What Exactly Was the Republican Party Campaigning On?

Reminder: The Social Security Board of Trustees says its reserves are projected to run out in the fourth quarter of 2032, which — unless Congress legislates a solution — will mean that retirees are set to sit down in Uncle Sam’s barber’s chair for a 25 percent haircut to their benefits.

Somehow I missed all the Republicans on the campaign trail putting forward thoughtful solutions to this coming and (eminently predictable) crisis. Perhaps it was just me; after all, I was on the road a lot throughout the campaign season. But did you hear anything from Donald Trump, his White House, or Republican candidates about this issue — an issue that is more likely than not going to result in tax increases or benefits cuts, or both, during the next presidency?

Health insurance premiums are increasing at double the rate of inflation. (Yes, yes, I know — Obamacare was supposed to solve Americans’ health insurance needs when the Affordable Care Act was passed 16 years ago.) According to Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms, “Employer surveys and analyst projections point to a big jump in ESI [employer-sponsored insurance] costs in 2027, ranging from 9% to 11% before employers make any plan changes to manage their costs. This marks the largest annual increase in about two decades, and follows several years of elevated ESI cost growth.”

Again, perhaps I missed it, but I somehow didn’t see Donald Trump or Republican candidates proposing any solutions to control the rapidly rising costs of this critical pocketbook issue.

As recently as March 4, 2025, Donald Trump told a joint session of Congress “I want to do what has not been done in 24 years: balance the federal budget. We’re going to balance it.” In fiscal year 2026, the feds ran a $2 trillion budget deficit.

There are of course conservative, supply-side, pro-growth answers to these problems — problems that affect millions of Americans in the real world. But to get even a sense of those proposals, Americans would have to go digging through white papers listed on the websites of conservative-leaning think tanks. How many of them did that? (They could also read the pages of National Review’s Capital Matters!)

If you’re reading this Corner post, you’re by definition a political junky. Think about what the average, normie, not-particularly political American knows about Donald Trump or the Republican Party’s proposals on these issues, such as they are. The answer is — truthfully — “not much!” During the campaign’s closing weeks, they heard a hell of a lot more about ballrooms, the grass on the National Mall, helipads on the White House’s south lawn, and Ohio Senator Jon Husted’s derriere.

Is it any wonder that the American people rejected the idea of giving the GOP another two years in total control of Washington, D.C.?