Affordability 'Arms Race' Taking Place Before Midterms, Says Atwater

Peter Atwater, president of Financial Insyghts, said that President Trump's recent turn toward affordability policies that are in line with left-leaning politicians like Elizabeth Warren and Zohran Mamdani says more about his desire to survive politically rather than his true ideology. Atwater described the current moment as an 'arms race' on affordability ahead of the midterms as both Democrats and Republicans try to connect with voters.

President Donald Trump urged Republican lawmakers to quickly move on a White House healthcare plan, seeking to shift the narrative on an issue that threatens his party’s hold on Congress with millions of Americans facing premium hikes or the risk of lost coverage.

“I think we can make healthcare into a Republican issue because the Republicans are going to be close to unanimous on this,” Trump said at a White House roundtable on rural healthcare.

The president’s remarks highlighted the new urgency to deliver on health costs and access and more broadly household pocketbook concerns that have made Americans skeptical of his economic agenda.

Trump again assailed the Affordable Care Act — known as Obamacare — which he has long struggled to replace with a new plan, arguing his approach would deliver lower costs to consumers instead of enriching insurance companies.

“Obama didn’t care about the rural community, to be totally blunt,” Trump said of former President Barack Obama. “What he did care about is insurance companies. And this was a bill to make insurance companies wealthy. And they did. They made insurance companies very wealthy,” Trump said.

President Donald Trump’s moves to tackle economic issues worrying US voters have so far amounted to recycling several long-standing Democratic proposals.

After initially dismissing voters’ affordability concerns as a Democratic hoax, Trump has pivoted to proposing traditionally left-of-center economic ideas, including stopping investors from buying single-family homes and forcing banks to cap credit card interest rates. The proposals have been popular with Democrats such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and populist Republicans, though they could alienate more GOP lawmakers than they persuade.

Democrats are leaping at the chance to paint the president’s push as co-opting their ideas after Republicans failed to deliver on building a stronger economy. With the midterms only months away, Democrats argue Trump is panicked that Republicans will be punished at the ballot box for a sluggish US economy.

“He’s looking at the midterm elections and realizing Republicans have dug a really deep hole,” said Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.). “He’s putting out ideas that his caucus probably won’t support across the board, but I guess he’s just trying to triangulate and help himself. I think it’s a good sign for Democrats.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said she was skeptical Trump will follow through on his proposals.

“He’s trying to say he’s doing something for affordability while he spends billions on tax breaks in Venezuela and takes military action that’s not authorized,” Jayapal told Bloomberg Government. “But if he wants to do it, we have the bills.”

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