A new POLITICO poll highlights intense financial pressures on Americans, with nearly half saying it is hard to afford essentials such as groceries, housing and health care. The survey, conducted in November, points to broad impacts on daily life, including people skipping medical care and cutting back on leisure spending, even as many voters remain skeptical of President Donald Trump’s claims that prices are falling.
The POLITICO affordability poll, conducted online by Public First from November 14 to 17 among 2,098 U.S. adults, underscores the extent to which Americans are grappling with the cost of living, according to POLITICO’s reporting.
Nearly half of respondents said they find their regular bills — including groceries, utilities and health care — difficult to afford. The poll also found that 27 percent of adults reported skipping a medical check-up in the last two years because of cost, and 23 percent said they had skipped doses of prescribed medication for the same reason.
Rising prices have reshaped how people spend on non-essentials as well. According to the POLITICO/Public First survey, 37 percent of respondents said they could not afford to attend a professional sports event with family or friends, while 46 percent said they could not afford to take a vacation that involves flying.
Food prices emerged as a central concern. The poll found that 50 percent of Americans said groceries are hard to afford, and 55 percent blamed the Trump administration for high prices at the supermarket. Housing ranked as another major pressure point, with concerns about rent and mortgage costs outranking some other household bills. Separate data from the National Association of Realtors has shown that the typical first-time homebuyer is older than in previous generations, reflecting affordability strains, though the specific median age figure was not detailed in POLITICO’s account of the survey.
Health care costs were also cited as one of the top worries in the POLITICO/Public First poll, with roughly half of adults indicating that medical expenses are a significant financial burden.
The survey captured skepticism about the value of higher education amid rising tuition. Only about one-quarter of respondents said a four-year college degree is definitely worth the money. Roughly six in 10 cited either excessive costs or insufficient financial payoff as reasons to doubt its value, a view that extended across age groups and was shared by many college graduates, according to POLITICO’s summary of the findings.
The poll also probed views on tariffs, a central plank of Trump’s economic policy. Among voters who said they plan to support Trump in 2026, a minority said current tariff policies are clearly helping the economy both now and in the long term, while a larger share saw tariffs as causing short-term harm but potentially leading to future gains. Opinions were similarly mixed among self-identified "MAGA" Republicans, with some seeing benefits over time and others viewing tariffs as harmful in both the near and longer term.
In public remarks and interviews in recent days, Trump has repeatedly insisted that prices are coming down, casting his administration’s approach as a success against inflation. In one recent POLITICO interview, he gave his economic performance high marks and maintained that prices are falling. But the new polling suggests his message is not fully resonating: while many Republicans credit him for tackling the cost of living, a substantial share of voters — including some of his own supporters — still blame his administration for high grocery bills and broader affordability problems. That disconnect could pose challenges for the GOP as it heads into the 2026 midterm election cycle.
The POLITICO/Public First poll was weighted to reflect U.S. population demographics. POLITICO reported that the survey’s margin of sampling error was about plus or minus 2 percentage points.
