This is One Thing, I'm David Rind, and it's clear President Trump cares about affordability, but can he do anything about it?

The issues with housing and healthcare are very large systemic issues that are hard to address, and particularly hard for the government to address.

Stick around. Alright, chicken, let's see what we got here. Boneless skinless thighs, $6.99. I don't normally record myself at the grocery store, but I did the other day because I had heard what Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on News Nation earlier this month.

So are you asking people to spend more money with these new dietary guidelines than in the past? Do you say no?

That's right. And the answer to that is absolutely no.

She was talking about these new dietary guidelines that the Trump administration had just rolled out, and she had a message for Americans who may really want to follow these guidelines, but are on a tight budget.

We've run over 1,000 simulations. It can cost around $3 a meal for a piece of chicken, a piece a broccoli, corn tortilla, and one other thing.

'This went mega viral and Rollins was mercilessly mocked. People asked, what exactly are these simulations? What is this mythical one other thing? But beyond that, a lot of people just said, have you been to the grocery store lately? No way you can get a full meal for $3. Maybe if I wanted my one other thing to be a little healthier, I could pick some dried blueberries. Oh good lord, $11.49. Why are those so expensive? Now this grocery store I was at was in New York City, so take these prices with a grain of salt. But I did find some more cost-conscious options. Oh, here we go. This is a mini package of chicken thighs, boneless, skinless. $3.29. Looks just enough for one person. 8 ounces. The Wall Street Journal recently crunched the numbers that $3 a meal is possible if you find the right deals and break down the measurements just so, but the raw ingredients certainly won't be that cheap. Critics on both sides of the aisle say this all speaks to a much larger point, that the Trump administration has simply been out of touch with everyday Americans who say cost of living is too damn high even if broader economic data paints a rosier picture.

Can't say affordability hoax because I agree the prices were too high so I can't go to hoax cuz they'll misconstrue that but they use the word affordability and that's their only word they say afford ability and everyone says oh that must mean Trump has high prices no our prices are coming down

Seems like the administration has heard that criticism. Chief of Staff Susie Weil says Trump is expected to cut back on international travel and will start hitting the road domestically at least once a week leading up to the midterms. It's all scheduled to start on Tuesday with a speech in Iowa to talk about the economy. So what is Trump's message? What fixes is he proposing? And will the American people be receptive to them? Let's go to CNN senior writer, Tammy Luby. She's been covering this. So, Tammy, we've talked about on the show how President Trump has seemed to kind of downplay the affordability crisis that so many Americans feel, especially last year. He kind of called it a Democrat hoax, just kind of seemed to brush it off when he would be asked about it. But I've noticed that this year, he doesn't seem to be talking about it in quite that way, is that right?

Yes, it's true, although he is still walking a tightrope, because remember, he wants to claim credit for turning the economy around from a terrible Biden economy, you know, the country was dead, now it's hotter than ever. So he can't really say that the economy is great and that we have an affordability crisis. And recent polls actually show that Americans still have, a recent CNN poll shows that Americans still have a largely negative view on the economy. And actually are more pessimistic about the future.

After 12 months back in the White House, our economy is booming, growth is exploding, productivity is surging, investment is soaring, incomes are rising.

And he's certainly still in speeches at, you know, at Davos and in other speeches he's made recently. He highlights all of the improvements that have been made recently

'Since the election, the stock market has set 52 all-time high records.

Talking about stock market gains, although those, of course, haven't helped many Americans. He talks about how inflation is gone, we've defeated inflation, but prices are still high and inflation is still a bit higher than the Federal Reserve would like.

We are poised to have an economy like no other, not only in this country, but anywhere. And you know, when you hear the...

So, you know, he is changing his tune because he realizes that he has to, the midterm elections are coming up, and as I said, it's still number one issue for voters. So he's gotta get out there and talk about the wins in the economy, but also acknowledge that voters are still dealing with high home prices, high grocery prices, other things. He's gotta talk about affordability.

Yeah, he's got to talk about, he has got to walk that tightrope, but he's also been throwing out a lot of proposals on how he could kind of chip away at some of those issues that people are really feeling. So what are some of these policy proposals he's talking about?

'Well, they're quite broad. Last year, he was talking a lot about $2,000 tariff rebate checks that he would send Americans, although many people in his administration and elsewhere have kind of poo-pooed that, so we don't know whether that's going to happen. But I've been looking mainly into three of his recent big proposals, which are making health care more affordable. Also measures to make housing more affordable and credit card rates, because we know credit cards have high interest rates that are weighing down a lot of people.

