NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Here’s the Scoop, Election Edition: It’s affordability, stupid!

Episode Date: September 19, 2026

If there’s one issue driving this election, it’s affordability. With prices for everything from gas and groceries to healthcare and childcare rising, many Americans feel the American Dream is slipping out of reach. Meanwhile, Democrats think this could be the key to their comeback, while President Donald Trump calls affordability a “hoax” — but is still pitching $5,000 payments for every voter if Republicans maintain control of the House and the Senate.On Episode 2 of "Here’s the Scoop, Election Edition," NBC News chief White House correspondent Garrett Haake brings together NBC News senior policy reporter Shannon Pettypiece, former Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., and NBC News contributor Ashley Etienne, a former adviser to President Joe Biden, to discuss where voters are feeling the squeeze, why they don’t feel like the economy — or the government — is working for them and how the parties are responding on the campaign trail and beyond. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, Nightly News listeners, we have something a little different for you today. You're about to hear a special election edition of our NBC News podcast. Here's the scoop. In this episode, Chief White House correspondent Garrett Hakes sits down with experts to break down the key issues shaping the upcoming midterms. Take a listen. If there is one issue driving this election, it's affordability. Every time you go to the grocery store or any place else, it affects you. Everything's gone up. I think I spent like probably 300 every few days just to fill up the tank. The rich are getting richer and the rest of us are sinking quickly. Welcome to Here's the Scoop election edition. I'm Garrett Haik. Every Saturday from now until the midterms, I'm going to be talking with the smartest voices to discuss the top issues, the places and the players that could ultimately decide control in Washington.

Last week, I spoke with two of the top political strategists of this election. cycle, James Blair, head of MAGA Inc. and Congressman Pete Aguilar, chair of the House Democratic Caucus. If you want to know where the parties are leaning in and where they have concerns, go back and check out that episode. This week, we're going to go deep on the top issue defining this election cycle, affordability. For more than a year now, affordability has been the buzzword on every politician's lips. Democrats think it may be the key for unlocking their return to power. It's Democrats that have the ideas that people really want to vote for.

We're the ones who fight for affordability. We're the ones who... President Trump thinks it's all a scam. They use the word affordability, right? It's fake. They are so fake because it was them that caused the affordability to use their word crisis. So what do we mean by affordability? Broadly, it's the disconnect between the money we earn, what we get to.

to keep after taxes, and how much that matches up with the costs of our daily lives, from gas to groceries, health care, and daycare, and if we're lucky, taking a vacation. As far as Washington is concerned, it's hard economic data and policy choices. But it's also about vibes. It's a gut feeling. Are you getting ahead or falling behind? And is anybody going to do anything to help? The polling on this could not be clearer. Voters see affordability and the cost of living as their top issue, and they are not happy with how Washington is responding. Today, I'm bringing in three people to talk about this issue who have spent time on the front

lines. My colleague, Shannon PettyPiece, is a senior policy reporter at NBC News, and all years she's been traveling across the country to learn how policies in Washington are affecting Americans' bottom line. She's going to share some of their stories with us. We're also joined by NBC News contributor Ashley Etienne, who was a senior advisor in the Biden White House. She also worked for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi developing and messaging some of the policies we'll be talking about on the Democratic side. And finally, former Republican Congressman Garrett Graves is with us. He represented Louisiana's 6th District for a decade before retiring from the House in 2025. He was a close advisor to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and has worked on legislation to address the

affordability issue. Shannon, Ashley, Garrett, thank you all for being with us today. We're talking about affordability. This is something that the president has long said was fake. He talks about the issue as kind of a scam. But then at this Republican convention in Dallas, he rolls out this idea of a $5,000 check to every American. What does that tell us about the real state of play here for Americans' bottom lines? I want to get you all in on this. But Shannon, what did you think when you heard about that? Is that what people you're talking to, want? on? They need so much more than a $5,000 check. People tell me they see systemic issues in this economy that are preventing them from getting ahead or that are leaving them falling behind. And it's not

just one thing. It's not just, I need lower taxes on my tips. It's not just a housing bill. It's not even just gas prices. It is across the economy, everything in their lives, groceries, utilities, property taxes, child care, elder care. It goes on and on. And it's been going on for people for years at this point, years where they've been a family of five stuck in a two-bedroom apartment or years where they've been driving a 20-year-old car hoping they can upgrade it. And they do not see solutions coming from, you know, call it a gimmick or whatever, from a $1,000 check or one single piece legislation. I hear over and over again people feeling like it is a systemic issue of an economy that is not working for them. So that's what I thought of when I heard about a $5,000 check. I said, okay, for most people, okay, even if there was magically some check that

appeared in the mail, it just goes to another credit card bill. It just maybe goes in a savings account for a tiny emergency car repair down the road at some point. Congressman, that was the big policy rollout from that convention. It was. And touching on the affordability issue or not touching on, I think focusing on it is absolutely key. It's one of those things that is pervasive. it affects every single family across this country.

