[warshinder]

> hang $5/gal gas and $14 fast food combos on Trump

In my mind, this is anachronistic thinking. The average poor person isn’t as concerned about gas or burger prices as boomer politicos think. The difficulty most Americans face now is neither of those, it is housing and energy costs, and increasingly jobs. Your typical homeless person isn’t stressing on how they’ll get their next burger. There very little sunlight between the parties on these big issues. Neither party has moved the needle on housing aside from inflating costs. They can’t. Nobody that owns wants housing prices to collapse, and the economy wouldn’t stand it, and even if they did want housing prices to collapse, it’s impossible to scale up production enough to lower costs. We can at most flatten the second derivative. And jobs? Jobs can be created through stimulus like the inflation reduction act, but that causes inflation. And those jobs, having been artificially produced, will be quickly liquidated when the stimulus runs dry.

[zzgo]

I locked in my $210K mortgage for 3.875% over a decade ago, housing affordability isn't what's on my mind. I'm pissed that I spent $5/gal on gas at Costco and $14 for a combo meal at Carl's Jr. last night.

It may be anachronistic thinking in _your_ mind, but people like me who had been insulated from the affordability problems under Biden are no longer able to ignore just how expensive things have gotten. I assure you that Democrats can target middle class Gen X and Baby Boomer independents to vote blue this fall by pointing out that Chili's has a 3 for $11 deal going on right now while a Famous Star combo at Carl's is $14.