Make America Pay Again.

Energy

The pitch

Cut your energy costs in half.

+27%

Gas at the pump, Nov 2025 to Nov 2026

A gallon of regular averaged $3.90 on November 12, up from $3.08 a year earlier. That is the first time it has been under $4 since July, and it is still 82 cents higher. It turns out that starting a war with Iran, which sits on the strait that carries about a fifth of the world's oil, is not a gas-saving strategy.

Sources: AAA; ABC News

Tariffs

The pitch

Other countries will pay.

$1,100

Cost per household, per year, at today's rates

Tariffs are a tax paid by the importer, and the importer passes it to you. The Yale Budget Lab put the 2025 hit at about $1,700 per household. After the Supreme Court struck down the emergency tariffs, the average rate settled near 11%, which still costs about $1,100 a year. After the midterms, trade adviser Peter Navarro said, "We are quadrupling down on tariffs."

Sources: Yale Budget Lab via Poynter/PolitiFact and 24/7 Wall St.

Prices

The pitch

End inflation, starting on day one.

3.7%

Annual inflation, September 2026

Day one came and went. Prices rose 3.7% in the year through September. Coffee is up 7.1%, electricity 4.4%, and clothing 3.4%. For comparison, it was 3.0% in January 2025, the month he took office. Prices rose another 0.4% in October. There is no annual rate for October, because last year's government shutdown wiped out the October 2025 data.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

The debt

The pitch

Get the nation's finances in order.

$40.6T

National debt, November 12, 2026

The debt hit $38 trillion in October 2025, $39 trillion in March and $40 trillion in August. By November 12 it was $40.6 trillion. That works out to roughly $6.5 billion a day.

Sources: U.S. Treasury via AP/PBS NewsHour and IndexBox

War

The pitch

No new wars.

$47.1B

Cost of the Iran war to taxpayers, so far

That is the Pentagon's own estimate to Congress, as of October 16, and it leaves out damage to U.S. bases. The war the U.S. and Israel launched in late February has also killed 21 American service members and wounded 865.

Source: Pentagon estimate via PBS NewsHour

Health insurance

The pitch

Better and cheaper health care.

+58%

Average ACA premium after subsidies, 2025 to 2026

The enhanced ACA subsidies were allowed to expire. The average monthly bill went from $113 to $178. Deductibles hit a record $3,786. Sign-ups fell by 1.2 million, the biggest drop since the marketplaces opened. For 2027, benchmark premiums are up another 13%.

Sources: Center for American Progress; KFF

Medicaid

The pitch

Just cutting waste, fraud and abuse.

10M

More uninsured Americans by 2034

That is the Congressional Budget Office's estimate for the health provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, mostly from new Medicaid paperwork and eligibility rules. Ten million people is more than the population of New Jersey. The new work requirements start January 1, 2027, in 43 states and Washington, D.C.

Sources: Congressional Budget Office; KFF

Food assistance

The pitch

Protect people who truly need help.

5.3M

Fewer people on SNAP, Sept 2025 to April 2026

USDA data show SNAP rolls fell from 42.4 million to 37.0 million people in seven months as new work rules kicked in. Participation dropped in every state, and in just 12 states more than 700,000 children lost food benefits.

Sources: USDA data via LiveNOW from FOX; Center for American Progress

Public health

The pitch

Make America Healthy Again.

5,412

Measles cases in 2026, across 45 states

The worst year since 1991, with 10 deaths so far. From 2000 to 2024, the U.S. averaged about 180 cases a year. The country is expected to lose the measles "eliminated" status it has held since 2000. In 2025, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired every member of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee.

Sources: CDC via ABC News; PolitiFact; NBC News

Medical research

The pitch

Restore gold standard science.

$1.8B

NIH grants cut in under 40 days

Between February 28 and April 8, 2025, the NIH terminated 694 research grants. Studies were stopped partway through, so much of the money already spent produced nothing anyone can use.

Source: JAMA study via Fierce Biotech

Paychecks

The pitch

Bigger paychecks for working families.

3.1% < 3.7%

Wage growth vs. inflation, past year

Average hourly pay rose 3.1% in the year through October. Prices rose 3.7% in the latest full-year reading. When your raise is smaller than the rise in prices, it is a pay cut with better marketing.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Farms

The pitch

Stand up for the American farmer.

+19%

Farm bankruptcies, first 9 months of 2026 vs. 2025

There were 292 Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies through September, up from 246 a year earlier. Trade fights cost soybean growers their biggest customer, China, for most of 2025.

Source: National Agricultural Law Center

Tourism

The pitch

The world respects us again.

-6%

Foreign visitors to the U.S., 2025

The U.S. was the only major destination where international visits fell in 2025. Canadian visits in January 2026 were down 28% from two years earlier. Every missing tourist is a hotel, restaurant and tour guide paycheck that went somewhere else.

Source: World Travel and Tourism Council via Business Standard

Government

The pitch

Cut the fat, keep the services.

-277,000

Federal jobs, Jan to Nov 2025

That is about the population of Buffalo, gone from the federal payroll in eleven months. Among them: staff at Social Security, the FDA and the National Weather Service. The cuts kept going: there were 71,000 fewer federal jobs in October 2026 than a year earlier.

Sources: BLS data via Washington Examiner; BLS

Tariffs and prices

Clashing over Commerce

Douglas A. Irwin

The definitive history of U.S. trade policy, from the founders to now. Useful for anyone told that tariffs are paid by other countries.

Health care

An American Sickness

Elisabeth Rosenthal

A former doctor turned reporter explains why American health care costs so much, and who profits.

Public health

Deadly Choices

Paul A. Offit

How the anti-vaccine movement grew, and why diseases like measles come back when it wins.

Government

The Fifth Risk

Michael Lewis

What federal agencies actually do, and what happens when the people running them stop caring.

Democracy

How Democracies Die

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt

Two Harvard political scientists on how elected leaders weaken democracy from the inside, one norm at a time.

Check the coverage

Don't take our word for it

Ground News shows how outlets on the left, center and right cover the same story, so you can see what each side leaves out. Including us.