Meanwhile, Trump claims the issue of affordability is a hoax. Therefore, Democrats need to elaborate what they would do to improve affordability for Americans without increasing the budget deficit that is around 6 percent of GDP. At the outset, Democrats should not claim they can lower prices overall. During the early 1980s, a severe recession ensued when the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to record levels to combat double-digit inflation. Fortunately, large rate increases are not necessary today, as inflation is considerably lower. Rather, the goal should be to keep inflation near the Fed's 2 percent target and to pursue policies that support growth of household income. During Trump's first term, wages for low-and middle-income workers outpaced inflation by a considerable margin, but this is not the case in his second term. One reason why lower-income families…

Federal Reserve data also show that wealth inequality in America reached its widest gap in three decades since statistics were compiled. The top 1 percent of households hold nearly one third of total U.S. wealth, matching the wealth of the bottom 90 percent combined. Accordingly, Democrats should begin by pledging to reverse Trump's policies that have hurt low-and middle-income families. First, instead of boosting military spending by a massive $500 billion in the 2027 fiscal year and cutting non-defense spending by 10 percent as Trump is seeking, they should aim to restore cuts in Medicaid and food stamps and hold the line on defense spending. Second, they should commit to eliminating Trump's tariffs. Joe Biden was reluctant to do so in the 2020 election because he did not want to alienate union members. However, the situation is different today: Studies show that Tr…