C-SPAN’s Washington Journal Open Phones reveals deep divides over U.S. affordability, with President Trump’s 2024 supporters split—46% blame his administration for record cost-of-living fears despite 3% real GDP growth and Bessent’s claims tariffs (1.8% imported goods inflation) aren’t the sole driver. Small business owners like an Indiana soapmaker face tariff-fueled price hikes, while callers clash: Republicans defend Trump’s trade policies, Democrats attack "Bidenflation" and Saudi ties, and independents demand housing solutions. Schumer’s criticism underscores partisan gridlock as economic frustration fuels 2024 election tensions. [Automatically generated summary]
On affordability, a word on both American voters and lawmakers minds alike as high prices threaten to derail the public conversation this week.
As we noted earlier, President Trump is set to travel to Pennsylvania to tout his economic record, something that the White House says that the president has been focused on from day one, bringing down those high prices.
But obviously, there's still some concern among the population.
According to a political headline this morning, it reads that as affordability concerns mount, Hill Republicans are struggling to act.
Now, that piece says that the GOP is struggling to coalesce behind a health care plan that would prevent Obamacare premium hikes set to kick in next month in efforts to rein in President Trump's tariffs have run aground in the House.
Meanwhile, the administration's proposal to distribute $2,000 rebate checks has gotten a lukewarm response on Capitol Hill and the fate of other smaller bills to address things like housing prices and student debt have sparked intra-party sparring.
Now, they released a poll three weeks ago, Political, I mean, three days ago, Politico did.
That headline is Trump's own voters begin blaming him for the affordability crisis.
And it says that almost half, 46%, say the cost of living in the U.S. is the worst they can ever remember it being, a view being held by 37% of 2024 Trump voters.
Americans also say that the affordability crisis is Trump's responsibility, with 46% saying it's his economy now and his administration is responsible for the costs they struggle with.
A poll from RCP Average this week says that President Trump's job approval on inflation is 62.3% disapprove.
Approve is 34.7%.
There you can see it on your screen here.
And an additional poll from that same RCP shows that Trump's job approval on the economy disapproved 57.8%.
Approve 39.6%.
Scott Bessant, Treasury Secretary, was on the Sunday shows yesterday morning defending President Trump on this issue.
But when we hear from, for example, the president when he says that affordability is a con job by Democrats, that seems to just not be resonating with consumers that have been polled by CBS.
60% of Americans polled by this network told us President Trump makes prices and inflation sound better than they really are.
And his approval rating on the economy is now down to 36% in our latest poll.
That was Treasury Secretary Scott Meshant talking about affordability and the White House's efforts to bring down those high costs on CBS this morning.
We'll turn to your calls now.
Robin from Maryland, a Republican.
You're up.
unidentified
Thank you for taking my call.
I'm 74 years old, and I had stopped working when I turned 70 because of Bidenflation.
I had to go back to work two years ago.
I started buying store-brand food because food was so expensive.
It was horrible two and three years ago.
Now I'm feeling much more comfortable.
I am working, so I have an income coming in.
But I see that prices are still slightly going up, although gas prices are great.
A lot of prices are coming down.
My biggest thing is I stopped buying anything made in China early during COVID because of how China was doing such horrible things to us during COVID.
And it was almost impossible to buy clothes that weren't made in China.
I love the tariff.
We're getting manufacturing coming back to America.
I want to see made in America to cost a few dollars more to buy something we made instead of China made.
It's worth it to me.
Trump has a plan.
It's having prices haven't gone down immediately.
He's got a plan.
We've got to be patient.
And I think by this time next year, we're all going to really, really be reaping the benefits.
To Stewart's point, there was an article after a White House event this week.
The New York Times headline is Trump returns to gasoline as fuel of choice for cars gutting Biden's climate policy.
If you read a little bit down, it said that last week, President Trump threw the weight of the federal government behind vehicles that burn gasoline rather than electric cars, gutting one of the country's most significant efforts to address climate change and thrusting the automobile industry into greater uncertainty.
Flanked by executives from major automakers in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said the Transportation Department would significantly weaken fuel efficiency requirements for tens of millions of new cars and light trucks.
