Tuesday Column: Making the main thing the main thing

Republicans and President Trump have to prove they can govern effectively this fall if they want the House to stay in the GOP’s hands in the next election

Stephen Covey is credited with saying: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing,” although I heard that first from my friend Haley Barbour, the old Mississippi political genius and former governor.

It is hard for President Trump to keep the main thing the main thing, mostly because he just loves to troll the media and the Democrats so much. But neither the President nor the Republicans can afford to lose focus on the main thing that concerns the bulk of voters, which is affordability.

Life in America is unaffordable. Grocery bills are out of control. Most young people can afford to buy a new home. To send your kids to college, you pay what it used to cost to buy a house 20 years ago. Many Americans don’t even bother to go to their doctor because the costs are so high and they know they won’t get reimbursed by the health insurance company. Clothing prices, which used to be a bright spot, is inching ever higher, and will get worse because higher tariffs haven’t fully kicked in yet. Utility bills are going up, as the strain put on the grid by the data centers drives electricity and water bills higher. Because of the hangover of various Biden-era mandates, car prices are very high (you really can’t get a new car for less than $50,000).

Republicans have some answers to some of things that are driving up the cost of living, but by no means to have all the answers. Tax policies included in the One Big Beautiful bill should help young people have more spending money, especially if they work overtime or in a tip-centric industry, and young families should have greater access to the Child Tax Credit, but that helps them to pay the bills. It doesn’t bring down the cost of those bills. There is an education tax credit that should help middle class parents support their local parochial schools which theoretically could help expand access and lower costs. There are general businesses provisions that have been extended from the last tax bill that brings greater certainty to the general economic environment. Theoretically, that should inspire some greater confidence and allow for higher wages and more business investment.

But the tariff situation has made things very choppy for business owners. As the Wall Street Journal reported, many of these owners just want clarity: “What we would really love is just some clarity around it…so we can say, ‘OK, here’s what the price is,’ and we can move on.”

But clarity doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon. The Federal Courts have ruled, so far, that many of Trump’s tariffs are not legal, and that throws his whole negotiating strategy in a state of flux. Why would anybody conclude a trade deal with President Trump if he doesn’t actually have the authority to impose a tariff?

Uncertainly is a not good for business investment nor is it good for consumer sentiment. If you add a government shutdown in with the tariffs, that only compounds the difficulties in getting the economy on sure footing. The end of the de minimus tariff exemption for overseas products coming into the country adds only more costs to consumer products, especially cheap clothing from China.

Not to be forgotten is the high cost of health care in this country, which will only get more expensive for working class families if subsidies for the ACA are not extended. Republicans are not going to want to extend them because they are associated with President Obama, but they also don’t want to saddle their voters with higher health care costs.

I like what the President is doing to fight crime in the big cities, and I like him aggressively deporting criminal illegal aliens. I also love that he is anti-woke President and that he seems to have a plan to make America great again. But Republicans will only win this coming election if the American people feel that the economy is going in the right direction and if they believe they can afford the lifestyle with which they have become accustomed.

That’s the main thing that the GOP have to figure out this Fall. How to make that main thing the main thing as Republicans slog their legislative agenda for the rest of the year is the question.