Slate Daily Feed Political Gabfest | Who Really Won the Shutdown?
Nov 13, 2025
David Leonhardt, the Editorial Director at The New York Times, joins the discussion to unpack the concept of affordability. He highlights the political and economic implications of housing affordability and how it should be measured against living standards. The conversation dives into the tension between market-driven solutions and redistribution approaches. Leonhardt also tackles accountability, questioning how much blame can be placed on former President Trump for the ongoing affordability crisis, providing a thought-provoking analysis.
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Shutdowns Usually Backfire Politically
- Shutdowns historically punish the party that initiates them, so political gains can be erased by widespread pain and disruption.
- Democrats highlighted affordability and healthcare but risked trading those gains for immediate backlash by ending the shutdown early.
Senate Provision Shields Senators From Probes
- The Senate compromise added a novel protection letting senators sue if investigators gather their phone metadata without notice, creating taxpayer-paid damages.
- That remedy risks normalizing compensation claims against federal probes and politicizing investigations.
Affordability Is About Living Standards
- Affordability refers to long-term living standards, not short-term inflation, measured by real incomes and house-price-to-income ratios.
- Housing affordability is the clearest single metric showing multi-decade declines in living standards for many Americans.
