Now I Get It: Affordability is a Con

American Thinker ^ | 05/04/2026 | Christopher Chantrill

[SeekAndFind]

For months, I’ve been a bit confused about “affordability,” the latest Democrat meme. Then, early last week, I read a piece about “affordability” and realized: “of course.” Affordability is just the Democrats’ latest excuse for giving out free stuff to their supporters, paid for by you and me. Even though I can’t find the article that I read, I wrote about “affordability” on my Substack.

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If you look at the Congressional Progressive Caucus “New Affordability Agenda” you realize that Affordability is not just about free stuff, but something else. “Affordability” is about politicians trying to fix things they screwed up already. It’s a lame effort to paper over the failure of government programs. Let’s go down the CPC’s bullet points.

• Government program to “directly manufacture generic drugs.” What could go wrong?
• Eliminate “the corporate stranglehold over crop production and [crack] down on price fixing by big grocery store chains.” Sen. Warren (D-MA): Stop the Kroger/Safeway merger!
• Make housing cheaper with “downpayment assistance for first-time homeowners” and “rental assistance.” Hey, sports fans! Remember the mortgage meltdown? That was all about gubmint subsidies to low-income borrowers. Know how to make housing affordable? Stop subsidizing it and stop liberal climate and zoning scams.
• “To make utility bills cheaper… crack down on for-profit utilities price gouging consumers.” Hey, sports fans: how about canceling the Green New Deal and the Climate Change Scam!
• “To make childcare cheaper… provid[e] federal funding for states and localities[.]” Federal funding for childcare? What could go wrong?
• To lower gas prices, how about a “Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax [to curb] profiteering by oil companies.” I know: how about “drill, baby, drill” in the teeth of opposition from the dentist’s lobby.
• And so on.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: affordability; inflation; redistribution; taxes

[Libloather]

And commies never brag about Brandonomics.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

“Now I Get It: Affordability is a Con”

NOW you get it Chantrill?
WTF is wrong with you?
Are you so vacuumed to the media teat that you can’t see anything?
Go away.
Epic fail.

[FlingWingFlyer]

“Affordability” is just the Commie RAT word for “Other people’s money.”

[Red Badger]

All homes are ‘affordable’, just not to everybody................

[proust]

Affordability is woke! I love paying more for groceries!

[escapefromboston]

Seems like they kind of dropped it anyways . Dems are complaining about gas prices but they ultimately want the prices high anyways so I don’t know what their plan is.
The problem is endless inflation and no one wants to deal with that

[ZOOKER]

Every time I hear about the democraps and their "affordability" campaign spiel, I think about all the people --- millionaires, billionaires, and common middle class alike, all packing up their stuff and fleeing blue cities and states.

That, to me, is the real indicator of what you get when let democrats take charge. They'll promise free food, "affordable" housing, free bus rides, child care, but deliver poverty and want.

Who is stupid enough to believe their promises?

[griswold3]

The Left believes their labor is their own, yet they still demand labor and property of others as a ‘Right’.

“If some men are entitled by right to the products of the work of others, it means that those others are deprived of rights and condemned to slave labor.

Any alleged “right” of one man, which necessitates the violation of the rights of another, is not and cannot be a right.

No man can have a right to impose an unchosen obligation, an unrewarded duty or an involuntary servitude on another man. There can be no such thing as “the right to enslave.”
A.Rand

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Every time the government steps in to fix something or make it more “affordable,” the opposite happens. Every single time. There are hundreds of examples.

The biggest was the government’s push to make sure everybody went to college and could afford it. Free government money for college resulted in universities raising tuition at twice the inflection rate for a couple of decades. Worse, it caused an explosion of completely worthless degrees that would never have a payback. $200k for a “Studies” degree that will get you a $35,000/year job? What a waste of time and our precious tax money.

[9YearLurker]

What could be more affordable than free?

[Carry_Okie]

“Affordability” means Democrat price controls on everything.

[Texas Eagle]

Nothing is as expensive as that which the government provides for free.

-- Ronald Reagan

[FlingWingFlyer]

I agree exactly.

[aquila48]

“Affordability” is about politicians trying to fix things they screwed up already.”

Which will in turn screw up things even more. Which will then require another “fix” that will ruin things more. And so on... until a revolution.

[DouglasKC]

Whenever lefties seem to spontaneously use the same word or phrases you can set your clock to the fact it’s some kind of scam.

[sauropod]

.

[cymbeline]

“giving out free stuff to their supporters”

What’s given away by our government is taken from others, or borrowed.