With cost of living and the economy ranking among voters’ top concerns heading into November, every Democratic candidate is promising to lower costs for families. But according to a new column in The Daily Wire, that affordability messaging masks an agenda that would do the opposite.
The piece, written by Republican strategist Carly Bird, argues that Democrats have no real plan to bring prices down — and that their actual policy priorities, from Medicare for All to repealing the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), amount to tax hikes and trillions in new federal spending.
What Democrats Are Running On
Bird points to the health care proposals congressional Democrats recently rolled out as their top three priorities if they retake the House. At the top of that list: “Medicare for All,” the government-run health care plan that has long been a progressive rallying cry.
Citing estimates from the Heritage Foundation, Bird writes that Medicare for All would cost $47 trillion over a decade, leave more than 65 percent of U.S. households worse off financially, and raise income taxes by at least 20 percent for every working American.
Democrats are also openly campaigning on raising federal taxes, she notes — specifically by promising to repeal what she calls the largest tax cut in American history. The OBBB, as Bird refers to it, is credited with saving families thousands of dollars a year in every state. Repealing it, which nearly every Democratic candidate has pledged to do, would amount to a tax increase on working families, she argues.
The Policies Democrats Aren’t Talking About
Perhaps more revealing, according to Bird, are the policies Democrats are avoiding on the campaign trail. She points to “climate hushing” — the strategy of staying quiet about expensive energy proposals — as the Left’s new midterm playbook. The implication, she writes, is that once in power, Democrats would pursue the tax-hiking Green New Deal they have long championed.
Energy policy features prominently in Bird’s critique. She contends that no Democrat will support opening federal lands to oil and gas drilling, that the party wants to eliminate coal — which currently generates nearly half of America’s electricity — and that reforming the slow federal permitting process for pipelines and natural gas facilities is essential to lowering utility bills.
As an example, she cites New England, which sits near North America’s largest natural gas field, the Marcellus, yet remains more dependent on imported liquefied natural gas from foreign adversaries because of limited pipeline capacity in the region.
Immigration also gets a mention. Bird credits President Trump with closing the border early in his second term and points to a 2024 House Budget Committee estimate that put the cost of an open border at more than $150 billion, with state and local governments absorbing the biggest financial hits, primarily through K-12 public education costs.
On Inflation and the Frustration With Republicans
Bird acknowledges a counterargument from conservatives frustrated that a Republican majority hasn’t done enough to tackle high prices. Her response is threefold: the border is closed, energy reforms require Republican control of Congress, and inflation is a more complex problem than simply bringing down the rate of price increases.
Even if inflation is cooling and wages are rising — both of which she says are happening now — that doesn’t instantly translate into lower prices. The roots of the problem, she writes, trace back to COVID-19 manufacturing shutdowns and state lockdowns that disrupted both demand and supply chains, followed by trillions in government spending through the American Rescue Plan Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, and then the war in Ukraine in 2022.
Part of the solution, according to Bird, is for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates — something she says President Trump has rightly identified. But she argues it also requires a government intent on spending less and returning more to the American people, not through more stimulus checks.
The Stakes of the Midterms
Bird closes by framing the choice before voters as one between two distinct paths. On one side, she describes today’s Democratic Party as the Democratic Socialists of America — a faction she says is committed to a $212 trillion agenda and occupies a space further left than America has ever gone before.
The result, she warns, would be hundreds of non-stop hearings aimed at impeaching President Trump at taxpayer expense, rather than legislation to lower costs.
“Republicans may not be perfect, but there is not one Republican candidate who is open to the tax-hiking DSA agenda,” Bird writes.
Her closing advice: ask every Democratic candidate directly whether raising taxes is part of their affordability plan. Voters, she argues, should think clearly about the two paths on offer — one that leads to paying more for everything, and one she says presents a chance to keep prices low.
Carly Bird is a Republican strategist and founder and president of Bird’s Eye Consulting. She previously served as national spokeswoman for Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-democrats-arent-telling-voters-about-affordability-before-november