President Donald Trump will address high prices and a stubborn economy when he stops by a Pennsylvania swing county Tuesday to sell his fiscal message to the battleground state. But one key Senate ally acknowledged there’s little he can do with the stroke of a pen or single legislative plan on the issue of affordability.
Democratic lawmakers see the topic as a strategic opportunity heading into next year’s midterms, coming on the heels of key wins in the November off-year elections and an overperformance in a recent House special election in a deep-red Tennessee district. Several Democratic senators expressed surprise last week over Trump seeming to dismiss voters’ concerns about high prices by calling the issue a “hoax.”
“Just about everything is down,” the president said on Dec. 3 during an Oval Office event. “They use the word affordability. It’s a Democrat hoax. They’re the ones that drove the prices up.”
