CFE Endorses Republican Study Committee's Reconciliation 2.0 Agenda, “Making the American Dream Affordable Again”

Washington has spent years talking about affordability while making it harder for families to get ahead. Housing costs remain elevated. Health care bills keep climbing. Energy prices stay volatile. At the same time, federal spending continues to drive price pressures that hit working families first and hardest.

That is why the Republican Study Committee’s Reconciliation 2.0 framework, “Making the American Dream Affordable Again,” deserves serious attention. It reflects a governing approach focused on lowering costs, expanding opportunity, and restoring fiscal discipline rather than relying on slogans or short-term subsidies.

The framework starts from a simple premise. Affordability does not come from bigger government. It comes from removing barriers, expanding supply, restoring competition, and letting families keep more of their own money. That approach aligns closely with the principles the Center for a Free Economy has consistently advanced.

Housing affordability is a clear example. Federal policy has restricted supply while locking families into high-cost markets. The RSC framework emphasizes expanding housing availability, reducing regulatory friction, and encouraging transactions that make ownership attainable. That matters. Subsidizing demand without addressing supply only pushes prices higher.

Health care affordability follows the same pattern. Years of layered subsidies and regulatory mandates have benefited insurers and middlemen while leaving patients with higher premiums and fewer choices. The framework’s focus on competition, transparency, and patient-directed assistance reflects a needed shift toward consumer control and away from centralized systems that inflate costs.

Energy prices remain another major driver of household budgets. Regulatory delays and permitting bottlenecks have limited domestic production and raised costs across the economy. By prioritizing regulatory certainty and energy independence, the framework addresses affordability at its source rather than treating the symptoms after prices rise.

The framework also confronts federal spending directly. More than $1.6 trillion in identified savings and net deficit reduction signal a serious commitment to fiscal restraint. Persistent deficits are not an abstract concern. They translate into higher prices, higher interest costs, and weaker long-term growth for families trying to build a future.

Finally, the proposal emphasizes permanence. Temporary policies and executive actions leave families and businesses guessing. Codifying reforms provides certainty, supports long-term investment, and prevents future administrations from reversing progress through regulation alone.

Affordability is not a messaging exercise. It is the result of policy choices that either respect markets or override them. The Republican Study Committee’s Reconciliation 2.0 framework points Congress in the right direction. Lawmakers serious about lowering costs and restoring the American Dream should move quickly to act.