But attribution, I think, is really important. Which policies contributed to this? Which ones began fixing it? And it doesn't require us to just look at what's happening at the federal level. I think we need to look at the laboratory. What have states done in cases when they've been able to make improvements? But importantly, one of the bigger drivers here is energy. And we need to make sure that we're paying close attention to that.

That we're bringing solutions to the table to address the supply and demand and balance that's happened over the last several years. I think it's one of those things that really cascaged through the economy and has a profound effect on inflation, and you've seen the disproportionate energy impact across the country. Groceries is another one, but look, this isn't going to be popular with everybody here, but I think it is important to keep in mind. Inflation compounds. During the first Trump administration, inflation went up 8%.

During the Biden administration, it went up 21%. So far in the last two years, I believe it's gone up like 6%. This is a compounding thing. While the rate of inflation is dropped, we still. have 8% plus 21% plus 6% that we're all doing. Everything is getting more expensive. But is the, but is the offer for the checks a tell that there's not another way to dig out of that hole right now? So, Garrett, here's how I would approach that if I had a wand. Would I look at something that would provide immediate relief? I would, if and only if. I paired it with something that was going to

address long-term economic challenges. And lastly, look, let me say this, which I hope we can all agree upon. This should not be a partisan issue. Affordability effects every single American. And I think it is outrageous that both Republicans and Democrats weaponize this because this has a profound effect on just people. And it's something that we shouldn't be weaponizing. Rather, it's something that we should all be coming together and working on solutions. Everybody agrees with the problem. Not everybody agrees about the solutions. And we'll talk more about the solutions later. But Ashley, what did you think when you heard that rollout from the president? I think not everybody agrees about the problem.

Interesting. When you've got a president who says that the economy's going well and that it's all a scam, but yet he ran on affordability, I mean, this is the actual issue that he ran on. This was his only one singular promise that won him the White House, which is that he was going to lower cost. And so now all of a sudden, costs are going up from energy costs to your point, congressman to grocery costs to the cost. of housing, it's affecting every aspect of everyone's lives and every aspect of the economy. The other interesting thing that I find about this, which is why we can't all agree on the

problem, is that every major sort of policy advancement from this White House is really only compounding the problem. You've got the war in Iran. Now it's costing upwards of $100 billion. It's costing every household about $1,200. You've got the tariff policies, the back and forth, the swing, that's costing Americans somewhere upwards of a thousand bucks a month. And I would say, you know, third to that is what we're seeing right now with data centers and AI. I mean, that's an issue that, you know, again, you would normally associate with being an economic issue, but it actually has become that. You look at Gary Indiana, their electricity costs have gone up because of their data center. So what's your takeaway

when the president is taking in all these inputs and rolls out the check? The point I'm making is I think that you cannot get to, I appreciate what the congressman was saying, that we need to, in a bipartisan fashion, get to solutions. I definitely agree with that. But first, you've got to all agree that there is a problem. So you can't have the president calling it a scam, although he ran on it and is not doing anything to fix it, not even proposing anything to fix it. Second, the only solution is the 5K. I think, interestingly enough, the 5K is really for one particular audience.

And I think it's those Trump voters that, again, that are drinking the course. Kool-Aid, but that could afford to take the $5,000. I think everyone take the $5,000. I mean, yeah, nobody's sending it back. No, but I'm saying who wouldn't make a fuss about these larger arguments, which is that the $5,000 is not solving these systemic problems in the economy. And then it would add to a deficit. There used to be an audience that would be concerned about whatever the math was.

I think you did on that a trillion dollars that that would add to the deficit, which were actually seen in real time the bond markets care about, not to steer this into a bond market conversation, but we are seeing the bond market kind of going crazy, in part because of the borrowing costs. I know that is a difficult message to voters, but to your point about not being able to agree on the solution or the problem, that's a proposed solution that adds to another problem. I want to set the stakes here a little bit and bring in some of your reporting, Shannon. You met a young guy named Brandon right here in D.C. He's a mechanical engineer. He was living at home. I want to play some of your interview with him to help us understand what we're talking about here.

