Most voters see Congress as out of touch on spending despite midterm affordability pitch

An overwhelming majority of voters believe current members of Congress are out of touch with their constituents’ monthly spending habits, even as both parties make affordability a central pitch to key voting blocs.

An exclusive NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) poll released Tuesday found that 86 percent of respondents believed their current congressmember or senator couldn’t accurately guess what they spend in a month, with 55 percent saying they thought lawmakers would guess too low while the other 31 percent expected lawmakers to guess too high.

Only 14 percent said they believed their lawmakers understood their monthly spending — underscoring the troubles Republicans face as the party in power as the Trump administration looks to quickly ameliorate inflation and cost of living issues before Election Day.

“When you ask [people] how they’re feeling about the economy, they don’t feel like things are getting better,” Geoffrey Skelley, DDHQ’s chief elections analyst, told The Hill.  

“They feel like things are getting worse, and considering [President] Trump was elected … in large part, to address economic challenges, I think that is also not helping the GOP,” he noted. 

The full results of the poll will be discussed Tuesday night on “Decision Desk 2026 Have Your Say: A NewsNation Town Hall” hosted by NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo.

Rahm Emanuel, former White House chief of staff; Stephen A. Smith, broadcaster and commentator; and Steve Bannon, former Trump strategist, will discuss what they see in the numbers during the Cuomo Town Hall.

Before voters elected him to the presidency for a second time, Trump vowed to lower prices after annual inflation spiked to a 40-year high in 2022. 

But inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, increased from 3 percent in January 2025 to 3.4 percent in August of this year. The Iran war and the president’s ongoing tariff fight with Canada have put upward pressure on prices, as has the artificial intelligence........

© The Hill