Category: Economy
If voters don’t feel relief, the economy isn’t fixed
The concerns of many Americans about their economic well-being may be at the highest level since the Great Depression. Politico recently reported that 46% of Americans say their cost of living is the worst that they can remember, including over one-third of Trump voters. Nothing better exemplifies this than the many “30-somethings” who are unable to purchase a home.
Financial anxieties center around affordability, which is the proxy for evaluating whether the economy is meeting the public’s needs. Affordability is the degree to which households can responsibly pay for essential goods and services.
In the end, the nation’s affordability dilemma is about the confidence people have in the country’s economic future.
Gregg Ip, an economic commentator for the Wall Street Journal, says that affordability cannot be measured solely by economic data, but must also account for perceptions of financial security.
President Trump opined that concerns about affordability are a “hoax” created by Democrats for political purposes. Most Americans would disagree. While the runaway inflation of the Biden presidency has moderated, widespread concerns about affordability persist. According to a recent Politico poll, nearly half of the nation found the cost of their groceries, health care, utilities, and housing to be unaffordable. About half of the respondents said food costs are difficult to manage, and more than a quarter skipped medical appointments because of the cost.
In the 2026 midterm elections, it will be incumbent upon Republicans and Democrats to make an affordability agenda “job one.” These agendas should be the yardstick voters use to cast their vote for members of Congress and state officials.
The U.S. affordability crisis is multidimensional, requiring a dual-track strategy that combines structural reforms with immediate and affordable relief for the most vulnerable citizens. Each party’s affordability agenda should demonstrate when households will realize cost-of-living relief, avoid another round of inflation, provide market incentives for innovation, supply expansion and productivity gains, demonstrate distributional fairness, and stress choice over federal mandates.
Restoring an affordable economy will require that failed federal policies be reversed and the president and Congress focus on fixing long-term root causes.
To make goods and services more affordable, public policies should aim at increasing private-sector housing construction, modernizing domestic energy regulations, expanding production, encouraging competition in the health care insurance market, avoiding deficit spending that can rekindle inflation, rolling back regulations that increase consumer and business expenses, and devolving social and educational programs to the states to tailor taxpayer-friendly solutions to local challenges.
The nation’s affordability dilemma is not only about the price of goods and services. It concerns the relationship between costs, income, and the perception of financial security. In the end, it is about the confidence people have in the country’s economic future.
RELATED: All I want for Christmas is for Vivek Ramaswamy to stop embarrassing the GOP
Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images
When households and businesses feel “squeezed,” they lose faith that public or private institutions are protecting their interests. A September 2025 poll conducted by the Pew Research Center found that just 17% of Americans trusted the federal government to do the “right thing” most of the time. Similarly, the July 2025 Gallup survey reported that less than 30% of Americans had confidence in U.S. institutions.
The major impediments to addressing the high cost of living are deep ideological divides over causes and solutions. Progressives emphasize government mandates and regulations, subsidies, and deficit spending. Conservatives stress fiscal restraint and market-driven solutions. Adopting common-sense economic reforms requires compromise and the rejection of left and right extremism driven by grievances and rage.
There is no more important issue for voters than which candidates and parties will boldly tackle the affordability challenge. Success will be influenced by policies that encourage business investment and innovation and workers keeping more of their income.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
The American dream lives where people still choose to build
“For many, the American dream has become a nightmare,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has said, capturing a sentiment that has become common on the political left and across modern culture.
That line now travels far beyond politics. Scroll social media for five minutes, and you’ll see the same message repeated in endless variations: Owning a home is impossible. Raising a family is irresponsible. Work doesn’t pay. The system is rigged. The future is closed.
The American dream was never a promise of ease or comfort by age 25. It was an invitation to build something meaningful over time through responsibility and perseverance.
This message is everywhere, and it is doing real damage.
Harder lives, false conclusions
Life has become harder in tangible ways. Housing costs have surged. College has grown bloated and expensive. Inflation punished families already living close to the margins. Young adults feel delayed, uncertain, and anxious about the future.
Those frustrations are real. The conclusion being pushed alongside them is not.
