‘I Know What It’s Like’: Vance Shines as Republican Messenger on Affordability

LEHIGH VALLEY, Penn—When Vice President JD Vance recalled his grandmother’s choice between putting food on their table and paying for her medications, he arose as the Republicans’ secret weapon on affordability messaging. 

“I know what it’s like for a woman who’s trying to support a grandson but can’t afford her prescription drugs because pharmaceutical companies are taking advantage of the United States of America,” he said in Allentown, Pennsylvania Tuesday.

“I remember what it’s like when you have to choose between putting food on the table or getting the prescription that you need to stay healthy. And that is not a life that Donald Trump or I want for the citizens in the greatest country in the world.” 

Vance held a rally at Uline Shipping Supplies in Lehigh, Pennsylvania, as part of his and the president’s domestic tour touting the administration’s affordability agenda. 

While President Donald Trump has repeatedly called affordability a Democrat “hoax,” Vance assured Pennsylvanians the administration understands the economic hardship many Americans are experiencing. 

“This month, we are fighting for you every single day, and I don’t want you to think for one second that because Joe Biden gave us the worst economy in the world, that we forget it,” he said. “No, we know. We know exactly what we’re left with. We know exactly the consequences that it’s caused for so many of our great families all across Pennsylvania. And I promise you, there is no person more impatient to solve the affordability crisis than Donald J. Trump, the president of the United States.” 

Vance related his own childhood growing up in poverty in Appalachia to the current affordability crisis. 

“I never forget where I come from,” he said. “I never forget who I serve, and I know that there is so much more progress. I remember my grandmother in times like this during the holidays.” 

“I was in a particularly hard math class in high school, and she said, ‘What do you need to do?’ Well, in this class, my grades weren’t so good, and she went out, even though she could not afford even the essentials in life, she went out and got me a calculator, a very expensive calculator so that I could do well in this math class,” he said. “I remember what it feels like for American families when you have the government take $3,000 out of your pocket through higher taxes and higher inflation.” 

Vance is surprised when Democrats campaign on affordability because they are to blame, he said. 

“Democrats say, you know, ‘Things aren’t affordable. This isn’t affordable. This has gotten more expensive. Drugs have gotten more expensive. Housing has gotten more expensive.’ And you know what? They’re right? And it was because of them,” he said.

“It ain’t that hard. If you go back to the four years of the Biden administration, why did housing get so expensive? Double in price during the Biden administration? It’s because Joe Biden let in 20 million illegal immigrants who took homes that, all by right, go to American citizens and to the people of this great state.” 

He said it’s impossible for Trump to instantly fix the economy, but change is coming. 

“I hear these Democrats talk about this as if you were going to fix these problems in a single day,” he said. 

“It takes a little bit of time to fix something that was so fundamentally broken, and so when I hear the Democrats talk about the affordability crisis that they created, it’s a little bit like, you know, Charles Manson criticizing violent crime. Look in the mirror, my friend, you are the cause of the problem, and Donald J. Trump’s administration is the solution to the problem that you created,” he continued. 

When asked by The Daily Signal how he would like Congressional Republicans to address health care costs, he said, “Republicans and Democrats [will] have to figure out what can be passed together” on health care. 

“I’ve probably read a dozen different pieces of legislation that are floating out there,” he said. “Again, it’s going to come to the point where Republicans and Democrats have to figure out what can be passed together.”

“Of course, the president is going to drive a lot of that process,” he continued. “We’re still reviewing some of these legislative texts as they come up. We believe that we can solve this problem. But again, the nature of our system, we’re going to work with Congress to make sure we get something that’s good for the American people through the Congress.” 

Vance said the U.S. has the “weirdest health insurance system in the world, where we tax money from all these great Americans out here, and then we give boatloads of money to the insurance companies.”

“Why don’t we give that money to the American people and let them buy insurance that works for them and their families?” he asked. “If you look at insurance company profits, they have been skyrocketing ever since Obamacare was passed. The insurance companies have done very well under Obamacare.”

He said the administration is working to get to a health care policy that works for Americans. 

“We don’t care if the insurance companies do well, great,” he said. “If they do poorly, that’s their problem. We are here to fight for the American worker and make health insurance affordable for them.”

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