Affordability is back in political fashion because it is important to voters. Democrat candidates talk about the grocery bill, rent, utility bills, and the cost of raising a family and pretend it isn’t their policies that are driving high energy prices. Energy costs are embedded in everything we buy.

Germany ran the Democrat climate policy experiment first and faster. We should learn from them.

This year, German manufacturing employment fell by 144,100 jobs, or 2.7 percent. Chemicals fell 3.6 percent. Electrical equipment fell 3.4 percent. The auto industry took the hardest hit. Its workforce dropped to 691,500, the lowest in 20 years.

Recently, Volkswagen's supervisory board approved 50,000 additional job cuts, with about half in Germany. The plan doubles the reductions agreed to since late 2024 and clears the way to cut the vehicle lineup by as much as half by 2035.

Energy is not Germany's only problem. Even though they pay about double the U.S. average, the highest in the G20. Labor costs are high, growth is weak, regulations are strangling, and Chinese competitors are........

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