The administration claimed the changes would save Americans $109 billion over five years and shave off $1,000 off the average cost of a new car.
Dave from Bloomington, Indiana, a Democrat, you're next.
unidentified
Yeah, this is Dave.
My biggest problem is the tariffs.
We're a small business.
We make handmade soap and have for 30 years.
And our prices are basically on the items that we've had to buy because we bought plenty ahead, but all our items have virtually doubled.
Our coconut oil per barrel has gone from $425 in April to $875 now.
We just bought some here, well, actually in July.
And then our sodium hydroxide, which we have had imported, we buy from a major wholesaler here in America, imported from China at times and at times from Canada.
And now we're getting it from Tennessee.
And they have raised their prices to make the same price as what it would cost if we had it brought in by from another country to pay the tariffs.
It has gone in the last, well, since the first of the year, January, we bought 400 pounds at $815.
And now we just bought about a month and a half ago, 400 pounds, $1,368.
It's made in Tennessee.
The people are raising their prices because they know they can get away with it.
America has taken advantage of everyone they can.
And I'm sure it's not the small business owners because I hear there's quite a few going out of business because of that.
And all of our prices are going up, so we have to spend about a week figuring out what our new pricing is going to be as soon as we get a little bit of time.
When you lose an election and you obstruct and try not to help the American people like the Schumer shutdown, we could have improved health care.
We could improve prices.
I didn't hear the media talking about 90% inflation.
And now all the Democrats have to do is obstruct.
I wish they would join us, try to help the American people.
And with the future of the tax cuts and 2026 and all of Trump's plans to improve the economy, please, Democrats, I know you lost an election, but try to get behind the American people.
The headline is, for small businesses hit by soaring costs, layoffs are painful and personal.
And part of that story says that companies with fewer than 50 employees shed 120,000 jobs in November, according to data from payroll processing giant ADP.
The sharp drop comes ahead of a month that for many small businesses is most pivotal and is the most pivotal sales period of the year.
Julia from Massachusetts and Independent, you're next.
unidentified
Hi, so I have a couple things to say, whereas I am definitely an independent, but more of a Democratic person.
I told you, but everything is raising, but people are talking about Campbell's soup going down.
Like, can't understand that because my grocery bill is not lowering.
You know, Donald Trump is a very unserious person, a person who, as has been well documented, bankrupted his businesses six different times, bankrupted casinos, which is very difficult to do.
That was Kirk from Pennsylvania on his note about gas prices.
An article from Forbes published yesterday.
The headline is, Trump claims gas is below $199 in places.
Here's where gas prices are actually lowest amid affordability crisis.
And it says states with the lowest gas prices in the country include Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Iowa, Wyoming, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, all hovering between $2.18 to $295 per gallon.
Rob from New York and Independent, your line is open.
unidentified
Good morning.
I just wanted to say, look, under Joe Biden, I paid $5 a gallon for gasoline.
Yesterday, I paid $2.85.
And this is an upstate New York place where we got so much tax out of every gallon of gas.
But the bigger thing I'd like to say is I'm just, I'm a little bit disappointed in C-SPAN.
First of all, they've had this subject on so many times.
You haven't talked about the Somalis in Minnesota stealing billions of dollars of taxpayer money.
Well, I'll just point to a Forbes article from last month that says Trump reverses tariffs on coffee, bananas, and other foods in response as prices soar.
Millie from Asheville, North Carolina and Independent, you're next.
unidentified
Yeah, Groceries and gas have come down in Nashville, North Carolina.
Melvin from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a Democrat, you're next.
unidentified
Yes, you know, it's really amazing to sit here listening to this phone and a lot of these mega people and Republicans.
What they don't understand, and I don't know how no one even brings it up, that in Trump's first term, he spent $8 trillion.
$8 trillion.
That's more than every president that served in two terms.
Never spent that much money.
And it keeps coming back with it.
He passed Reagan, who tripled the debt when he was in there.
They try to say how well he handled the colony and when he left.
Another valid point you need to know is when a Republican leaves, they always leave the country in a recession, ever since Reagan.
I just want people to understand that and stop believing whatever they're listening to because this man, in his first term for four years, $8 trillion, he owned a quarter of the debt when he left office.
