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WASHINGTON—Republicans in Washington came away from the recent elections with a clear takeaway: focus on the high cost of living or risk big losses in next year’s midterms. President Trump said this past week that Republicans aren’t talking enough about his administration’s successes, and he dismissed questions on voters’ concerns regarding the economy. Most prices are on the downswing, he argued.
“Our energy costs are way down. Our groceries are way down. Everything is way down. And the press doesn’t report it,” Trump said. “So, I don’t want to hear about the affordability. Because right now, we’re much less.”
Trump’s optimistic perspective on the economy is at odds with government statistics and the views of many voters, according to pollsters and analysts. The Labor Department reported last month that consumer prices rose 3% in September from a year earlier, marking the fastest pace since January. In recent surveys, voters said the cost of housing, groceries and utility bills is unmanageable. Democratic candidates who focused their messages on affordability came out on top in Tuesday’s elections, handily beating their Republican challengers.
In the Oval Office on Friday, Trump lashed out at reporters who pressed him on the cost of living: “We are the victors on affordability.” The president called Democrats’ contention that affordability played a role in Tuesday’s election a “con job”.
Privately, Republicans said they are worried that Trump seems reluctant to empathize with voters’ economic pain. Some in the GOP have been raising red flags for weeks about Republicans’ vulnerabilities over the economy. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) said in a recent interview with CNN, “Affordability is a problem.” “I go to the grocery store myself. Grocery prices remain high. Energy prices are high,” she said. “My electricity bills are higher here in Washington, D.C., at my apartment, and they’re also higher at my house in Rome, Ga.—higher than they were a year ago.”
Trump has focused in part on legacy-building projects such as peace deals abroad and a $300 million ballroom. Democrats are planning to say in ads that Trump is out of touch. Rahm Emanuel, a former top adviser to President Barack Obama, said “He is telling you he doesn’t really care”... “He does a very good impersonation of Marie Antoinette in drag”.
"Trump is showing all the hallmarks of being isolated. “Every president loves the people who come in and tell them how great he is doing,” Emanuel said. “It is an illness of the Oval Office.”
© 2015 Mutual Fund Observer. All rights reserved.
© 2015 Mutual Fund Observer. All rights reserved. Powered by Vanilla
Comments
The kind that only affects people!
this is the greatest con job in american history, because unlike all other issues, it goes against everyday experience of receipts and monthly payments.
either way is a 'win' for gop politicians among the bottom 80% :
- gop voters are told by their trusted media affordability is much better than ever
- gop voters are sure its not the fault of their reps, but anywhere else