If I moved to an apartment that was comparable to living with my parents, I would probably only have that like $400 profit margin off of it. And I thought, that's not great. Because I'm a mechanical engineer. I should have a pretty good standing. And I certainly work, like, live in like a middle class setting right now. So right now, I know if I took all of my income, I could probably afford an apartment, and if I did nothing else, I could probably have just enough clearance to do to occasional fun stuff every now and again. Just occasional fun stuff. This guy's a mechanical engineer on paper. He should be doing well. What stood out to you about him? What is his story tell us about this broader problem that we're talking about? Yeah. So he is not

unemployed. He's not living on the streets. He has a job, a good paying job. He has stable housing. He is not living the middle class or even upper middle class lifestyle that he anticipated, given his profession, given the feeling that he did everything right. He's in his late 20s. He lives with his dad. He is in an outer suburb of Washington, D.C. He's not in a particularly high cost. It's not like we're talking about San Francisco here. And I hear that over and over again from people. You obviously have people on the real margins financially who are squeezed, who are in food bank lines, which are. at record levels. Food banks across the country tell me. But even people who on paper seem like they're doing well, who don't show up in these dire economic statistics, feel like they cannot have that typical middle class lifestyle they anticipated. Can't take a trip. Can't take their kids bowling. It costs them 40 bucks to go out for ice cream. They are stuck in housing that's too

small. They are not working because they can't afford child care. And they do not feel like they can even have that same life they had growing up when their parents had jobs that were maybe further down the economic spectrum or one of the parents stayed at home. That's what's really driving this frustration that I think you do not see in these economic statistics. To that end, Congressman, and I want to get you a little bit to respond to something that Ashley said, because on paper, the economy looks better than it seems to feel the people, right? I mean, inflation is down. Well, it's up from when President Trump took office, but it's down from where it was during the Biden administration. Unemployment rate is low, the stock market is up, there's this disconnect on feelings. Republicans are very proud

of the tax bill that the president put forward the no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, which isn't exactly that either. But it doesn't seem to have affected the vibes, the way people feel about the economy. Where do you think the disconnect is between what Republican control of Washington has accomplished and what people are feeling? Yeah, it's a great question. And I think one of the things is you need to look globally at baseline. I mean, just over the last several years, the U.S. economy has grown at a rate, doubled that of the European Union, and tripled that of the U.K. Is that right? So one thing is, is like, let's put things in perspective globally. But I think it's also important to recognize what people are feeling is real. I'm going to go back

here to what I mentioned earlier. 21% growth in inflation during the Biden administration, that is a huge. It's unprecedented in my lifetime in terms of that rate of growth. And it is compounding. Now, Ashley brought up some issues that are really important for us to discuss. Things like Iran, things like the trade war effectively that's going on and data centers. But all three of those items, I think if we take a close look at them, and if we go back to how do we design a system that's actually something that's going to provide durable, bipartisan, longer term solutions? Number one, Iran, is there anyone, Republican or Democrat that wants Iran to get a nuclear weapon? No. Do folks recognize that if they do, it's going to cause havoc and more problems across the globe?

Yes. Do you think we'd be having a fundamentally different conversation about affordability right now if we were not still at war with Iran? I think that Iran has had the straight issues there. And of course, what's going on with the Houthis in Yemen right now is driving up energy costs. There's no doubt about it. But something that's important to keep in mind. Some of the actions of the Trump administration, both in the first and in the second, to unleash American energy sources, what that's done is it has actually, insulated us to some degree, you want to be clear, to some degree from global energy prices that has helped to protect us from some of the volatility and energy prices. But of course, the Biden administration, they were actually pushing back against conventional American energy sources. And so, look, it's a lot of digging out. But look, last point is this. I was looking at some statistics from United America. They show that nearly 90 percent, nearly 90 percent of House races

are decided by 10% of voters that are the more fringe voters. It's how, through these party primaries, it's how we end up electing these more fringe candidates, which then you have these larger pendulum swings. Democrats want to do this. So they do this for four years. Republicans want to do this, do this for four years. You're not allowing the durability of solutions to actually work.