The lie is not that things are harder. The lie is that effort no longer matters.
That lie spreads quickly online because it feels validating. A 30-second video declaring the system broken beyond repair asks nothing of the viewer except agreement. Building a life requires patience, sacrifice, and time. One goes viral. The other happens quietly.
Much of this shift comes from where young Americans now form their beliefs. For many in Generation Z, ideas about money, marriage, and the future are no longer shaped primarily by parents, churches, employers, or local communities. They are shaped by algorithm-driven platforms like TikTok and X, where extremity is rewarded with attention.
In those spaces, online figures routinely dismiss the American dream as a scam and portray starting a family as a trap rather than a source of meaning or stability. Cynicism is marketed as realism. Detachment is framed as wisdom. A generation looking for guidance is taught to expect failure before it ever tries.
Why despair is profitable
This narrative didn’t arise by accident. It feeds on real pain, but it’s also profitable. Political movements gain leverage by convincing voters that only sweeping control from the top can fix a hopeless system. Media companies thrive on pessimism because fear keeps people watching. Online grievance entrepreneurs build massive followings by telling young people that nothing they do will ever be enough.
If Americans stop believing they can build a future, someone else will gladly build power over them.
History keeps disproving this story.
Tell the generation that survived the Great Depression that the American dream was dead. Tell the men who returned from World War II, many wounded and broke, who used the GI Bill to buy homes and start families, that the climb was too steep. Tell the children of factory workers who grew up without air conditioning, college degrees, or safety nets — but still built middle-class lives through work and sacrifice — that the odds were unfair.
Tell the families of the 1950s and 1960s who lived modestly, saved slowly, and delayed gratification for decades that life was easy. Tell the Americans who endured oil crises, layoffs, and double-digit inflation in the 1970s and early 1980s that the system was designed for their comfort.
The dream was never easy
Life has never been easy. The climb has always been steep. The American dream was never built on convenience. It was built on resilience.
The truth is less dramatic — and far more hopeful. The American dream didn’t disappear. It changed shape.
It was never a promise of ease or comfort by age 25. It was an invitation to build something meaningful over time through responsibility and perseverance. For generations, it rested on a simple foundation: Work hard, form families, contribute locally, and invest in something bigger than yourself.
That path was never easy. What changed is not the dream, but our tolerance for effort and our patience for delayed reward.
The quiet math of real life
Despite the noise, the American dream remains visible in places social media rarely celebrates. It shows up in the quiet math of real life.
Research from the Institute for Family Studies finds that stably married Americans approaching retirement hold, on average, more than $640,000 in household assets, compared with roughly $167,000 for divorced or never-married adults — even after accounting for age, education, and race. That gap reflects decades of shared sacrifice, income pooling, planning, and commitment.
These stories don’t trend online. They play out quietly every day.
Ironically, many of the loudest voices declaring the dream dead are doing quite well selling that message. Entire online brands are built on telling people that life is impossible — while generating substantial revenue and influence in the process. Despair has become an industry.
RELATED: Christmas is worth celebrating, even if your family is fractured
Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images
What truly threatens the American dream is not capitalism, competition, or even inequality. It’s a culture that encourages permanent adolescence. A culture that treats commitment as a burden, delays adulthood indefinitely, and then wonders why people feel anxious and untethered.
The American dream doesn’t die because life is hard. It dies when people are convinced that hard things aren’t worth doing.
Too many young Americans are told that marriage can wait, children are optional, faith is outdated, and roots are restrictive. They’re promised freedom through detachment and fulfillment through endless choice — then wake up years later with more options than ever and less meaning than expected.
Builders still have the advantage
This isn’t a policy argument. It’s a cultural one. No law can manufacture purpose. No program can force optimism. But a nation that teaches its citizens the dream is dead shouldn’t be surprised when fewer people try to live it.
The American dream has always belonged to builders of families, businesses, and communities. It never belonged to those waiting for perfect conditions or guaranteed outcomes.
The American dream isn’t dead. But telling Americans that it is has become fashionable, profitable, and politically useful.
The question is whether we continue to accept that story — or choose, once again, to build.