Okay, so let's take those one by one. What is the big plan for healthcare?

'So last week, President Trump unveiled the long-awaited healthcare plan, which the administration is calling the Great Healthcare Plan. It's largely a framework for Congress. Congress is going to have to enact many of the measures in it. And, you know, by the way, many of things that he's suggesting, he can't do. Some of the things he can do on his own, a lot of them need Congress. And as we know, Congress is very fractured now. It's going to be difficult to get a lot of things through Congress. Yeah, a tall order and the best of times. True, but also interestingly Some of the proposals that he has talked about are actually ones that Democrats support, including the likes of Bernie Sanders and AOC. So it may be actually in this case hard for him to get some Republicans on board with his plans. But for healthcare, it is largely, he said, it was largely a framework for Congress. And one thing he is stressed because we are all still waiting for that great replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act, but he and his aides have stressed that the great healthcare plan is much broader than just a replacement plan for the ACA, and that is true. It has four main components. It looks to codify his voluntary most favored nation agreements with drug makers. He also, as he has talked about a lot lately, he would send federal subsidies directly to consumers instead of to insurers to allow them to shop for health care and presumably be able to find less expensive plans. He also wants insurers publish their rates and coverage information in plain English and give some more information about prior authorization.

Wouldn't that be nice if we could all actually read what is in the fine print?

Although, it's somewhat questionable whether these measures will allow that. And then also, he and his administration really pushed for price transparency with hospitals and insurers to allow people and employers and others who are shopping for healthcare to be able to see prices and make better comparisons. So he has a provision on that as well. But as one expert... Said they called it a largely political exercise and they questioned the impact of how much this great healthcare plan, if it makes it through Congress, what impact it will have. It doesn't make major wholesale changes to the American health system.

Seems like another example of him walking that fine line as well because Obamacare is popular, right?

It has become more popular for sure, but it's also gotten a lot more expensive this year. And I actually think I should note that the one thing that the Great Healthcare Plan does not do is it does not address the expired enhanced federal subsidies that the Biden administration put in in 2021 that made the Affordable Care Act coverage much more affordable. So those subsidies have expired. They expired at the end of last year. And the health care premiums on average have gone up 114% according to KFF, which puts health care coverage out of reach for many Americans.

Okay, so let's move now to housing prices. What's the plan there?

Trump has indicated that he has a broad plan for housing affordability, for improving housing affordability. But so far, he has really only talked about limiting institutional investors in the housing market, which they don't make up a very large part of the housing market.

And this is like when big corporations come in and buy up a track of houses somewhere that they're going to flip and sell down the line.

Or rent to people. But we don't know how large he's, he's phrased it as institutional investors, but we don't know actually, that's one of the things that has yet to come out is what exactly does he mean by institutional investors? Is it companies who own 1,000 homes, 50 homes, 250, you know, we don't know yet.

In recent years, Wall Street giants and institutional investment firms, many of you are here, many of you good friends of mine, many you are supporters, sorry to do this to you, I'm so sorry. But you've driven up housing prices by purchasing hundreds of thousands of single family homes and it's been a great investment for them.

So he signed an executive order on Tuesday that seeks to ban federal agencies from being able to support sales to institutional investors, agencies such as HUD, the VA, Freddie and Fannie.

But homes are built for people, not for corporations, and America will not become a nation of renters. We're not going to do that.

'He also has directed the purchase of $200 billion in mortgage bonds in an effort to lower rates, but he didn't actually mention some of the other ideas at Davos. He had originally said he was going to lay out more of his housing affordability plans at Davo's, but that didn't happen. So we're still waiting to see what else he's going to issue in terms of affordability. Some of the things might be. Allowing first-time home buyers to tap into their 401ks without penalties. He's also talked about 50-year mortgages and portable mortgaged, but similar to in healthcare, one of the major issues in housing is the shortage of homes. There's a shortage of supply, and these measures wouldn't necessarily go to improving supply.

Right. All of this sounds like ways to just kind of maybe lower monthly payments here and there, open the field to regular folks as opposed to corporations, whatever the details around that may be, but there's still a problem where it's just like literally not enough homes for the people who want them.

Right. And again, this may help around the edges in some ways, but the issues with housing and healthcare are very large systemic issues that are hard to address and particularly hard for the government to address. Similar to with Biden, there's only so much that Trump can do about the economy and affordability. But there is one more measure that he has addressed that many banks have come out very opposed to.

Gotta take a break, but Tammy and I will talk about that when we come back, stick around. Right, yeah, so tell me about that. We're talking about credit cards, right? We know people really use them and they get slammed with interest rates and fees. That's incredibly relatable. So what does the Trump administration have to say about how they wanna fix that?

