By Steve Levy
The new buzzword in politics is “affordability.” It’s what many pundits believe led Democrats to a strong showing this past Election Day.
It’s also put President Trump and the Republicans on notice that affordability will likely remain as the pivotal issue in the midterms.
It’s all extraordinarily frustrating to Trump, who continues to tout his policies that resulted in an immediate sharp reduction in gas prices, a moderation of inflation and a meteoric rise in the stock market.
Unfortunately, the president appears tone-deaf when he parrots the same argument hyped by Biden and Harris in the fall of 2024 that they shouldn’t believe their lying eyes, but rather the cherry-picked statistics that the then-president pumped on a daily basis.
Trump has a lot more success to point to than did Biden, but he’s missing something when he thinks everyone has benefited from a high stock market and a robust 3.8% GDP.
While it’s encouraging to the average middle class person that their 401(k) is at its highest level ever, that money isn’t available right now to pay their still too high grocery bills, climbing rents, or the mortgage on a new home.
So, Mr. President, allow me to humbly suggest you use the following message:
Dear fellow American,
In this last election, I heard you loud and clear that closing the border and bringing prices down were your prime concerns.
I said on day one that I would be able to lower your gas prices and I succeeded by ending Biden‘s war on traditional energy sources and promoting more drilling.
What will not happen on day one is seeing the filtering-down effect on all prices.
That will take some time. Not four years, but several months to two years.
If we look back in history, we can see that Ronald Reagan did not turn around a moribund economy in one day. But his tax cuts and deregulation, in time, resulted in an enormous surge in productivity and wage growth.
That’s why it’s so important to stay the course.
There’s evidence my policies work. Look back to the first three years of my administration before Covid.
Our tax cuts brought billions of dollars back into the United States that were parked overseas. They spurred investment and placed an additional $2,000 in the pockets of the average family.
It led to significantly higher GDP than Obama‘s last term and raised wages to their highest level in decades, with the working class gaining even more on a proportional basis than the wealthy.
As we head into winter, the lower fuel costs can save an average household in the thousands.
Wages are starting to rise, in part, because I am deporting illegal aliens who have been suppressing wages over the years.
Why would we elect more Democrats who would reverse this?
And soon, we will have a new Federal Reserve chair who will likely cut interest rates significantly.
High interest rates are the root of the pain so many of you are feeling. Homeownership has been out of reach for many. I don’t mean this to sound partisan, but it is indeed Joe Biden‘s doing.
Rates spiked dramatically during his tenure because he recklessly spent trillions of dollars unnecessarily, thereby spiking inflation to its highest level in 40 years.
We now have an inflation rate between 2% and 3%, which is a great improvement over Biden‘s 9%. We realize that’s not actually lowering his high baseline, but it is curbing inflation that will lead to the Fed cutting the rates, which will unleash enormous prosperity in our nation.
Right now, no one is going to sell the home they bought seven years ago with an interest rate of 3% and have it converted to a 6-1/2% mortgage. That has a limited supply. Meanwhile, Joe Biden let in 15 million illegal aliens who are competing for this housing stock.
There were many folks who were hoping that these high prices would be eradicated within the first month or two of my administration. I realize I built up that expectation by noting that we would change things day one. And on some things we did, including the border and energy policy, but I ask your indulgence for more time on some of the other price levels that we are confident will be reduced over the next year.
As for tariffs, we will continue to level the playing field so our Fords can be sold in Germany and we are no longer dependent on China for our pharmaceuticals or rare earth materials. However, I will hereinafter refrain from imposing tariffs on every nation all at once. We will seek reciprocity one nation at a time to lessen the impact on our consumers.
The roaring back of our economy in my first term due to tax cuts and deregulation will be repeated in the years to come, so long as we don’t elect the same culprits that put us near the brink in the last four years.
Thank you.
Steve Levy is President of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of the “On the Right Side Podcast.” He is the author of “Solutions to America’s Problems” and “Bias in the Media.” www.SteveLevy.info, Twitter @SteveLevyNY, steve@commonsensestrategies.com