Republicans in Washington need to recognize we still have an affordability problem: Voters cannot eat GDP or pay the electric bill with a culture-war victory

Conservatives should understand something before the American voter is forced to explain it to us at the ballot box: an economy is experienced before it is measured. Economists can discuss growth rates, employment figures, productivity, investment, markets, and inflation until the average citizen’s eyes glaze over, but the working American conducts a considerably more primitive calculation. What did I earn, what did everything cost, and what remained afterward? If the answer to that final question keeps getting smaller, no political party should expect a statistical lecture to improve his disposition. Republicans understood this perfectly during the Biden administration. We correctly...