Friend,

Before you stop checking your email, I wanted to wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season. The holidays are a time to recharge and relax. But let’s be honest… politics are almost sure to come up at the dinner table this year. Just in case you’ll be spending time with some MAGA relatives, I thought it might be helpful to provide a little mythbusting that you can keep handy:

• President Trump has reinvigorated the economy
  • FALSE. In a recent poll by Fox News, the majority of voters said that costs have increased for utilities (78%), healthcare (67%), housing (66%), gasoline (54%), and groceries (85%). Nearly two-thirds of Americans think that Trump has worsened the economy, and 72% think the economy is in poor shape. They’re right. Businesses have increased prices by an average of 12%, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.6% – its highest level since September 2021. The U.S. has lost 49,000 manufacturing jobs since Trump took office, and one in four households are now living paycheck to paycheck. JD Vance’s advice to families who are struggling? Have “a little bit of patience.” 
• President Trump cut drug prices
  • MOSTLY FALSE. It’s true that Medicare recently announced price cuts for 15 prescription drugs. But those drugs were selected for negotiation in January, before President Trump took office. In fact, those lower drug prices are the direct result of the Inflation Reduction Act, a reform that Trump has tried to undo. Rather than bring down the cost of healthcare, the President said he’d “rather not extend” the Affordable Care Act’s soon-to-expire tax credits, spiking premium prices for working families. 
• President Trump is releasing the Epstein Files
  • MOSTLY FALSE. President Trump spent months trying to block the release of the Epstein files. He called it a “scam,” a “hoax” and “bullshit.” He twisted the arms of his allies in Congress, begging the likes of Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene to withdraw their support for releasing the files to the public. They refused to back down – Trump called Greene a “traitor,” and she’s announced that she’ll soon resign from Congress – leaving the President no choice but to agree to release the files.
• Eliminating the Department of Education won’t harm students
  • FALSE. President Trump has announced that he is (illegally) dismantling the Department of Education. Though the Department doesn’t directly operate schools or employ teachers, it does provide critical resources for districts with low-income students, funds programs for students with disabilities, supports students pursuing higher education through Pell Grants, Federal Student Loans, and work-study programs, and protects equal access to education through the Office of Civil Rights. In other words, getting rid of the Department of Education will have direct and disastrous impacts on classrooms in Connecticut and across the country. 7.4 million students with disabilities could be impacted, as could 26 million students from low-income communities, 9.8 million students in rural schools, 6.6 million Pell grant recipients, and 40 million Americans with student loans managed by the federal government. 
• Democrats keep losing
  • FALSE. Democrats actually swept races across the country last month. Virginia elected a Democratic governor by the widest margin in about 40 years, shifting almost every county Blue. New Jersey elected a Democratic governor, reversing the gains Trump made in that state in 2024. Even in Georgia, Democrats flipped two seats on the Public Service Commission – the first Democratic, non-federal statewide victory in nearly two decades. Pennsylvania elected three Democratic Supreme Court justices, and Maine Democrats defeated a referendum that would restrict access to absentee voting. All of these victories help us to build momentum ahead of the 2026 midterms, when we intend to win back control of the House of Representatives. 

I spend a lot of time fighting back against these myths, both on Capitol Hill and in Connecticut. If you’ve got a conservative uncle who is coming to the dinner table armed with talking points from Fox News, I hope the information above gives you a leg up in fighting misinformation.

— Jim