founders never intended for the rich and powerful to rule the republic as an elite class.
By all credible standards, the US economy, white-hot at transition on January 20th, has not only cooled notably from a 3% GDP growth to a projected 2% for 2026, but reflects a pervasive uncertainty, that gives most credible analysts, concern. Nearly every respected economic forecast has come up with very similar predictions and at best, most see “moderate” growth with a minefield of potential risks, mostly due to failed or non-existent administration policies. Around our kitchen tables, this means inflation will continue to raise the cost of dinner, our wages will remain stagnant, consumer confidence will remain in decline, and family budgets will strain ever-further, under the perpetually increasing stresses of uncertainty and anxiety.
Current polling shows the Republicans are accurately blamed for our affordability crisis, and even more than the party, Trump himself. Without a single successful economic policy to mitigate the damage done so far, things can only get worse from here. Heading into the new year, our 2026 budget is still unresolved and the temporary CR funding the government, expires on January 30th. Nearly 12 million Americans will still be at risk of losing their healthcare due to the expiration the ACA subsidies at the heart of the last shutdown. That same budget from the GOP still cuts massive amounts from our social safety net, increasingly under more and more duress, as lower and middle class Americans, require more support.
What all of this discussion comes down to, is that working Americans are justifiably anxious about their future, whether personal or national. The working classes are tired of paying everyone’s bills, especially billionaire beneficiaries of the GOP’s cash giveaways. Over time, the BBB, simply puts more of a tax load on the disappearing middle class, while inflation squeezes them at the supermarket. We, the middle and lower classes, cannot keep carrying the financial load without the wise and equitable economic leadership, we have been deprived of by the administration.
Historical American topics I have often ventured into in the past, are worthy case studies for what happens when fascists and oligarchs try to run everything. The late 1920s through the beginning of WW II is one of those instructive periods. A looney tariff policy called the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, helped derail the US and global economy, helping to initiate and deepen, the Great Depression. Unfettered financial institutions led to the fall of the stock market and Great Gatsby-esque, “new money” millionaires often had a “let them eat cake” approach to all those beneath their social station. These familiar historical footsteps haunt much of what we experience today in our nation. Those footsteps are warnings to those who would listen.
A nation that squeezes the life out of its producers by burdening them with heavy tax loads, and little opportunity, is guilty of inflicting a near mortal wound to their own economy. The entire question of affordability comes down to whether or not, we will allow authoritarians and their oligarchs to impose unaffordability, onto all of us.
My very best for your weekend,
Paul