Washington, D.C. – In case you missed it, the Club for Growth Foundation released a new policy handbook, Priced Out, detailing how big government and growing debt have driven up prices in the United States. The handbook features reports from thought leaders on how to address affordability across key areas, including inflation and spending, housing, energy, health care, and at-home costs for families. Liz Elkind covered the handbook in an exclusive report for Fox News. The paper will be presented at the Club for Growth Foundation Fellowship Policy Summit in Philadelphia, PA, and copies will be delivered to Republican Congressional offices.
“Americans aren’t asking whether inflation has slowed. They’re asking why everything still costs so much more than it did a few years ago. Priced Out answers that question directly: a family that needed $60,000 in 2019 needs roughly $77,000 today to buy the same things, and Washington’s deficit spending, mandates, and red tape are why. This handbook gives members of Congress a practical playbook for real, structural cost relief: spend less, build more, produce more energy, make health care compete, and let families choose. Members should apply these concepts to an agenda that allows them to hold the majorities. The answer for families feeling the squeeze isn’t more government, it’s less.” – David McIntosh, President, Club for Growth Foundation
Click here to view the handbook from the Club for Growth Foundation.
Click here to read the full coverage from Fox News.
HANDBOOK SECTIONS:
Affordability in Context: Big Government and Big Debt Driving Up Costs, by Brittany Madni, President and Founder, Madni Strategies, LLC
The Hidden Tax: Inflation, Deficits, and the True Cost of Big Government, by Veronique De Rugy, PH.D, George Gibbs Chair in Political Economy, Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
The Housing Barrier: How Government Drives Up Costs and How to Tear it Down, by Jason Sorens, PH.D., Distinguished Fellow in Political Economy, American Institute for Economic Research.
Delivering Affordability Through Energy Abundance, by Gabriella Hoffman, Director, Center for Energy and Conservation at Independent Women.
Prescription for Affordability: Restoring Patient Power, by Chris Jacobs, Founder and CEO, Juniper Research Group.
Home Economics: Policies to Strengthen the American Family, by Patrice Onwuka, Vice President, Economic Policy, and Director, Center for Economic Opportunity, Independent Women.
Freedom to Earn: Affordability and the American Worker, by Jonathan Wolfson, J.D., Visiting Fellow, Institute for the American Worker
STORY EXCERPTS:
GOP handed new lifeline on biggest pocketbook fight of midterms
Club For Growth’s memo tells GOP to blame government spending for high prices and pitch free-market fixes
FOX News
FIRST ON FOX: Republicans are being given a new playbook on an issue that is all but certain to be the biggest political lightning rod of the November midterms.
Conservative group Club for Growth is sending a memo to Capitol Hill lawmakers on Friday arguing that Americans’ struggle with high living costs cannot be ignored — and that the fault lies with an expanding federal government.
“Americans are not asking whether the inflation rate has slowed; they are asking why the same basket of goods is permanently more expensive,” the information packets being distributed to Republican lawmakers read. “[G]overnment made core costs higher through deficit spending, subsidies, mandates, and restrictions on supply.”
It’s an argument that could be a lifeline for the GOP as it fights an uphill battle to keep control of the House and Senate. While Democrats attack Republicans for how Americans feel about prices today, Club for Growth’s memo is urging Republicans to point to the rapid federal expansion the Biden administration presided over during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The materials, a two-page memo for lawmakers and a more in-depth 76-page policy packet, also urge Republicans to push policies that Club for Growth says will actually lower those costs.
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It urged Republicans to resist calling for subsidies for areas of the economy where prices are skyrocketing, arguing that handing out taxpayer money would only increase costs in the longer-term. An example the memo used is Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits, which Republicans have long blamed for skyrocketing healthcare costs before the COVID-era subsidy expired at the beginning of this year.
“Subsidies and regulation function as a back door for government control and involvement in private industry,” the memo argued. “The only way to address the affordability crisis properly is to undo misguided government intervention and stop pretending more of the same will suddenly work.”
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On high housing costs, the memo urges lawmakers to increase supply by targeting land use and building regulations rather than offering subsidies to make existing housing more affordable.
Energy costs, which were a flashpoint in the 2025 off-year elections as well, could be brought down by furthering the Trump administration’s goals to unleash U.S. energy sources rather than Democrats’ push for net-zero carbon emissions, the memo said.
A focus on nuclear energy policies could also help drive down energy costs, which will be at the forefront of most Americans’ minds during the November election.
And while Democrats have pushed free early childcare as a solution for struggling families, the Club for Growth memo is urging Republicans to find a more lasting solution in reforming regulations surrounding the industry.
“Health and safety training in specific areas, adherence to building, fire, and health codes, and comprehensive background checks, including fingerprinting, are reasonable,” the memo said. “However, strict and complex rules about work-child ratios, rigid staffing mandates, and regulations on facility specifications, including equipment requirements and zoning classifications, increase operating costs without demonstrable improvements in child wellbeing.”