And I think if you have an election reform process that incentivizes the right type of candidates, you can put the right strategies in place and leave them in place longer. We have had change election after change election. election in this country because people are frustrated. And although Congressman, I don't know that going out on the campaign trail and saying like, at least we're doing better than France is a winning campaign message. But you do bring something up, and I hear this all the time from Republicans. And I do want you to respond to this a little bit, Ashley, because Republicans will say,

look, we inherited this problem from the Biden administration. And I do want to ask you to look back at the years of Democratic control. Was there anything that Democrats left on the table when President Biden was in office when Democrats controlled Congress that you wish you could have done or maybe should have tried harder on that would put us in a different place on this affordability conversation now? Well, I mean, I can tell you, you know, I started day one in the White House and the Biden White House, and we were in the middle of COVID. And kids were not in school.

The economy was not moving. There was no infrastructure that was left behind for us. There was no playbook. There was no sense of what happened. So that consumed two years, if not longer, of the attention. So if we're going to talk about what Trump inherited, we've got to talk about what we inherited. To your point, Congressman, all these major swings. But, you know, the pandemic was no one's fault.

I mean, it wasn't Trump's fault, is my point. The black swan event. Right. That was no sort of party's fault, right? You can't point finger at the other guy on that one. But what we can say is that the inflation that we, that you're talking about the 21% during the Biden years was as a result of what we inherited. So let's put that on the table and let's be clear about that. I think in terms of what Biden was able to do, you know, I've been in this town as long as you have for about 25 plus years.

And every year was there was an infrastructure week for almost 30 years. Infrastructure bill done to put trillions of dollars into our American cities and on the ground to start building America back up again. Then you've got the chips bill. You've got, you know, women's economic bills that were passed. For four years, really, you only had two years because you had two years in COVID. Two years, what Biden was able to achieve that should have delivered almost short of immediate economic recovery was unprecedented. You know, now you've got a situation where that stuff is being rolled back. The problem is what the congressman said.

It is the sort of swings that we have on the political side. on the extremes that undermine what could be very good policies to move this country forward. And I think Biden put many of those in place. Now, what more could we have done on the economy? You know, I think, you know, when you're in the White House, part of what Congress's job is to do is to be reactionary and not too aggressively proactive. But I think what he was able to accomplish, again, was unprecedented in terms of ability to move the economy forward. It is interesting that you have sort of Iran on the one hand on the Republican side, COVID on their hand. It's like, oh, but not, if not for this thing, what a different world we might be living here.

I want to reset here a little bit and talk about how this is going. Iran was a self-inflicted thing, so. I mean, but we'll save that for another podcast. Yeah, that's coming up in our third hour. Right, exactly. Okay, so we know it's affordability, stupid, but how are candidates actually addressing this on the campaign trail? That's coming up after a quick break. Stay with us.

I want to reset a little bit and talk about how some of this stuff plays on the campaign trail. And I want to listen to another voter that Shannon talked to. Another difference, Shannon, this from a woman named Jill, who you met, that really highlights, I think, the difference between the real economy and the felt economy. Let's listen. Yeah, I don't think there's a middle class anymore. We always heard the middle class was disappearing, but really, really quickly. The rich are getting richer, and the rest of us are sinking quickly. You know, hearing my kids say they can't, they're never going to be able to buy a house.

What the hell? That's the American dream. Congressman, I just think about someone who ran for office. When someone says they're losing the American dream, to me, that's like the bat signal for members of Congress, right? That's like the kind of thing you're supposed to be responsive to. How do lawmakers square hearing from voters like Jill and the president talking about a golden age for America? Yeah, look, I think it's important to keep an. mind that, and I'm going to say this a third time, Garrett, that people really are feeling a squeeze. When I talk to people at home, they really do feel a squeeze. But we can sit here and

blame the person that's right in front of them, or we can look at the actual causation. And I'm going to say this a third time, 21% inflation. It was absolutely historic. What you saw Republicans do is come in and say, hey, you know what? We're going to make permanent tax cuts. we're going to, and if they had not done that, would have resulted in the largest tax increase in American history. Is it frustrating on a purely political level that that message doesn't seem to connect with voters? Oh, absolutely. If I were, and I've talked to Chairman Jason Smith the other day about this. If I were in Congress, I would be talking about this all day long because every single Democrat voted against the bill said another way would have resulted in the largest tax increase

on every American and they're out there claiming to be the same years of affordability. It did pass. I mean, so where's the tax increase? People need to fill it. I think it's somewhat challenging for Democrats go out there and say they care about affordability whenever they actually voted effectively to cause the largest tax increase in American history. I hear what you're saying. A tax increase that didn't happen is the dog that didn't bark in politics. It didn't happen because Republicans passed legislation came together and drafted a bill.

