Commentary
Watching the gubernatorial winners in New Jersey and Virginia latch on to Zohran Mamdani’s pledge of making life affordable for New Yorkers and the resulting media pressure placed on President Trump on affordability, I decided it was time for me to address the issue.
As I began researching “affordability” as a political issue, I recalled that candidate Trump talked about it at rally after rally, but without calling for state-owned grocery stores, rent control, free bus service and other socialist freebees.
“From today, and from the day I take oath of office, we will rapidly drive prices down and make America affordable again. We will target everything from car affordability to housing affordability to insurance costs.”
Two days after taking office, he issued a memorandum in which he recognized the critical component of the cost of everyday living – the regulatory burdens and radical policies of the Biden administration. With it he ordered all federal agencies “to untangle the economy from the Biden constraints and improve affordability of necessary goods and services and increase the prosperity of American workers.”
His memorandum called for action to “drastically lower the cost of housing and to expand housing supply.”
Like the question, what is a “living wage,” the use of “affordability” is a catchword that is now being attached to energy, transportation, household budgets, healthcare and, of course, housing.
Simply, it means, the state of being cheap enough for people to be able to afford, but politicians look at it as a goal of universal access to basics.
Housing affordability is defined clearly that housing costs should not exceed 30 percent of an individual’s income.
Seemingly, New Yorker and fellow blogger, Francis Menton, has had enough of Mamdani. “The Latest Political Scam – ‘Affordability’ – Is Really Taking Off” reads the headline over his recent commentary.
Noting that the recently elected governors in New Jersey and Virginia used affordability as a theme in their campaigns, Menton asks if the promise of affordability has any prospect of being delivered through proposed policies or is the promise of affordability a scam from the outset.
As the leftist networks try to paint the Trump economy negatively, The New York Times, with the headline, “Trump Tries to Seize ‘Affordability’ Message,” and suggests that “the issue has buoyed Democrats and is resonating with an American electorate that is souring on the president’s economic agenda.”
With the media seeing affordability as a means to turn Americans sour on Trump, conversely, the Associated Press notes, “Trump is ramping up a new effort to convince a skeptical public he can fix affordability worries.”
Referring to the Republican Party as the “Party of Affordability,” he plans to cite the higher costs and inflation he inherited from the Biden administration and document reduced costs of gasoline and pharmaceuticals, while highlighting the massive investment in manufacturing that will lead to jobs and higher wages.
I believe that Trump’s economic agenda will be booming by the midterms, leaving no doubt that Republicans deserve to be reelected.
FINALLY … back to Zohran Mamdani, credited with providing the socialist definition of affordability, one day after winning the election, produced a video for social media in which he noted that “there’s work to be done by the transition committee and donations would help.”
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
