AFFORDABILITY ISN’T A HOAX — IT’S THE BILL COMING DUE
December 2025
Every new survey tells the same story, and Americans don’t need polling data to confirm what they feel every time they check out at the grocery store. The latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey shows that for the first time, people say they’re spending more simply because prices are higher—not because they’re buying more. Inflation has quietly crushed household budgets, especially when it comes to necessities: food, housing, insurance, utilities, and transportation. These are not optional purchases. You can delay buying a new laptop or taking a vacation, but you can’t opt out of eating, heating your home, or driving to work. Calling this an “affordability hoax” insults the intelligence of anyone who pays bills.
What makes this moment dangerous is the dishonest diagnosis. We’re told prices can’t come down, that deflation is somehow worse than slow-motion impoverishment. That’s nonsense. Prices can fall when competition increases, waste is eliminated, and currency is stabilized. The real driver of the affordability crisis isn’t greedy grocers or unlucky supply chains—it’s decades of reckless government spending and monetary manipulation. In 2000, U.S. debt stood at 55% of GDP. Today it’s over 120%. Servicing that debt now costs more than $1 trillion a year. When governments print money faster than wages grow, purchasing power collapses. That’s not an ideology—it’s arithmetic.
Ron Paul said it best this week: high prices are the effect, not the cause. The cause is a government that spends far beyond its means, enabled by a Federal Reserve that debases the currency and fixes interest rates. Subsidizing everything only guarantees prices go higher, not lower. We’ve seen this play out repeatedly in healthcare, housing, and education—three sectors flooded with government money and now priced beyond the reach of average families. More spending doesn’t solve affordability; it destroys it.
At some point, the country has to demand fiscal adulthood. A balanced budget amendment isn’t radical—it’s responsible. If Washington were forced to live within its means, interest rates would fall, borrowing costs would drop, and confidence would return. Just like a household with strong credit pays less to borrow, a nation that demonstrates discipline would instantly benefit. Until then, Americans will keep paying more for less, watching their dollar lose value year after year, while politicians argue over which subsidy to extend next. The affordability crisis isn’t a mystery. It’s the predictable result of choices made—and avoided—for decades.