Now, look, is the bill perfect? No. But I do think that, you know, going back to your question, do people feel a. disconnect? Yes, I think they feel a disconnect. Do they look at the people in power and say, you need to solve this? Yes, they do. But in many cases, this is a problem that has been caused from decades of flawed policy, decades of pendulum swings. And I think it's important for us to find policies where we can come together on. And look, talk about coming together, folks can beat up on the trade war all they want. I want to remind folks that when, when President

Trump in his first term put tariffs in place, President Biden kept them and actually added to them with solar tariffs than others. Chinese tariffs, that's true. But I bet if President Trump or Republicans had called Ashley Etienne and said, we're running on a golden age of America in this environment, you would have probably told them what President Biden experienced, which was that telling people the economy is better than what they're feeling doesn't work. How did the experience in 2024, how should that inform Democrats running for election right now of the sort of that vibe to live disconnect? Or it should be informing Republicans, not really, really us.

I mean, I think what you do is you utilize people like Shannon and Brandon. They're telling the story. Democrats don't have to tell the story. Brandon does fall into a statistic that talks broadly about the economy, which is that 25 million young people under the age of 25 are living at home. If buying a house was part of the American dream, but what we used to think as sort of the biggest jump starter of the economy, first home purchases, none of that is happening right now because the economy is so bad.

Things are so expensive. People can't afford to leave home, even an engineer. So, you know, I think what an interesting tactic would be, and we're not really doing this as a party, is doing more storytelling and let the American people tell the story for you. You don't have to beat up on Donald Trump. You'd have to tell people what they're experiencing in their life, and it's actually worse than what it was. Interestingly enough, though, what I think we should be doing is advancing a proactive agenda, an affirmative vision for where we want to take this country come November if we were to win. That has been partly shocking to me that my party has not come up with leadership, come up with what that vision is. What's the counter argument to what Trump is doing? What's our plan to work in a bipartisan fashion to get this economy again and get Brandon out of his parents' home?

Shannon, I want to bring you in on that because you have been having these conversations. Help us. How do voters perceive this? Where do they lay the blame in this moment? What do they want? Yeah, I mean, I think they blame it on a system that they feel like is broken and not working for them. And across parties, well, I covered the Trump White House. I covered two years of the Biden White House. And then for the past four years, I've been really focused on issues around the economy. It divides party. It divides who's in the White House. It's a systemic issue. even before 2016, we still heard from voters about an economy that wasn't working for you, which we heard about when we covered the 2016 campaign.

I'm not the political analyst expert here, but issues like a tax bill is going to be hard to resonate with people because whatever savings they did or didn't get, again, they feel it as a rounding error, and they see corporations getting big tax breaks and reporting record profits while their wages are barely keeping up with inflation, if not falling behind inflation in some corners. That is the system that they see and they're in. That woman, Jill, you played some sound from a minute ago. I spoke to her at 7 a.m. outside of a plasma center in Phoenix, where she was going before

work at a school district to sell her plasma for about $50, and she does that several times a week to cover the cost of her electric bill and her groceries because most of her check just goes to cover her rent. And so sometimes I think they feel like the messaging coming out of Washington is not getting at the bigger, wider, dire problem that they're experiencing in their lives. I do think that's why you see so much of the advertising that we're starting to see from some of these candidates in both parties, running against a broken system, running against corruption, those kinds of things can break through when you're in those situations. All right, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, what can or will the next Congress

do about it? So we've talked about people being upset. We've talked about the politicians making some of these promises out here. But we also want to talk about what the next Congress, however it is ultimately made up, can actually do to address some of these problems. And again, to set the scene, I want to play a little bit of an interview you did with a woman named Jenna, somebody who needs a little extra help from the government, and let's listen to that. Well, they shut down came, and so the food stamp office and some of the paperwork to me. Okay. So if I never get the paperwork, I can't pull it out and send it back.

Okay. Plus, I have heart issues and I have seizures and everything, and I've been in and out of the hospital, so I have a hard time getting to the food stamp office. Yeah. But us as disabled people, we're supposed to be getting our food stamps and for everybody else. And I'm not getting anything. I'm barely making them buy to eat. So people on food assistance, I mean, this is kind of a core Washington responsibility.

