Big Government Can’t Solve Affordability Problems, Conservatives Warn

OXON HILL, Md. — High prices are driven by the government and won’t be solved by incoming Democrat majorities in Congress, said conservative leaders.

“It’s college textbooks. It’s higher education. It’s government healthcare. It’s the things that government is so intertwined with when you look at facets of the economy,” said Jonathan Williams, president and chief economist of the American Legislative Exchange Council, of high costs. He noted that home prices and gas prices are also high and government largely has been the problem. 

Williams spoke at a Wednesday panel on affordability at The Forum, an event sponsored by The Heritage Foundation. He was joined by Tony Kinnett, senior national correspondent for The Daily Signal and host of “The Tony Kinnett Cast,” who faulted President Donald Trump for “declaring victory before the battle was won” on the economy. 

“On day one, it was a golden age, it was so golden, and then it wasn’t, and there’s no sugar coating that at all,” Kinnett said. 

He added that “there were substantive victories that were very long fought,” but he added that tariffs and the Iran war harmed the economy even as the president asserted these policies would have long-term benefit. 

“The problem is that people wanted relief, all the affordability issue, now,” he said. “There was a major aspect in the country that is, in fact, instant gratification, but also that midterm gratification that is also crucial. So, while declaring everything was fine, and everything was victorious immediately, and the golden age was here, it then turned into a question of only a couple months longer, only a couple months longer.” 

Matt Lira, executive director of Invest America, warned that Democrats have had success in promoting socialism to Gen Z voters in a way that is more than a fad. 

“You could say, ‘well, young people, they always start off a little more liberal, then they grow as they have a paycheck, and family,” Lira said. 

But he said the trendline moved dramatically from millennials, Generation X, and baby boomers. 

“None of those earlier generations had a majority in favor of socialism, even though they were, of course, more liberal, than they became, as they aged,” Lira said. “So, this is more than just, ‘the kids need to figure it out.’ There’s a real generational drift away from some core principles that I think are essential to the American story.” 

However, Williams said the socialism numbers could be a matter of educating young people. 

“I mean, socialism polls really well, but I think you look at the pollsters and they say, people think that means being social, as crazy as that sounds, that’s what the pollsters come back with,” he said. 

Kinnett said, “It’s so much easier as conservatives, though, for us to go socialism, spooky.” 

He added, “The answer on the messaging for the youth is, here’s where you could go under free markets. Here’s where you could go under a country that puts you first, not as a numeral under a federal government union system. That’s more effective.” 

Kinnett said there should be greater promotion of trade schools as an alternative to college. 

“A lot of the reasons that some of the youths are so antsy about their student loan debts is they were told, if you don’t take out $100,000 in student loans, you’ll die,” Kinnett said. “God forbid, we don’t give a ton of millions and millions of dollars to an NCAA school so that the athletes don’t have to pay for an education.” 

“Trade schools should be pushed and pushed as far, and as hard, and as fast as we can,” Kinnett added. “Also, for the mentor and the apprentice model of some old, wise, curmudgeonly master of a trade, whipping a young man into shape, would strengthen our communities at a level that you have not seen.”

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