美选民因生活成本危机不满特朗普，关税与通胀成焦点

Wherever you go, the vast majority of voters in both parties say the economy is their top issue as they head to the polls. And for most Americans, that comes down to one word. -Affordability. -Affordability. -Affordability. -Affordability issues. -Affordability crisis. -Every single election headline you get is going to be about affordability. Westin: New polls out this month show almost half of Americans struggle to afford basic necessities like food and medical care.

And most households, even wealthier ones, say they've cut back spending on extras like entertainment and eating out over the past year. -Inflation picked back up. Like, that's really been the pressure point, and people haven't been able to adjust by getting bigger paychecks. -Inflation is intolerably high. Westin: Economists, including Harvard's Jason Furman, point to two key factors pushing price growth above the Fed's target. -It looked as if we were headed back to 2%.

It was almost within spitting distance. And then it took off again. Why did it take off again? I think, in part, that was tariffs, which probably have added half a point to a percentage point to the inflation rate, and then subsequently the Iran conflict. Westin: Wars in the Middle East and Ukraine have raised prices for fuel and fertilizer. Put that on top of trade conflicts that have made food and household goods more expensive to import, and you have American families now paying an average of $253 more every month than they did just a year ago, for the same items. -Gas, food, you know, the basics. -Can't really afford beef anymore. -Something needs to be done about it.

Westin: For his part, President Trump has said tariffs will make Americans wealthier. And when it comes to higher costs, he points his finger across the aisle. -Affordability, they call it, was a con job by the Democrats. They caused the affordability problem and we've solved it. Westin: But today, voters don't see it that way. Two-thirds of Americans now believe that President Trump's policies have made the economy worse off.

And even a majority of Republicans say he hasn't helped. That's his worst review since taking office. -The American people have an affordability problem, they don't think Washington is acting and they're mad. Westin: For a look at the forces behind Americans' deep concerns with the cost of living crisis, we spoke with Steven Rattner. He is Chairman and CEO of Willett Advisors, responsible for investing the personal and philanthropic assets of Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority shareholder of Bloomberg L.P., who himself has been active in these midterm elections, contributing some $80 million to Democratic candidates.

And also with Kevin Brady, former Republican congressman of Texas and Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. -You know, it really isn't the economy, in the sense that growth is accelerating. Our economy has been remarkably resilient now, even through COVID, supply chains, inflation hikes, the war, the trade challenges we've got now, it continues. You see that in the business investment. You see the growth there, but it really comes from the everyday prices that people feel.

It's how much the housing costs, health care insurance, you know, it's the grocery store. It's the cost of the new autos. You know, it's just been continuing to grow over a number of years. And so, yeah, it makes sense that it continues to be a big issue. Westin: In the last election, I think it's fair to say affordability was a tailwind for the Republicans. I'm not sure it is this time. -No, it doesn't... It doesn't feel that way.

And I think the polls seem to show that people don't feel like prices are going down and they don't feel like the president has made it a priority. And I think issues like tariffs, which, you know, in the past, you know, Washington sort of liked tariffs because they were hidden. Well, not anymore. People know exactly what those impacts are. So I think it's that everyday costs that continue to rise over time. And people are looking for, you know, some relief in those areas.

And the party that focuses on that and delivers on that is the one that's going to get their votes. Westin: Steven Rattner agrees with Chairman Brady that the economy overall is doing well, but the macro numbers hide a good deal of pain below the surface for many Americans. -The economy overall has been doing pretty well, but it's not doing well for everybody. Obviously, people who have stocks in the market where the market's been up double digits for 3 years in a row now have done exceptionally well.

If you have SpaceX stock, you've done exceptionally, exceptionally well. But for the average American, wages really have not gone up. If you go back to the beginning of the Trump term, there's only less than two years, wages, essentially, after you adjust for inflation are flat. In the last several months, they're actually down. And so people don't feel like they can afford anything. Now, also, the CPI doesn't really capture a few things, in my opinion, all that well.

It doesn't capture, for example, mortgage rates. You know, the way housing is done is this odd way of owner's equivalent rent. And so when house prices are high and mortgage rates are high and nobody can afford to buy a house, it doesn't really capture that. Doesn't capture people's health care insecurity, captures the cost of health care, but the fact that people aren't always covered for what they think they should... what they need or they should be covered for, it doesn't capture it.

So I get it. It's a really... it's a tough... it's a tough time. Westin: What can the government really do to address affordability? -Well, I think there's a number of things they could do. First of all, the One Big Beautiful Bill was a very aggressive bill. It gave a lot of benefits, unneeded benefits, in my opinion, to companies and to wealthy individuals, and gave the average American very little. So you could... you could undo that.

You could go further and have a more... a more progressive tax system. And this may be a tangent, but I would argue that with the AI revolution and the technology revolution, that is a time when we need to make sure that people don't get left behind by these new technologies. The housing thing is complicated, as you know, a lot of it relates to permitting, and permitting is a local issue, not really a federal issue. But certainly on a state and local level, there's a lot we could do to get more housing built.

So there's a lot we can do to improve the situation. But as you well know, nothing is getting done at the moment in Washington. Westin: One thing that has gotten done, and then undone, and then redone in Washington are the various trade sanctions President Trump has imposed in the last two years. Chairman Brady sees that as a key part of the affordability challenge. As we think about trade agreements, one of the major, I think, accomplishments of the first Trump administration was the renegotiation of what was NAFTA is now USMCA.

Where does that stand now? It's up for a review. -Yeah, this is pretty unique. So this was the president's signature achievement on trading, and for good reason, drew huge bipartisan support. It was seen as a big win. Workers, manufacturers, service industries, everybody, labor included, there, and the amazing result today is that as a result of the modernization of NAFTA, Canada and Mexico together are now America's largest... largest customers by far, largest investors in the US, and our largest and most important suppliers.

So the president's renegotiation has produced a North American juggernaut. This is now the most consequential trade agreement on the planet. He doesn't always view it that way. The review, which comes up, occurred last year, started last year, was unique. We never had a trade agreement before. And it really challenges each party, each country, to say, "Is this working for us or not?" Canada an