Tom Basile was blunt on America Right Now: Republicans can’t win by murmuring about vague principles while working families choke on skyrocketing costs. He told viewers the affordability crisis is real, widespread, and a political fault line — and he demanded the GOP stop treating it like a talking point and start treating it like an emergency. Voters are watching, and if conservatives don’t show concrete plans, the midterms will be a referendum on who has a better answer for paychecks and mortgages.
This isn’t just cable-news chatter; independent polling and academic surveys show the economy and cost of living are at the top of voters’ minds across party lines. When ordinary Americans volunteer the single biggest problem facing the country, terms like inflation, cost of living, and housing keep coming up, and that reality cuts across red and blue districts alike. Republicans who still hope cultural grievances will be enough are kidding themselves — affordability is the issue that decides votes this cycle.
Let’s call the numbers what they are: the price shock Americans felt after the pandemic didn’t vanish with a headline from Washington. The Consumer Price Index surged in 2021–2022 and, while headline inflation has eased from its peak, the cumulative hit to family budgets is permanent for many households. Everyday Americans still feel the pain at the grocery store, at the pump, and in the utility bill, and that translates into real anger at a federal government that promised relief and delivered higher costs instead.
Housing is the most painful example — home prices and rents jumped during the pandemic, and while some indexes show a cooling, affordability remains near historic lows for first-time buyers and renters. The Case-Shiller index and other measures documented dramatic gains in home prices that outpaced wage growth, leaving young families shut out of markets and seniors squeezed on fixed incomes. If the GOP wants credibility on affordability, it must have a plan that actually lowers monthly housing costs, not just campaign rhetoric.
Who’s to blame? Plenty of blame to go around, as Basile pointed out. Reckless Washington spending, bureaucratic red tape, green mandates that spike energy prices, and lax border policies that strain local services have all made life more expensive for the people who actually pay the bills. Conservatives shouldn’t dodge responsibility for past missteps either, but the bigger failure has been letting Democrats own the policy narrative while offering no muscle-bound alternative to lower prices for working Americans.
Conservatives have real policy tools that will help if they use them: unleash domestic energy production to knock down fuel and power costs, cut permitting red tape and reform local zoning so builders can put roofs over heads again, and get Washington’s appetite for borrowing under control so interest payments aren’t eating the federal budget. The dramatic results from places that loosened zoning rules show supply-side reforms do work when politicians stop worshiping process and start approving projects that people can actually afford to live in.
If Republicans enter the midterms with only complaints about the other side and no blueprint to make life more affordable, they will deserve whatever they get. Tom Basile is right to demand action, not slogans: present a plan that lowers monthly costs, protect family budgets, and sell it to voters with the confidence of people who actually understand work and sacrifice. America’s workers and families don’t need another lecture from pundits — they need results.
