The Politics of Affordability Policies

If we’ve learned anything from recent special elections, it’s that affordability has emerged as voters’ top priority. This flashing red light will inform how elected officials message their bills, shape committee agendas, and frame the work Congress is delivering back home.

Both parties are centering affordability, but with different frames. Republicans are focusing on supply-side drivers, such as streamlining regulations, permitting delays, and agency actions they argue inflate costs. Their committees are leaning heavily on deregulation and domestic production as core tools for cost relief. Democrats, on the other hand, are emphasizing individual-level affordability, such as lowering prescription drug prices, funding more energy options, and expanding housing assistance. They argue that federal intervention can be tied to tangible reductions in monthly expenses.

However, this messaging comes up against the problem both parties will be hard-pressed to fix. Many affordability issues are structural and slow to fix. These include a longstanding housing shortage, rising food prices, outdated energy systems, rising health insurance premiums, and high childcare prices – none of which turn around quickly, even with bipartisan will.  

We’re seeing some issue areas where there are opportunities for bipartisan policies. These include permitting reform, such as the SPEED Act, and the ROAD to Housing Act to increase housing supply. There are also opportunities for bipartisan consensus, particularly in childcare tax credits, PBM reform, and healthcare insurance premium reform. However, any bipartisan reforms will get more difficult the closer we get to midterms.

Congress has roughly a year before voters grade them on how they’re doing in the mid-term elections. While these policy priorities might have already been on the docket, it will now be on elected officials to communicate these policies as levers of affordability. The party that does the best job of communicating this will have an easier time making the case to voters next November.