Democrats tapped Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) to give the party’s response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, and she chose to make “affordability” the top priority of her speech. But after a cursory attack on Trump’s tariff policies, the newly elected governor of Virginia failed to identify a single policy proposal that Democrats are pursuing either in her state or nationally that would make anything more affordable.
“As I campaigned for governor last year, I traveled to every corner of Virginia,” Spanberger said, “and I heard the same pressing concern everywhere: costs are too high — in housing, healthcare, energy, and child care. And I know these same conversations are being had all across this country. Here in Virginia, I am working with our state legislature to lower costs and make the commonwealth more affordable. And it’s not just me. Democrats across the country are laser-focused on affordability — in our nation’s capital and in state capitals and communities across America.”
But at no point did Spanberger name even one policy to justify her boast about the laser focus of Democrats on lowering the cost of anything. She didn’t name any policy items other Democrats are pursuing, either. Perhaps that’s because Democratic policies, across states and issue areas, consistently drive costs higher rather than lower.
Look at Spanberger’s state: in her first month in office, she has passed 16 bills on her so-called “Affordable Virginia Agenda,” all of them partisan without a single Republican able to support them, and none that will lower the cost of anything. Most will only raise costs overall for most consumers. Her focus and that of Democrats on affordability is performative electioneering only, not anything resembling a fact.
Take House Bill 2, which mandates that Virginia utilities spend more on energy efficiency programs for low-income housing. Making low-income housing more energy efficient may lower energy bills for a few residents, but the costs of these programs will be borne by every other Virginia utility customer, who will face higher bills to pay for programs for the favored few. Another energy-related bill forces utilities to spend a certain amount on battery storage for peak usage times, but if this storage were cost-effective, utilities would already be doing it. This is just yet another costly government mandate that will raise utility costs on Virginia consumers.
Spanberger’s housing proposals are no better. Her HB 4 makes it easier for cities and counties to prevent new housing construction, and her HB 15 makes it harder for landlords to evict tenants. Tenants spared eviction may save on rent, but everyone else in Virginia will face higher rents as a direct result of the new regulations.
On healthcare, HB 220 bans health insurers from charging smokers higher premiums, but the cost of providing healthcare to those smokers, whose healthcare is more expensive, adds costs to the system, and money does not grow on trees. It must come from higher premiums paid by Virginia’s non-smokers. Similarly, HB 736 limits insurance companies’ ability to require authorization for some expensive medicines. Again, this will make some medications more available to a select few, but it will mean higher premiums for everyone else.
Then there is the biggest threat Spanberger poses to affordability: mandated government union collective bargaining. Up until 2021, government employees were not allowed to bargain collectively in Virginia. Former Gov. Ralph Northam and his Democratic majorities changed that, making collective bargaining optional for localities. Fairfax County promptly opted into collective bargaining, entered into an exorbitant contract with government unions, and promptly posted its first budget deficit in years, causing higher taxes for county residents.
Spanberger and her Democratic majorities now want to make collective bargaining for government workers obligatory statewide. Mountains of research show that government unions drive up the cost of government while failing to produce any gains in the production of government services.
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Why does New York City have a budget bigger than the entire state of Florida while having a population one-third the size? Government unions make the city unaffordable.
Democrats keep telling voters they’re “laser-focused” on affordability, but Spanberger’s own agenda shows what that slogan really means: shifting costs, piling on mandates, and empowering government unions to export the failed blue state model to red states. Until Democrats can identify real cost-cutting reforms and learn to take on government union power, they will continue to fail to deliver promised affordability to voters.