Right, well, he's revived the campaign promise of his from 2024. He would cap credit card interest rates at 10% for one year, which is about half of the current rate. Again, this is a plan that Democrats have liked, but it's unclear how it would work, and it could make it a lot harder for many people, particularly those with lower credit scores to get credit cards.

One of President Trump's recent proposals that would directly affect you, he's doing it to improve affordability is to impose a 10% cap on credit card rates. Is that a bad idea?

It would be a economic disaster.

And Jamie Dimon, the head of JP Morgan, said at Davos that it would be an economic disaster and would remove credit from 80% of Americans.

Really, Republicans, senators, businesses, banks, credit unions, community banks, anyone think it's a good idea.

Several Republican leaders have also questioned this in Congress, saying that they're concerned about the, you know, the potential consequences of such a move.

Okay, so you've just kind of outlined three big buckets of American life where people are feeling the the pinch one way or the other. But what the Trump administration has offered is a lot of unfinished details, a lot of skepticism by folks who would be in charge of implementing it or Congress who would have to kind of muscle this through. So what should we make of this? What should voters feel about all this? Like, is there any relief to be had, or? Should we see this as the Trump administration just kind of throwing spaghetti against the wall just to signal it and show that, yes, we're taking this seriously.

'Well, it's really going to depend on the voter, obviously. There are issues now with jobs. There's issue with still ongoing inflation. So if you have a job, you may be feeling better about the economy. If you don't have a and are looking for one, it may be hard to find one. So that may really color your outlook. But there are some signs that affordability is getting better, some of which Trump can take credit for, other things he can. For instance, refunds, many people will probably get more money in their pocket come tax season, which is opening soon. The one big beautiful bill, which is the big Trump domestic package agenda that passed last year, contains a lot of tax relief, as we know, for many people, but not all Americans. The impact of the no tax on tips, no tax, on overtime, the enhanced deduction for senior citizens. It could increase their tax refunds by 10 to 20 percent. From last year, which according to one, the Tax Policy Center says it could be about $650 per family on average, a larger refund. It's not nothing. No, no, that's, you know, people will appreciate the $640, or families will appreciate that, but it's also very uneven. Not everyone will benefit. Only 16%, for instance, of the bottom quintile of folks, the bottom of the income ladder, will see a cut, while 91% of those at the top of the income ladder will. On the housing front, mortgage rates already are heading lower. They briefly fell below 6% last week for the first time in more than three years. Gasoline prices are continuing to sink. That helps a lot of people. But we've talked about and we've written a lot about the so-called K-shaped economy where people at the top of the income ladder and the upper part of the income ladder are doing better. They're still shopping. They're seeing their stock portfolios and their 401Ks jump. Other people at the other side of the K are struggling. So while the Trump administration and Trump himself are talking a lot more about affordability, there are still people in his administration that are saying things that kind of show how they are still really out of touch.

We are going to give guidance at some point to see what is a mom and pop, that someone, maybe your parents for their retirement, about 5, 10, 12 homes. So we don't want to push the mom and pops out, we just want to everyone else out.

For instance, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said recently that, you know, your mom and dad may be buying up a couple of homes and, you know, you don't know they may have like, you know, 10, 15 homes, which, you know, got a lot of reaction.

I don't know a ton of people, even if they are retired, who are buying up multiple, multiple homes.

Yeah, my mom and dad did not have that many homes. And, you know, even again on Wednesday, President Trump was talking to CEOs at Davos about how he's increased their wealth, which is probably true. There is an organization, OpsFam, that really focuses on income inequality globally and came out with a report that showed that billionaires are doing phenomenally well and they had a fantastic year last year.

I go around and I say, meet the biggest people, biggest business people. I say congratulations. They say, and what? I said, you've doubled your net worth since I've been president, right? He said, yeah, even more than that. They would say even more. We're doing even better than that

So yes, it's true that he has probably increased the wealth of CEOs, but I'm not sure that voters will be able to, or you know, all of his voters will be be able say the same thing.

Again, it's like you said, walking the tightrope and speaks to why the Trump administration feels they have to get out on the road in the country and try to sell some of this stuff starting this week. Well, Tammy, thanks so much. Really appreciate it. Sure thing. Alright, that's all for us today. Thank you, as always, for listening. If you're new here and like the show, make sure you're following it wherever you listen, so a new episode will pop in your feed right away, and the next episode will come your way Wednesday. I'll talk to you then.