By Jack Miller
President Trump wasted no time his first month in office, pardoning violent January 6 insurrectionists and issuing dozens of executive orders to withhold disaster relief and end birthright citizenship. Many of those executive orders were halted by a judge, but the onslaught has left Democrats scrambling. At this point, it’s abundantly clear that my party does not yet have a message to punch back.
However, a simple look at the House Republican budget proposal gives us a roadmap. The word that every Democrat, at every level, should use until we are blue in the face is “unaffordable.”
The 2024 election showed that Americans did not feel an economic boost from Joe Biden’s presidency. No amount of positive statistics or country comparisons changed the fact that people were hurting. They still are, and no amount of campaigning on democracy is going to convince voters that they can afford rent.
The next two years for Democrats should be about costs, specifically for housing and health care. Who is raising those costs, and who has plans to lower them?
I can tell you firsthand that my generation is struggling. Older millennials graduated into the Great Recession and are now a sandwich generation caring for aging parents and their own kids. Younger millennials like me got torched by inflation. Just as many of us were ready to buy our first homes, prices skyrocketed. I don’t want to speak for Gen Z, but they’re not having an easy time either.
Lowering costs and fighting for working families used to be Democrats’ bread and butter, but we lost our way.
One reason is our party is more affluent and educated than ever, but we were also bullied into idiotic messages like “defund the police,” and our elected officials are increasingly seen as old and out of touch. The fact that Democrats in Congress tacitly allow “legal” insider trading is abhorrent. What kind of message are we sending?
We have got to get back to basics: representing working families and lowering costs. We need to do this both in letter and in spirit, in how we talk, and the candidates we run. (And for the love of all things holy, stop insider trading!)
Fortunately, and unfortunately, Democrats are about to get a huge assist from Republicans in Congress. House Republicans recently unveiled their budget plan that directs committees to cut trillions in spending. The plan would direct the Energy & Commerce Committee, which oversees spending for Medicaid and other programs, to cut more than $800 billion. Experts note that, mathematically, these cuts would have to come from Medicaid in some way. That program supports 1.8 million low-income and disabled people in New Jersey.
The plan also targets SNAP, a food assistance program for low-income families. According to the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, more than 827,000 New Jerseyans receive assistance from SNAP. And on top of these plans, President Trump’s proposed tariffs would drive up housing material costs, his mass deportations will strain our construction workforce, and the Republican proposed tax cuts for billionaires is, again, inflationary.
These plans aren’t going to lower costs. They certainly won’t help us build more homes or afford the rent. It’s basic economics. Democrats cannot and should not pull punches on the devastating impact these policies will have.
The good news is our candidates for governor are going in the right direction. Mikie Sherrill has proposed converting vacant commercial buildings and office space into homes and would boost first time homebuyer assistance. Josh Gottheimer’s crusade against higher taxes is a welcome change for Democrats. And Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has outlined his plans for a housing taskforce and awarding new credits to stabilize housing supply.
Republican plans to raise material costs, deport workers, and cut billionaire taxes aren’t going to fix the problem. Housing will still be unaffordable. The message we need is the truth: “it’s unaffordable, stupid.” Democrats need to say it. Say it until everyone is blue in the face, and in the ballot box too.
Jack Miller is a Morristown native and former political appointee in the Biden administration.
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