Have you noticed lately that Democrats think affordability is their winning issue to regain power in next year’s midterms? It’s true. They’re literally blaming the high costs of goods on President Trump and the GOP, and think they can ride this talking point into power. However, they’re mistaken; it’s actually an issue the GOP can win with.
During Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, Vice President JD Vance explained why, and it all makes sense. Democrats, he points out, are responsible for the economy’s downturn, which they now claim they want to fix.
Vance laid out a contrast that should terrify Democrats heading into 2026: Republicans are delivering rising paychecks and real prosperity, while Democrats defend Biden-era struggles families see every time they shop.
Vance opened by praising President Trump’s framing of the issue and then went straight for the Democrats’ favorite talking point. “It is absurd that Democrats talk about an affordability crisis that they created,” he said, stressing that Trump’s team “work every single day to address” the mess left behind. For a party that has tried to brand Republicans as indifferent to kitchen-table struggles, Vance’s message was unmistakable: the GOP is not just owning the affordability issue; it is proving that Democrats caused the crisis and have no credibility in fixing it.
To drive the point home, Vance zeroed in on what he called “the most important statistic for the American people” — what has actually happened to their household income under each party’s leadership. Under Joe Biden, he said, “the average American family lost over $3,000 of household income,” while “under the first 10 months of this Trump administration, they have gained over $1,000 of household income.” That contrast is political dynamite. It allows Republicans to move beyond abstract inflation charts and speak directly to what voters feel: they were poorer under Biden and are climbing back under Trump and a Republican Congress.
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From there, Vance methodically walked through the affordability crisis piece by piece, always tying the pain to Democratic policies and the progress to Republican reforms. “What that says very clearly is that we are fixing the problem that Joe Biden and the Democrats created in the last administration,” he said, arguing that “every affordability crisis that’s confronting the American people today” can be “traceable directly to a problem caused by Joe Biden and congressional Democrats.” Housing, taxes, food — the basic pillars of middle-class life — all became examples in his indictment of Biden-era policy.
On housing, Vance asked the obvious question every young family is asking: “Why did homes get so unaffordable?” His answer was straight and to the point: “Because we had 20 million illegal aliens in this country taking homes that ought by right go to American citizens.” He applied the same logic to taxes: “Why did tax bills get so unaffordable? Because Democrats were raising taxes while congressional Republicans under the president’s leadership were now cutting taxes.”
And what about grocery bills?
“Why did food get so expensive? Vance asked. “Because we printed trillions of dollars and threw it into green scams that made our agricultural economy suffer while Americans were paying higher prices for food.”
Vance was far from done.
“On every single one of those issues, Mr. President, I think we’ve made incredible progress, but it would be preposterous to fix every problem caused over the last four years in just 10 months,” he said. He described the administration’s record so far with characteristic confidence, and then pivoted to an optimistic vision for what comes next.
Vance said this season represents a moment when the administration can look back and say “we have now done incredible work to fix what Joe Biden broke,” and look ahead to what he called potentially “the best year that we’ve had in the United States of America” for growth and prosperity.
With all the progress Trump and the GOP have made so far, imagine what it will be like next year. What talking point will the Democrats have to fall back on then?
“It’s gonna happen because we’re all working hard. It’s gonna happen because we have the greatest country in the world,” he said.
He then left Democrats with a stinging warning: “For congressional Democrats in particular, if they want to talk about affordability, they ought to look in the mirror.”
In the end, Vance boiled the issue down to one succinct promise: “We are fixing what they’re broken. We’re proud to do it. It’s the job that we were elected to do.” Then he put a date on Republican optimism, predicting that “2026 is going to be the year where this economy really takes off.” For a GOP that once let Democrats posture as the party of the middle class, this is a very different party: confident, combative, and eager to run on affordability.
As they should.
