Polls and forecasters favor Democrats to win the House in the midterm elections, now less than a month away.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a PBS interview
that if his party takes the majority, it has a plan to make life's necessities more affordable: "Life is far too expensive for the American people. And everyday Americans need us to decisively act in order to make life more affordable."He said Democrats would focus on ending President Donald Trump's tariffs, which have driven up the price of groceries and other goods, ending the war in Iran and reversing the Medicaid cuts.
Those are extravagant promises, but voters should be skeptical of a last-minute pivot to affordability. Since Trump took office, Democrats have salivated
over one thing: impeaching him and anyone else in his administration. Americans may vote for Democrats hoping for lower gas prices and an end to the Iran war, but they'll get endless impeachment hearings, open borders and higher inflation.
Democrats can't wait to go after Trump
Democrats may say they'd focus on affordability, but they've talked ad nauseam about investigating Trump, who in his prior term became the first president to be impeached by the House twice. The Senate acquitted him both times.
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-California, who could become chairman of the powerful House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, keeps a "running list of the most corrupt things that the Trump family has done" on a whiteboard at his home, according to The Atlantic.
"There's a lot of ideas and possible investigations on there," Garcia told the magazine.
The Associated Press recently reported that Democratic leaders are preparing a vast agenda, including investigations of Trump and his family, should they win the House.
"There is a cost to the American people of the out-of-control corruption," Jeffries said. "If folks have been stealing from the American people, shortchanging the American people or screwing over the American people, we are going to hold the crooks accountable."
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, who could become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, can't wait to go after Trump's "corruption."
"We need to zero in quickly on the forms of systemic corruption that have cost the public huge amounts of money," Raskin told the AP.
Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, already plans to investigate Trump's international dealings.
And Rep. Jared Huffman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, is fixated on Trump's "vanity projects," such as the White House ballroom and the proposed arch near the National Mall.
With all their plans to investigate Trump, his administration and his family, when will Democrats find time for the affordability issues they're talking about? According to the AP, "Impeachment of the Republican president and Cabinet officials is not off the table."
Democrats already showed us what they'd do
Democrats won't fix affordability because they'll be too busy trying to go after Trump. And that's not all. If the past is any guide, they'll also bring more economic instability and open the border.
Under former President Joe Biden, inflation peaked at 9% in 2022. Now, with inflation at 3.4% under a Republican president, Democrats want voters to believe they're the ones to fix the economy?
Beyond sky-high inflation, Democrats' other legacy is a wide-open border that brought chaos to America's cities, strained public resources, and cost state and local governments billions of dollars in public education and emergency health care.
Rep. Michael Guest, R-Mississippi, chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement, said in a 2025 hearing that Biden's immigration policies caused "a surge in crime committed by transnational criminal organizations, and a weakening of national security."
That’s a nightmare Americans shouldn’t have to live through again.
Democrats have pivoted to talking about making America affordable again. But it's Americans who can't afford to put more Democrats in power. The last time Democrats held power, they opened the border and presided over runaway inflation. And since Trump returned to office, they've done nothing but bloviate and fantasize about impeaching him.
Sounds productive, right? Elect Democrats, and that's what Americans will get.
Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Democrats talk affordability. They really want impeachment | Opinion
