ICYMI: Club for Growth President McIntosh Discusses Affordability WSYR Host David Allen

Washington, D.C. – In case you missed it, Club for Growth President David McIntosh joined WSYR radio host David Allen to discuss economic concerns that Americans are facing and suggested free-market proposals to drive down costs. During the interview, McIntosh reminded listeners of the economic mess President Trump inherited from the Biden administration, explained how deregulatory efforts have lowered gas prices nationwide, and outlined how price transparency is the key to lowering healthcare costs.

Click here to listen to the full interview from WSYR.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT: 

David Allen: Former Indiana Congressman David McIntosh joins us here. David, good morning, sir. How are you?

David McIntosh: I’m doing well, Dave. Thank you.

Allen: You are the president of Club for Growth. What is the Club for Growth?

McIntosh: Club for Growth is the largest conservative free market political group. We basically worked very hard to elect congressmen and senators, governors who believe in less government, more freedom for people to start their own business and pursue their own dreams. We’re very much aligned with folks like Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio when he was in the Senate, Rand Paul, who really pushed very, very hard for even less spending, so we can balance the budget. When we reduce those deficit, as Mr. Hassett said, that’ll bring down inflation so that people can actually afford to live on the wages that they earn. Yeah.

Allen: A lot of us are feeling strapped. Are things getting better, and when are we gonna start to feel it?

McIntosh: They’re going in the right direction. For over three weeks, the average price for gas was under $3 a gallon in most states in the country. And what we’re seeing, as Secretary Hassett said, is inflation, which was 5% every year – that’s a total of 20% over four years under Biden  – is down to 2.5% under Trump. Now, that still means that prices are high, so what we have to do is have more competition. There’s three areas that we’ve found people are struggling with. One are prices for groceries and gasoline, and second is healthcare, where if you are on your own insurance account, health insurance, it’s gone up 20%, 25% year over year over year. And the other is oftentimes housing – that, especially for young people today, it’s very difficult to find affordable housing for your family. And part of all of those have to do with government regulations in the economy. In healthcare there’s no price transparency, so the hospitals can charge whatever they want. The insurance company doesn’t tell you what claims they’ve paid and end up doubling and tripling what they pay out, and they charge for the premiums. So more competition we believe will help make it even more affordable for Americans.

Allen: I, we had a story on about beef prices going up earlier this morning. I gotta pick up a prime rib when I head to my sister’s house for Christmas here in a week or so. Can’t imagine what that’s gonna cost.

McIntosh: No. And sometimes the tariffs and some people like those, some of the tariffs where we bring jobs back, but when you have tariffs on food, that means there’s less competition and they charge higher prices for beef, for chicken, for everything.

Allen: Is the president doing a good job at selling this?

McIntosh: I think he is. President Trump has turned around so many things that were hurting people under Biden. We’re creating more jobs. The economy is going, wages are actually going up faster than the cost of living for the first time in four years. And he is starting to bring down inflation, cut it in half. And we’ll start to see that in gas prices. I think he’s also gonna take a second look at tariffs on food and say, maybe we can relieve those, so it’s more affordable when you go to the grocery store. In Washington it’s like a new day, where the government no longer feels we have to stop Americans from building things. Stop Americans from investing, and they’re on the side of Americans now to bring back jobs, create more jobs, and have a stronger economy.

Allen: David it’s been great having you on the show, we’ll have to do it again soon. David McIntosh, the President of Club for Growth.