BLUE STATES PAY MORE: New White House Data Shows Inflation Gaps Between States [WATCH]
![BLUE STATES PAY MORE: New White House Data Shows Inflation Gaps Between States [WATCH]](https://hannity.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Inflation-300x162.png "Inflation")
A new analysis from the White House Council of Economic Advisers finds inflation has run noticeably lower in conservative-led states than in liberal-led states over the past year — with the sharpest differences showing up in energy and transportation costs.
‘GREAT CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE’: Hassett Takes Trump Admin Victory Lap on Strong GDP Report [WATCH]
![‘GREAT CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE’: Hassett Takes Trump Admin Victory Lap on Strong GDP Report [WATCH]](https://hannity.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/GettyImages-2252212055-300x200.jpg "White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett Speaks To The Press At The White House")
NEC Director Kevin Hassett praised Q3 4.
WHAT TO EXPECT: How President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Could Impact Your Tax Refunds
This article originally appeared in The New York Post The first tax season under President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act is fast approaching – and most filers can expect a slew of fresh and enlarged deductions that will result in bigger refund checks in the mail.
MASSIVE CHECKS INCOMING? Hassett Says Families Could See Big Savings in Largest Tax Refund Season Ever [WATCH]
![MASSIVE CHECKS INCOMING? Hassett Says Families Could See Big Savings in Largest Tax Refund Season Ever [WATCH]](https://hannity.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Hasset-300x167.png "Hasset")
A top contender to become President Trump’s next Federal Reserve chair is making a bold promise:
COOLING FAST: Inflation Comes in Below Expectations, ‘Another Step in the Right Direction’ [WATCH]
![COOLING FAST: Inflation Comes in Below Expectations, ‘Another Step in the Right Direction’ [WATCH]](https://hannity.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/GettyImages-2234916774-300x200.jpg "President Trump Departs White House For New York")
Inflation blinked first.
Trump touts his economic record in live prime-time speech to the nation: ‘I inherited a mess’
President Donald Trump made a national address where he blamed the former administration for the affordability crisis and touted his economic progress.
The president highlighted many of the statistics that showed improvement from former President Joe Biden’s term compared to his second term.
‘One year ago, our country was dead. We were absolutely dead. … Now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world.’
“When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years … which caused prices to be higher than ever before, making life unaffordable for millions and millions of Americans,” the president said.
“Over the past 11 months, we have brought more positive change to Washington than any administration in American history. There has never been anything like it,” he continued.
He said that he successfully negotiated $18 trillion of investments into the country and went on the attack against Democrats.
“Under the Biden administration, car prices rose 22%, and in many states 30% or more,” Trump said. “Gasoline rose 30 to 50%. Hotel rates rose 37%. Airfares rose 31%. Now, under our leadership, they are all coming down and coming down fast.”
The president also cited statistics on his successes concerning border enforcement.
“Drugs brought in by ocean and by sea are now down 94%. We have broken the grip of sinister woke radicals in our schools. … I’ve restored American strength, settled eight wars in 10 months, destroyed the Iran nuclear threat, and ended the war in Gaza, bringing, for the first time in 3,000 years, peace to the Middle East,” he continued.
He looked ahead to the country celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the World Cup, and the Olympics.
“One year ago, our country was dead. We were absolutely dead,” he stated. “Our country was ready to fail. Totally fail. Now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world. And that’s said by every single leader I’ve spoken to over the last five months.”
The president also announced what he called a “warrior dividend” of $1,776 — garnered from his tariffs — to be sent to members of the military in time for Christmas.
“Tonight, after 11 months, our border is secure, inflation is stopped, wages are up, prices are down, our nation is strong, America is respected, and our country is back, stronger than ever before,” he added. “We’re poised for an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen.”
RELATED: Karoline Leavitt berates CNN’s Kaitlan Collins over inflation and the economy
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) tried to pre-emptively undermine the president’s message on social media.
“He can say whatever he wants on camera, but this is the reality for America: Prices are higher, unemployment is rising, the holidays are more expensive than ever, and his tariffs are taxing people to no end,” he posted.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