Is that a potential low-hanging fruit for bipartisan work in the next Congress, do you think? Well. Not food stamps necessarily, but any kind of assistance. In a lot of areas, there is, I mean, a severe food and security and hunger crisis. is going on. Millions of people, I think it's at around 5 million people, have lost food stamp benefits. And in some areas like Arizona, where this woman was, who's disabled, she should still be qualified for her food stamps, but she's caught in this bureaucratic hurricane that sort of happened since these new restrictions. So, I mean, there are definitely voters outside. I mean,

in addition to this woman, I spoke to someone else who was a Trump voter who says, you know, shame on me. You know, she's trying to work. Her company took a downturn and she was unable to, you know, make her rent, got evicted. I mean, you know, these stories go on and on, really. But there are voters out there being directly affected by this loss of food stamps. And, of course, next year, Medicaid, I mean, if you think people losing food, okay, they can go to the food bank. What happens when you lose your health insurance? What do you do? Millions of people don't have health insurance now. emergency room. So, you know, whether anybody likes to pay for this stuff or not, it's still an issue

out there that people are having to deal with. And Congressman, I saw something unusual today. I saw a Republican Senate candidate, Mike Rogers in Michigan, running an ad about prescription drug prices and affordability. Across the Detroit River is Canada. In Windsor, this heart medication costs about $200 a month. Here in Michigan, the same prescription for a Michigan family costs $800. That's four times what the Canadians pay for the same drug. That's not typically an issue you see from Republican candidates. I know the Trump White House is very proud of their work on prescription drug prices, the Trump RX program they call it.

They see that as a political winner. Is that something that if Republicans somehow managed to maintain control of one or both houses, we could see more work on in the next Congress? I will tell you, and I've had a consistent record on this, I think that prescription drug prices is one of those areas where there should be bipartisan consensus. It's absolutely outrageous what's happened. You can look at comparison to other countries and the United States is so out of whack with our, not just prescription drug.

Health care prices writ large. Certainly prescription drugs is one of the biggest drivers of that. And it should be a bipartisan issue. I think the president is, it should be commended for actually taking this issue on and not allowing status quo. So, yes, absolutely should be bipartisan issue. And look, one of the biggest things there, you create this incredibly complex system that is so opaque. and you get people that become experts on it and they exploit every single corner

to where they use this darkness as a way to overcharge people. But when we're paying $10 for the same pill you can go to Mexico and get for 10 cents when it's made it the same exact place, anybody who tries to stand up and defend that should be run over politically. Thank you for the clarification.

We're not encouraging violence on this podcast. Ashley, in the world in which Democrats take control of one or both houses, there is an interesting opportunity here to get stuff done because President Trump is not someone who's particularly bound by ideal I think that's a generous way to put it. He'll be four ideas that he thinks are popular, particularly if he thinks he can get the credit. Is there something we've talked about or something

kind of on your to-do list where House or Senate Democrats could make some progress on this issue and get a presidential signature? Yeah, absolutely. I think housing is a low-hanging fruit issue for both parties could come together and actually do something on. We saw a housing reform bill already this Congress. That actually moved, right. And so I, so I, And bipartisan, in fact. And so I think that there could be a great amount of opportunity there, low-hanging fruit, high-yield issue. So if we cannot agree, if you've got a president, again, hate to continue to say this five times, but I'm going to say it five times because the congressman has said it's five times. When you have a president saying affordability is a scam, it's hard to say, can we come together and do something for Shannon and Brandon?

Can we do something to get these 25 million kids that are stuck in their parents' homes out buying their first home? right and so that's that's really the barrier it's not that Shannon and and Brandon's story don't exist because we know they do to your point Shannon it's all over the place excuse me Jill I was going to let you finish and then I was going to fix it Jill and Brandon is struggling to if any of Shannon's or if any of Shannon's bosses are listening she could get it I was like what am I talking about that Shannon not Jill Jill Jill Jill and Brandon's story I mean there's there's tons of Jill and Brandon's out of there right now. And so the point is, is we could do something, but we first have to agree that they

exist and that the problem actually exists. You mentioned housing. I want to give each of you a chance in kind of our lightning round last minute or two here. Is there another issue that perhaps we haven't talked about or need to highlight more where there could be bipartisan progress in the next Congressman? I'll let you start. Look, I'll grab the three issues that actually brought up. Number one, I think on Iran. I'll say it again. Republicans, the Democrats agree Iran shouldn't get a nuclear weapon. It's an area we can come together and try and work for. from that basis on a plan moving forward. On trade, both President Trump and President Biden

used tariffs as a tool. I think it's completely ridiculous to have a country putting 150% tariff on our products whenever we don't put a single tariff on theirs coming in. Some of these trade wars, they need to be reset, recalibrated because they are unfair to the United States. And one of the last ones that I think is really important is energy.

