Cost Coalition News
June 5, 2025
GOP's Megabill Would Light the Fuse on Debt Time Bomb
COMMENTARY: Andrew Bates and Terry Holt
At a Rotary Club gathering in Watertown, South Dakota, last year, Senator John Thune didn’t hold back. The national debt, he warned, was a “ticking time bomb.”
He blamed both Republicans and Democrats for failing to defuse it. “You are never going to get Members of Congress willing to make hard votes to deal with the debt,” Thune said, “absent a president who is willing to give them political cover.”
Now Thune is Senate Majority Leader. And he’s responsible for passing President Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” where the House-passed plan adds nearly $4 trillion to the debt without so much as a fig leaf of fiscal responsibility. [Read More]
May 29, 2025
Cost Coalition Statement: Trump's middle class import tax is illegal
Terry Holt and Andrew Bates, advisers for the bipartisan Cost Coalition, released the following statement after the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that the Trump Administration's across-the-board tariffs were unlawful:
"Not only are Donald Trump’s across-the-board tariffs the biggest middle class tax hike in modern history - they are also illegal. The Trump tariff Taxes are already costing American families $4,000 a year, a total violation of his promise to lower costs.
"By standing up to a reckless Administration that is making American life unaffordable, the courts are doing what Congress has so far failed to do. And the House just jammed through inflationary tax giveaways for the rich at the expense of everyone else - further raising everyday prices and making unprecedented cuts to health care and food assistance.
"Trump pledged to lower costs on “Day One” and “immediately” end inflation, but now he is actively - and illegally - fueling a cost crisis. Americans are paying billions of dollars in tariff taxes, depressing economic growth and creating whiplash for businesses who need certainty to invest and create jobs.
"Unfortunately, this decision does not end the process. Businesses are still raising prices because of Trump’s tariffs, and the administration is trying to preserve their illegal middle class tax hike. Whether it’s a Montana brewery paying $6,000 more for aluminum cans or an Oklahoma family trying to afford a car when the average new car has surged to a $53,000 price tag, the American people cannot afford the illegal Trump tariff Taxes."
May 28, 2025
Bipartisan Coalition Fights Rising Costs
OPINION: Trump's tariffs & tax cuts are crushing Main Street and making Mar-a-Lago elites rich by Andrew Bates and Terry Holt
May 28, 2025 Fox News
As a Republican and a Democrat who worked on behalf of presidents from both parties, we agree that most people’s lives will suffer unless we stand up to higher inflation, slower growth and crippling debt. That’s why we recently helped launch the Cost Coalition, a bipartisan campaign aimed at telling the real stories about the fight for the American Dream. Read More
May 22, 2025
Bipartisan Cost Coalition on the House voting for an inflation-worsening tax hike on the American Dream
Cost Coalition Advisers Terry Holt and Andrew Bates released the following statement after the House vote:
“Our economy is blinking red, from the Moody’s downgrade to Wal-Mart raising prices, but Congress is asleep at the wheel, creating another cost crisis that will raise prices on all Americans. Whether they’re Republicans, Democrats, or anything else, the American people are speaking with one voice, telling Washington to stop raising prices. Instead of listening, Washington just gave them the middle finger with inflationary tax payoffs to billionaires that raise costs for everyone else with exploding debt. Across-the-board tariffs are already the biggest middle class tax hike in modern history, killing manufacturing jobs and closing small businesses across the country while making it harder to afford a house or a car. Today’s tax scam pours gasoline on the tariff fire, worsening families’ biggest economic problems before it’s even signed into law. Out of touch DC politicians call this “beautiful” and a “victory,” but their constituents will call it what it is: a devastating tax on the American Dream.
May 16, 2025
Bipartisan Cost Coalition Reacts to Moody’s Downgrade of the U.S. Economy
Cost Coalition Advisers Terry Holt and Andrew Bates released the following statement after Moody’s downgraded the U.S. economy:
“It would be egregious mismanagement to follow a credit downgrade with tax giveaways to the rich that heap $3 trillion onto our national debt. After getting the keys to the best-performing economy in the world, the Trump Administration and their allies have rapidly spiked the costs they promised to lower, slapped new import taxes on the middle class, weakened the economy, and granted China unprecedented financial advantages. Whether they are Republicans, Democrats, or anything else, the American people are being double-crossed by Washington, and they are in no mood for tax welfare for unpopular billionaires that come at the expense of everyone else.”