Fox Business host Charles Payne has been sounding the alarm about the state of the American economy, and for once the popular pundit’s concern is backed by hard numbers the elites can’t spin away. The labor market is showing cracks — private estimates put the unemployment rate edging up to about 4.4 percent in October, the highest in four years — while price pressures remain stubbornly above the Fed’s comfort zone with consumer prices running near 3 percent year‑over‑year.
That combination — a cooling jobs market and inflation that won’t fully relent — is why the Federal Reserve moved to trim rates in late October even as officials warned they’re flying with limited visibility. The Fed’s October decision to shave a quarter point off the policy rate was framed as a precaution to steady hiring, but officials were explicit that future moves will be data‑dependent and cautious given uncertainty.
To make matters worse, Washington’s own dysfunction has made economic stewardship impossible: a prolonged government shutdown has not only shuttered services and furloughed hundreds of thousands of workers, it has also wiped out critical data streams and cost the economy billions in lost activity. The shutdown’s hit to GDP and the disruptions to SNAP, federal paychecks and basic services are not theoretical — they are real pain for working families and for small businesses that depend on steady demand.
Meanwhile global headwinds are arriving at our doorstep thanks to reckless trade experiments and policy blunders that prioritize politics over prosperity. International organizations are warning that higher tariffs and protectionist moves are slowing growth and squeezing supply chains — the very things that raise prices at the pump and the grocery store for the American families Payne talks about.
Conservatives should stop apologizing for telling the truth: reckless spending, higher taxes, and punitive regulation choke investment and manufacturing, and when government creates uncertainty you get fewer factories, fewer ships, and fewer good jobs. We need clear, pro‑growth policy — lower rates of taxation on capital, smarter regulation that unleashes American energy and manufacturing, and a Congress that knows the difference between governance and performative chaos.
If you care about your paycheck, your kids’ future and the security of this country, it’s time to demand leaders who put economic strength ahead of headlines and culture fights. Charles Payne is right to be really concerned — and so should every hard‑working American who still believes this country can be the best place in the world to build a life, a business and a future for the next generation.
