As campaign season heats up, politicians on both sides are throwing around one word: affordability. Yet, through their leadership and policy decisions, our Republican-controlled Congress has made it clear that the wallets of everyday Americans are an afterthought. From neglecting climate resilience to rubberstamping a reckless war and slashing healthcare access, congressional Republicans’ actions are clearly demonstrating their complete disregard for the affordability issues impacting the average American.
Our changing climate is already devastating communities. It brings extreme weather events, outrageous rebuilding costs, and skyrocketing insurance costs for homes and businesses.Recent polling shows that 80% of Republicans and 87% of Democrats
believe providing aid to communities hit by major disasters is a primary function of our government.
Still, after a summer of sweltering temperatures, smoke-filled skies, hazardous air, and historic flooding, our Republican-majority Congress chose tocut funding to climate resilience projects. They even defunded the public broadcasting system we relied on for vital, life-saving information here in Western North Carolina during Hurricane Helene just two years ago.
As a Hurricane Helene survivor who lost my home, watched my business flood, and lost my health insurance to exploding costs, I know firsthand how rising prices devastate a household. I suspect many in Western North Carolina—and beyond—have their own stories that echo mine.
Overnight, our mortgage tripled with the rebuild. My husband and I struggled to keep up with home repair costs even before Helene destroyednearly 1,000 homes. Today, tight supply keeps local rents stubbornly high, while the cost to rebuild climbs by the week. Clean energy cuts raised our utility costs, leaving us behind a world racing toward affordable, renewable energy sources. Meanwhile, yet another needless war drives up ourfuel prices, inflating the cost of every good and service we rely on daily.
Broadening the picture, food and housing insecurity is worsening in Western North Carolina. Community pantries are working overtime to keep up with demand ever since the Republican One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA)cut food assistance. Over 30% of Buncombe County residents struggle to afford rents, costing more than 30% of our pay. As a result, homelessness has risen sharply, worsened by the effects of Helene. Moreover, North Carolina leads the nation with a devastating 33% increase in homelessness year-over-year in 2025.
My health insurance doubled when Republican leadership slashed the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credit subsidies. Because of these cruel cuts, I joined the22% of North Carolinian ACA enrollees forced to drop our coverage because we simply could no longer afford it.
While our leaders tout the “positive” effects of the OBBBA on the deficit, the benefits are heavily rigged. The top 10 percent of Americans will enjoymore than $14,700 per year per household in tax cuts, while the working class loses access to vital programs like Medicaid, healthcare, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This is precisely how we get an economy that works for Wall Street—not the rest of us.
Make no mistake: The cost-of-living crisis is not a series of unintended consequences. It is the direct result of failed policy choices that benefit the few at the expense of the many.
It’s time to demand accountability. We cannot afford to elect leaders who ignore our skyrocketing costs. Life is becoming unaffordable and unsustainable for the majority of us. North Carolinians are exhausted by a system that takes a quarter of our earnings, only to give us less—or nothing at all—in return.
Madison Maxwell is a small business owner from Black Mountain, North Carolina.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Opinion: We deserve leaders who work for an affordable North Carolina