Yeah, I'd just like to give Donald Trump a little advice.
Instead of subsidizing, you know, with the lazy poor people, you know, like Medicaid and SNAP and all these other welfare programs, maybe he should just subsidize diesel fuel, make it like a dollar a gallon or 50 cents a gallon, and then we could ship everything all over and people could get some food and stuff a lot cheaper.
That's all I got to say.
I think the Democratic Party is the party of non-working people, not working people.
Going back to a comment that we heard from a caller before, I want to read that U.S. Today article that I pulled up.
Tideline is a volcano controversy has hit the Minnesota Somali community.
A fraud investigation and criticism from Donald, President Donald Trump, have put the national spotlight on a tight-knit community that fled a civil war.
And it says, if you scroll down a little bit, that fear and anxiety among the nation's largest Somali population in Minnesota reached new heights after Trump's comments, in which he pointed to a massive fraud investigation.
If you click on that link, you go to a White House page where it says, yes, there is something wrong with Waltz, and it's costing taxpayers $1 billion.
On this White House page, they cite a list of the things that the White House believes that is going wrong in Minnesota.
I would encourage you to read both of those articles.
Tina from Virginia, an independent, your line is open.
unidentified
Okay, thank you.
Good morning.
I'm calling because, you know, I'll be keeping up and down with everything going on in this country.
And nobody never mentioned anything about Trump.
Okay, Trump basically got wealthy off the American people.
Not only is Trump got wealthy off the American people, his family getting wealthy off the American people.
You know, it's supposed to be, when he ran, he ran America first.
Now there's this mega thing.
You know what I mean?
And I don't see people talking about gas 2.
Well, you got to realize when Biden was in there, gas did start coming down.
And then, you know, I went to church yesterday, and my pastor was telling us to look, go home, look in the mirror, and look through Christ's eyes.
And see, don't look through your eyes, look through Christ's eyes and see if that's a person that you like yourself.
You know what I mean?
Do you really like yourself with everything going on in this world right now?
You know, with the killing of the people on the boats with the Somalis and all of this, it's wrong.
You know, and there's no way you can shake informing.
Well, he is for the billionaire and billionaire class who he is given much to in his short 11 months.
And he's not doing a thing for the average working American, especially those folks who are not invested in stocks and bonds on the stock market, who are trying to make it from one paycheck to the next.
So he's got them wearing their little red hat and walking around after him, but he is not doing anything.
We get a caller like we got earlier telling us that prices were lower in Texas.
Even if that's true, one thing that also is lower in Texas is the minimum wage, which is stuck at the national $7 and something an hour.
So people, you got to figure out what Donald Trump is doing to ingratiate himself to you, not to lining his own pockets.
Barbara from North Carolina, Republican, you're next.
unidentified
Hi, I tried tangling in on the independent, but it told me the line was no longer available.
I'm going to say this.
In North Carolina, in the Murphy section, the gas prices have gone down.
And Trump is not a perfect person.
None of us are.
I'm not here to judge a person for their belief because I'm a Christian.
I feel like I'm a good Christian, but I'm not perfect.
Nobody is.
But he is, when he was running for office, he said what he was going to do.
Now, out of the two that was running, I do believe that he was the better person.
Not because he said he was a Christian, but because he, to me, he was running with what he said he was going to do.
Since he's got in office, he has tried.
He has tried to do what he said he was going to do.
Do I like everything he's doing?
No.
No, I do not.
But he is the president that said that he was going to do this, and he has tried to do everything he said he was going to do.
Do I believe the one I'd like to see run is Kennedy the next session because he does not believe that somebody from another country should be running this country when they are allegedly saying because you can't.
Democrats are united on fighting to lower health care costs.
Republicans are a mess.
They can't come to an agreement on a bill.
They can't come to an agreement on a solution.
Many of them don't want any solution at all.
Well, next week, Republican senators will have an opportunity to show the American people they want to lower their health care costs, or they will spurn the American people's desire to lower those health care costs by not supporting Democratic legislation.
They are in a bubble.
From Donald Trump on down, Donald Trump says there's no affordability crisis.