“President Donald Trump is scrambling to develop a plan and message on still-high prices,” Roll Call reported on November 10, “after the White House appeared caught off guard by how the affordability issue helped drive Republican losses” in elections around the country on November 4.
As of that reportage, Trump maintained one truth and one falsehood.
The truth: Yes, “affordability” is a trending buzzword that the Democrats made good use of in recent campaigns and that Republicans “have to talk about it” if they want to get back in the electoral fight.
The falsehood: “We have prices down.”
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics hasn’t issued a Consumer Price Index report for October due to the recent “government shutdown,” but as of September the CPI was up by 0.3% from August, and annual price inflation as measured by that statistic is running at a little under 3%.
And, as most people seem to be noticing, CPI isn’t a very good indicator for actual cost of living. It uses a fixed “basket of goods,” some of them more slow/resistant to price changes than others, and assumes that people continue to buy the same amount of stuff from that same “basket” instead of substituting other goods.
Prices are going up, not down, and they’re probably going up even faster than the US government claims.
What can politicians actually do, rather than just promise to do, to “deliver” on “affordability?” One thing and one thing only: Get out of the way.
Trump did just a little bit of that on November 14 when he rolled back his economically ruinous tariffs on, as Reuters reports, more than 200 “products U.S. consumers routinely purchase to feed their families at home, many of which have seen double-digit year-over-year price increases.”
Government taxes, government borrowing, government inflation of the money supply, government spending, and government regulation increases prices, full stop.
Yes, even when the government policy in question is sold under the claim that it will increase “affordability.”
When government taxes you, you have less money to spend on the things you need and want.
When the government spends money, it’s competing with you in an ongoing “auction” for goods and services. More demand versus the same supply means higher prices.
When the government borrows money and/or or inflates the currency supply, it puts the negative effects of both taxing and spending on steroids.
And compliance with government regulations adds costs that the makers of goods and providers of services pass on to you.
When taxes, spending, borrowing, inflation, and regulation increase, living your life becomes less affordable.
When taxes, spending, borrow, inflation, and regulation decrease, living your life becomes more affordable.
No Mamdani Magic Wand or Canute-like Trump decree can change those two facts.
As both parties gear up to run on “affordability” promises in the 2026 midterms, listen to the candidates. If they’re promising to reduce the size, scope, and power of government, they just may — MAY — be honest and serious. If they’re not promising those things, they’re neither honest nor serious.
Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.
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