|
 |
In a recent clip, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins suggested rising grocery costs aren’t a real problem if people simply adjust what they eat. The message is clear: if costs are rising, that’s on you, not on policy.
But while Americans are being told to eat less and lower expectations, families are being squeezed on every side. Grocery and utility costs are rising, wages are stagnant, and job growth has slowed. At the same time, Congress has refused to take action on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, leaving millions facing the loss of lifesaving coverage or premiums that have doubled or tripled—forcing impossible choices between health care, rent, and basic necessities. Inflation is breaking households.
And yet the president has called affordability a hoax.
Republicans in Congress have offered little more than delay and denial. Only 17 House Republicans voted to protect ACA subsidies, while the Senate refuses to act. Child care support has been suspended for millions of working families, and the social safety net is being hollowed out—except for the wealthiest Americans. This is about who holds power and who counts.
Affordability will be a buzzword in 2026, but for millions of Americans it’s a daily struggle—one many of us grew up with, lived through, or are living now. And it’s being made worse by an authoritarian approach that treats poverty as acceptable and scarcity as inevitable.
A young entrepreneur recently asked me how I manage politics, writing, and so much more. My answer was simple: poverty is immoral, economically inefficient, wrong—and solvable. And the way we solve it is democracy.
Democracy isn’t abstract.
It’s how people gain the power to lower costs, protect families, and demand policies that last. Authoritarians thrive on poverty. Democracy creates access, dignity, and opportunity.
We can no longer talk about affordability and democracy as separate ideas. If we want to win elections, we talk about affordability. If we want to win the future, we connect affordability to democratic power—and then we deliver.
It’s not affordability or democracy. It’s affordability and democracy.
I talk about this and much more on this week’s episode of our podcast, Assembly Required. Check it out ⬇️
Go Deeper
Read my latest Fine Print column for the Georgia Trust for Local News, where I write about the health care affordability crisis crushing families in Georgia. Click below to read ⬇️
 |
Missed it? Catch up now
 |
|
 |
|
Invite your friends and earn rewards
| ||||||||||
