GOP lawmakers are punting major fights — including government funding, money for the war with Iran and the extension of expanded surveillance authorities — until after the November election, setting up a bloated lame-duck agenda that will be difficult to get done by Christmas. The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill to fund…
Page F3From§Eachthe breakfast edition — 2 September 2026
Trump promised affordability wins for midterms as bond market turmoil balloons lame-duck agenda
Trump's stated aim is affordability wins down the midterm homestretch. The receipts show bond market turmoil heightening risks for Trump and the GOP, and Congress responding by ballooning the lame-duck agenda, punting priorities until after the election. On paper, affordability is the promise; in practice, volatility is the outcome, and deadlines slip. The cost is recorded in the bond market and the legislative calendar. The receipts reconcile: the promise of affordability is met with the expense of delay. The gap is the difference between the stated agenda and the actual delivery. For the ledger, the cost is measured in risk premiums, postponed votes, and the price of uncertainty. The receipts show whose column the gap lands in: the household budget, deferred, and the midterm ask, postponed. Hon, the numbers are clear: affordability is the banner, but the bill comes due in the ballooned agenda.
“It's all about affordability until the market tanks, and then Congress punts the whole agenda past the election. The promise is cheap, the turmoil expensive, and we pay either way.”
“Trump's affordability agenda is strong, except for market turbulence, which is really just a sign of robust activity. The ballooning lame-duck agenda is actually an opportunity for strategic delay—wait, delay? That doesn't sound like a win, but it's definitely not a loss.”
The receipts
President Trump is taking every available avenue in his effort to appeal to voters on affordability as frustrations over high prices and economic uncertainty show no signs of subsiding nine weeks out from the midterms. Trump met with oil and gas retailers and refineries at the White House as oil prices jumped again amid the...
Turbulence in the bond markets, fueled primarily by rising anxiety about government debt, is creating one more headwind for President Trump and the GOP as they move toward challenging midterm elections. Bond yields ticked up again on Tuesday, with the yield on the U.S. Treasury 10-year note hitting its highest point since January 2025.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.