Voters are angry about the cost of living, and they have every right to be. With Republicans in full control of Washington, they expect a fast reversal of the Biden years.
But voters’ anger should not be mistaken for amnesia. Americans clearly remember who started the affordability fire burning through families’ wallets.
My new League of American Workers poll of likely Arizona voters, conducted earlier this month, captures the mood. A 44% plurality of voters say their personal finances got worse over the past year, while just 17% say they improved. Among independents, it’s 48% worse versus 16% better.
Yet here is the key caveat the corporate media keeps missing or deliberately ignoring. Despite their frustrations, only 38% of voters say they would be better off with Kamala Harris as president. Ten percent say it would make no difference and 44% believe they would be worse off with a Kamala Harris in the Oval Office. Moreover, Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, sit at a dismal 34% approval against 64% disapproval.
The Biden-Harris record was truly awful, which is why Democrats are counting on short memories at the ballot box this Nov. 3.
In March 2021, at the very start of the Biden-Harris administration, Democrats rammed through their $1.9 trillion so-called American Rescue Plan without a single Republican vote, dumping gasoline on an economy already flush with pandemic stimulus. Joe Biden also killed the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day, waged an all-out war on American energy, and piled on expensive, unworkable fuel-economy mandates designed to force families into electric vehicles that weren’t reliable or affordable.
The results were predictable and devastating. In June 2022, Biden’s inflation hit 9.1%, the highest since November 1981. That same month, the national average for a gallon of gasoline hit a record $5.02.
Over Biden’s four years in office, consumer prices rose 21.5%. Gasoline alone rose 31%. Home prices soared 37.4%. And after adjusting for inflation, private-sector average weekly earnings shrank 4%. Americans worked harder only to end up poorer.
Democrats loudly object when Republicans cite these figures. But these are not my improvised numbers. They are the final Biden tallies from FactCheck.org, which no one would ever confuse with a right-wing outlet.
The pain hit hardest where nearly every family shops each week: the grocery store. Grocery prices jumped 23% overall. Butter rose 35%, sugar 49%, and a dozen eggs a staggering 237%. Meanwhile, rent climbed 25%, car insurance 29%, and a night out at a restaurant 25%.
To make matters worse, the Biden-Harris administration surrendered our sovereignty and threw our southern border wide open. According to the Congressional Budget Office, illegal immigration added at least 7 million people to our population from 2021 to 2024.
Of course, these millions of illegal invaders needed homes. A Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas working paper found that unauthorized immigrant worker flows during the Biden-Harris border crisis explained roughly 30% of home price growth and 20% of rent growth in the average local market, without adding new housing supply. Young couples priced out of a first home can thank Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and congressional Democrats.
And most tragically, many families paid for the Biden-Harris border crisis in blood. Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was horrifically murdered in 2024 by an illegal alien who crossed in 2022 and had been arrested twice, including once in sanctuary New York City, and released. Her death was entirely preventable and woke the nation up to the scourge of illegal immigration. Yet 156 House Democrats voted against the Laken Riley Act at the start of the Trump-Vance administration.
But despite this dreadful record, these same radical, shameless Democrats pose as the party of affordability? In reality, they are affordability frauds.
The Democrats’ new economic model is New York City’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani: rent freezes, city-run grocery stores, and zero cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to arrest violent illegal alien criminals. That is a recipe for squalor and chaos. No wonder socialism sits at just 28% favorable and 61% unfavorable in my Arizona survey.
Admittedly, Republicans own this economy now, and there is real work left to do. Before the misguided Iran war began in February, inflation had cooled to 2.4%, and gas was below $3 a gallon. Even with the war, Republicans still have major successes to point to on the border, with 17 straight months of zero releases and a stunning 99% reduction in illegal border crossings. The country also just saw the largest tax refund season in history.
The war undoubtedly needs to end so we can get fully back on track and keep the focus on the home front—on paychecks, groceries, and rent. American voters are too astute to hire the arsonists to put out what’s left of the fire they started.
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