Steve Hallstrom

The irony of the midterm backlash: Democrats spent years talking about rebuilding American manufacturing, yet manufacturing lost roughly 202,000-230,000 jobs in Biden’s final two years. Now foreign companies are announcing more than $900 billion in U.S. factory construction commitments under Trump, and $11.3T in new investment commitments in an industrial renaissance. That’s because of tariffs, the Trump administration says, and it needs to be monitored to see if all this materializes. But tariffs raised prices, the Fed says. Democrats can be hypocritical about manufacturing, but affordability is where incumbents get punished. Here is the political reality: The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis estimates Trump’s tariffs added 0.2–0.4 percentage points to core PCE inflation. The NY Fed estimates they added 2.9 points to consumer-goods inflation. And Brown University estimates the Iran war has cost Americans more than $100 billion in additional gasoline and diesel expenses—over $750 per household. For generations, voters have been unforgiving about their grocery bills and gas tanks. They walk into the voting booth asking “what are you going to do for me?” And it’s also true you cannot fill your gas tank with wind and solar, as Democrats have been undercutting US oil and gas. You can champion reshoring, rebuild American industry and challenge China. But you cannot ask families to absorb an ever-rising cost of living and expect them not to vote accordingly. Now Democrats are in the spotlight - do you think they will really lower inflation and grocery prices and gas prices? Economists warn they have no macroeconomic plan whatsoever. Democrats campaigned on affordability but now want to make your life more expensive with $4 trillion in tax hikes and billions more in inflationary spending on programs like Obamacare, plagued by fraud, waste and abuse. Medicare for All will cost $40T in tax hikes for less care and more government control of your health. And their affordability campaign slogan was secretly this: SUBPOENAS.

Economists warn that Democrats still have no serious, comprehensive long-term strategy to bring down inflation and gasoline prices. There's no detailed, quantifiable plan to reduce federal deficits, rein in spending and Treasury borrowing, stabilize the national debt, or address the monetary policies that helped fuel inflation in the first place. Democrats love talking about affordability, but not making Washington more affordable.   They want to reverse Trump's tariffs but impose $4.4 trillion in tax increases over 10 years. Biden-era Treasury officials have floated $15 trillion dollar tax hikes. Because nothing says affordability quite like taking more money out of Americans' pockets.   Gasoline? Democrats are not talking more supply, instead they want to stymie U.S. production. They want more taxes on the oil and gas industry, restrictions on U.S. drilling, and more spending on green energy. Meanwhile, America's refining capacity has been declining, with major refineries closing and critical fuel infrastructure disappearing. One proposal would impose a 100% tax on certain oil profits above $75 per barrel. Why build another refinery or expand production when Washington is waiting to confiscate the profits?     And groceries? Democrats want more antitrust investigations and crackdowns on alleged price manipulation by grocery chains, along with higher minimum wages. Apparently, Mom-and-Pop grocery stores are now suspects in America's inflation crisis, while Washington's trillion-dollar spending habits get a free pass. Healthcare? Democrats want to pour even more taxpayer money into Obamacare, despite the roughly $27 billion in annual improper payments and fraud. Apparently, when a government program has a fraud problem, the Democratic fix is to bow out the credit card.     They also want more government subsidies for housing, childcare and other programs that contribute to runaway costs. Just look at college tuition. Washington subsidizes the bill, universities raise the price, taxpayers pick up the tab, and everyone wonders why college costs a fortune. That’s the business model.   And let's not forget the opportunities for fraud when billions in taxpayer subsidies are handed out without adequate oversight. Apparently, accountability is optional when the money belongs to somebody else.   Here's the fundamental problem: You cannot tax, subsidize, regulate and spend your way to lasting price stability while ignoring federal deficits, mounting debt and excessive government borrowing.   You cannot keep pumping money into the economy, piling up debt, expanding government programs and then pretend that inflation is somebody else's fault. At some point, Democrats need to explain how they intend to actually lower inflation and energy prices instead of simply redistributing the bill and rebranding the same old D.C. spending spree.   Because taxing Americans more, spending more, borrowing more and regulating more isn't an inflation strategy. It's a Washington spending addiction disguised as an affordability plan. And apparently, the only thing Democrats are determined to expand on is how none of this works.