How Democrats Must Harness "Affordability" to Win the Midterms.
The Bill Press Pod
BP Pods
4.7 • 601 Ratings
🗓️ 3 February 2026
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode Bill discusses the pressing issue of affordability in the United States with Andrew Bates and Terry Holt, both advisors to The Cost Coalition. Bates(D) is a former Biden Senior Deputy Press Secretary and Holt (R) is a former spokesperson for Former Speaker John Beohner and George W. Bush. They explore how rising costs are affecting Americans across the board, from daily groceries to long-term investments like housing and healthcare. The conversation highlights the political implications of these issues, noting the failure of the current administration to fulfill promises of lowering costs. Bates and Holt also discuss their roles in the Cost Coalition, an organization dedicated to exposing the policies driving these price increases and advocating for working people. They address the potential impact of tariffs, tax policies, and healthcare cuts on the American middle class and suggest that affordability will be a key issue in upcoming elections. Check out their website at CostCoalition.org.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, good friends. Good to see you again, and welcome back to the Bill Press pod. |
| 0:12.4 | Well, as I'm sure you've noticed, something very interesting is happening in American politics today and something unexpected. |
| 0:19.7 | Almost every public opinion poll shows that the number one |
| 0:23.4 | issue that voters really care about is not crime or immigration or abortion, which Republicans |
| 0:29.8 | usually rely on, nor is it climate change, jobs, or the fate of democracy, which Democrats |
| 0:36.8 | traditionally talk about. |
| 0:38.4 | Note, among Republicans and Democrats today, the number one issue is affordability. |
| 0:45.6 | Higher prices for everything, groceries, housing, health care, and more, which, of course, |
| 0:51.5 | Donald Trump promised to fix an end on day one. |
| 0:55.9 | That was the same day he was going to end the war in Ukraine, of course. |
| 1:00.0 | So today, we wanted to take a hard look at this issue of affordability. |
| 1:04.9 | What's the reality? Who's hurt by it? |
| 1:08.3 | How are they hurting? And why? |
| 1:13.9 | For answers, we turn to leaders of a new cross-partisan organization called the Cost Coalition, created in May 2025 to expose the real |
| 1:22.1 | cost of inflationary policies for average Americans. Joining us today, two leaders of the cross-colleation, Democrat, Andrew Bates, |
| 1:31.1 | and Republican, Terry Holt. Andrew Bates and Terry Holt from the cross-coilition, thank you so |
| 1:37.2 | much for joining us and welcome to the Bill Presspot. Thank you all for having us. |
| 1:42.1 | Andrew, let me start with you. We hear so much about affordability |
| 1:45.5 | these days. And I want to talk to you both about the facts of affordability and the politics |
| 1:50.4 | of affordability. But let's start with the facts. When people talk about affordability, it's |
| 1:56.5 | certainly played a role in Virginia, in New Jersey, in the New York elections last November. But when people |
| 2:02.2 | talk about it, Andrew, start with you. What do they mean? What are they talking about? |
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