FIRST ON FOX: As Americans grapple with soaring housing, food and energy costs, both parties are racing to convince voters they have the answer to the affordability crunch ahead of the high-stakes midterm elections.
A new report from the conservative group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence lays out 10 proposals aimed at lowering costs by cutting red tape and expanding production across the economy.
"Yes, there's an unaffordability crisis and it's the government's fault," Richard Stern, vice president of the Plymouth Institute for Free Enterprise at Advancing American Freedom, told Fox News Digital.
That argument is at the heart of the report, "10 Ways to Improve Affordability Now Across 10 Levels of the Economy," which calls affordability the "No. 1 issue facing the American people" and targets costs associated with housing, energy and business, among others.
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Its proposals in the report range from easing zoning restrictions and expanding oil and gas access to overhauling Social Security and SNAP eligibility, echoing parts of President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda.
But the conservative blueprint breaks with Trump on two key pocketbook issues: tariffs and credit card interest rates.
On trade, the report argues Trump’s sweeping tariffs have come at a cost to American consumers and the broader economy by raising prices, straining U.S. alliances and resulting in nearly 900,000 fewer jobs than expected.
The authors at Advancing American Freedom (AAF) call for shifting more tariff authority back to Congress.
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If nothing else, Trump's tariffs proved to be a windfall for Washington.
In January alone, duties totaled $30.4 billion, that's up about 242% from $8.9 billion a year earlier, according to Treasury data.
The report also opposes Trump’s proposed 10% cap on credit card interest rates, warning it could make lending to roughly 60% of Americans unprofitable. Stern framed the broader affordability debate as a question of whether Americans can still build a better future for their families as many see hopes of living the American dream slipping from their fingers.
Housing and energy, he said, are two areas where rising costs have put "a sharper edge on this question of affordability." Stern blamed zoning restrictions for pushing families farther from jobs and making homeownership harder for younger Americans.
Those costs can be substantial. The National Association of Home Builders estimates government regulations account for about 26% of the price of a new single-family home.
The report recommends limiting local zoning restrictions, streamlining approval for projects that meet existing rules and tying roughly $50 billion in annual federal housing aid to zoning reform.
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On energy, the proposal calls for more oil and gas leasing and rejecting state fracking bans. Stern argued greater domestic production could lower costs throughout the economy because energy touches "every good we move, every service provided."
Stern warned that economic frustration can turn Americans against one another, toward "viewing each other as the enemy, and that’s what socialism is."
"I hope that people can take away from this, that it's not businesses that are the problem," he said. "It's not entrepreneurs. It's not other Americans. It's government."
