Affordability Theater Is a Band-Aid, Not a Cure
I have another piece running today in The Dispatch. It’s about how both Republicans and Democrats propose policies that would make life more expensive - and then try to fool voters by offering them cash instead of fixing the problem.
Dispatch articles require a subscription, but as always I’m happy to make sure Infinite Scroll readers get a gift link to read everything I write for free. And if you want to subscribe to The Dispatch, you can use code ‘JEREMIAH’ for 15% off.
There’s a particular type of lie that dominates American political discourse these days. It’s not a factual lie, but a conceptual mistruth: the promise that you can make life more affordable without actually making anything cheaper. Call it affordability theater.
It’s easy to propose ideas that make things feel more affordable without actually making them less expensive. And while both parties traffic in this kind of theater, the GOP— especially under President Donald Trump—has turned it into a governing ethos.
The formula is simple. First, Trump will create an affordability problem through his own policies. Then, instead of fixing the underlying cause, he will propose to paper over the problem with a subsidy, a tax gimmick, or a check.
Tariffs are the most obvious example. Trump returned to office in 2025 in no small part because of voter anger about inflation and the cost of living. And his signature policy move was to tariff nearly everything Americans buy from abroad. Tariffs are taxes that raise prices, and analysis from the Budget Lab at Yale shows the costs of tariffs mostly manifest as higher prices for consumers. How does Trump aim to square this circle? Tariff stimulus checks. After worsening the cost-of-living crisis, Trump and his allies floated the idea of sending rebate checks to offset the pain.
It’s hard to imagine a cleaner example—make life more expensive, then offer to partially compensate you for the pain while taking credit for both moves. But after the check is spent, life is still more expensive than it was before.
The same pattern plays out with Trump’s farm policy…
Check out the full piece over at The Dispatch!
I agree with almost everything you say in this piece. The fact that this "slopulism" is coming from the left (far AND moderate) as well is troubling.
I would pick on one thing. You mention that affordability isn't vibes and that you can't fool people forever with money that doesn't help the underlying issues.
I agree with the latter part. But the former seems wrong in light of what we've seen. Much of the public meltdown about prices in the later Biden year(s) was literally vibes. Real incomes were up! household savings rates were up, household debt to GDP was down, I could go on and on. And people were FURIOUS about how poor they had become...despite that not happening at all.
I will note that housing affordability (among other things, but this chiefly among them) is absolutely a major problem. And that, if we can find a good way to bring down (or slow the growth) of childcare prices and medical costs, that would be great!
But a lot of people were very mad that they FELT poorer at the end of the Biden administration when in fact, they were richer.