Energy issues, we've watched these wildly different energy policies over the last few administrations. I think it is a huge mistake. We have great resources in the United States. and we can actually use them in a way that will result in lower greenhouse gas emissions than we've seen over the past few decades. The United States leads the world today in reducing emissions. We can build upon those strategies by using American resources.

And I think it's something that we should come together on rather than allowing us to be a partisan issue. Was it a mistake for the president to cut all the funding that he has for renewable energy sources, given the energy crunch we're in now? We are continuing to see record deployment of things like solar in the United States. I think that just like Bill Gates has said, that you can't continue to subsidize some technologies that have been around for 50 years by acting like their new technologies. And you have other countries that don't subsidize and you still have amazing deployment. And I'll say it again, just like solar today. Despite the fact that you've seen a rollback or recalibration of some of these subsidies, you were seeing record deployment, which I think proves that in some cases subsidies weren't needed.

Ashley, one thing I'm surprised we haven't talked about. The congressman mentioned it briefly were the team. tariffs. Do you think Democrats, if they're in control of the House and or Senate, might try to more aggressively roll back the tariffs as an affordability measure? Yeah, I mean, I think it's low-hanging fruit. I would definitely aim there. And I would go even further to say that Democrats should, with their oversight and investigative powers, try to see if they can get some of that $115 billion that corporations got back because of these tariff wars that the American people paid for on their backs, but end up blind. the pockets of these corporations. So, you know, my advice to, you know, the incoming chairman of the Oversight Committee, I think is Mr. Garcia, I would seriously look into whether or not that's possible and how you can do that. At the very least, it would speak to the American people in a way that some of these policies do not, because they feel like these corporations are winning

and they're actually losing. These corporations are winning at their actual expense. And I think tariffs is one of those prime examples of that. Shannon, you get the last word on this. Based on the people you've talked to, where would action from Washington be the most meaningful? Well, I mean, housing you mentioned is a big one. I don't know there's much Washington can do on that. They need more housing building and more housing inventory. High energy prices aren't helping that.

I mean, a lot of construction resources are being shifted to AI and data centers, which are also not happening, but more systemic issues. But it's this growing income. inequality divide that, I mean, I know that's the whole, you know, DSA Bernie Sanders wing platform. They're talking about it. I don't know if there's another bipartisan side of that. But the people I talk to see this growing income divide, this K-shaped economy, they see the people at the very top getting enormously wealthy and corporations doing incredibly well and record stock prices. And they're not part of that. And there is a lot of anger and frustration out.

there on that front. I have no idea what the bipartisan solution to that is, but I think people would appreciate some acknowledgement of the growing income inequality on a bipartisan basis might be helpful. All right. We've got to leave it there. Shannon, Congressman Garrett Graves, Ashley Etienne, thank you for joining us today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so whether left, right, or center, affordability is an issue that most Americans agree needs to be addressed. But for Democrats, there's an issue dividing candidates. inside the party, Israel. You can criticize Israel and not be anti-Semitic.

You can be an anti-Zionist and not be anti-Semitic. To take out frustration or opposition to what another country's government is doing on American citizens who are only affiliated to that country based on religion is outright discrimination. For that, I'm going to be speaking with Tariq Habas. She's a former Biden administration official and the founder of a new policy, a group that advises Democratic candidates on Israel, as well as Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman of New York, about Democrats' divergent viewpoints on Israel. That's coming up next Saturday on Here's the Scoop election edition. Remember, you could subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen or watch, so you don't miss it. Our show was produced by Carolyn Kenney and Amanda Llewellyn. Erica Huang and Bobby Carlisto engineered with support from Jessica Fenton and Jacob Condon. Kateri Yocum is executive producer of Here's the Scoop. And Chalini Sharma is the senior vice president of content development at NBC News.

I'm Garrett Haake. See you next weekend.