. It appears that Trump’s promise to make housing more affordable has been tossed aside, in favor of making houses less affordable.
Democrats knock Trump’s pledge to ‘drive housing prices up’
BY ELLIOTT DAVIS 01/29/26 07:58 PM ET
Democratic lawmakers on Thursday slammed President Trump over comments he made about wanting to “drive housing prices up” for people who own their homes, with one congresswoman telling followers that he “doesn’t care about making your life more affordable.”
During a Cabinet meeting earlier Thursday, the president said he wants to keep homeowners “wealthy.”
“We’re not going to destroy the value of their homes so that somebody that didn’t work very hard can buy a home,” he said. “I don’t want to drive housing prices down. I want to drive housing prices up for people who own their homes. And they can be assured that’s what’s going to happen.”
Several Democrats in both the House and Senate clapped back at the president.
“Are you trying to buy your first home? Trump wants your prices to go up,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) wrote on the social platform X. “But sure Donald, keep saying affordability is a hoax.”
Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), who previously clashed with the president over his appearance in a video in which he and other lawmakers told members of the military they can refuse illegal orders, also criticized Trump’s remarks on X.
“Millions of hardworking folks can’t afford to buy—and the President’s tariffs are making it even more expensive,” Crow wrote.
Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) added in her own post, “Millions of families are struggling to afford a roof over their heads & Trump’s response is to increase the price of housing. He doesn’t care about making your life more affordable.”
Housing prices have spiked recently, outpacing overall inflation. The median sale price of a home in December was $429,000, up by more than 28 percent relative to December 2020, according to data compiled by Redfin.
This is one of the most outrageous things Trump is doing! This is incontrovertible proof that Trump could not care less about actually making life more affordable for Americans in general. Whom does this help other than the already wealthy who already own homes and/or make their living from buying and selling real estate, like Trump? How can this fail to further impoverish the already impoverished and vastly increase numbers of people who are homeless? Why does it make any sense to make it nearly impossible for aspiring first time homeowners to afford the cost of a home?
Why is low-income housing reprehensible for anyone other than greedy realtors who care only about maximizing their profits from selling maximally expensive homes to the wealthiest of the wealthy?
Why doesn't it make more sense to maximize profits by selling greater numbers of affordable homes to ordinary, average people than by concentrating on making homes that are so expensive that very few can afford to buy them?
No precept or claim is more suspect or more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
This home affordability crisis and homelessness crisis seem particularly ridiculous when we consider the fact that there are far more vacant homes in America than there are homeless people.
In the U.S., there are significantly more vacant homes than homeless individuals, with estimates showing around 45.9 empty homes for every person experiencing homelessness.
Current Statistics
As of 2023, there are approximately 14.8 million empty homes in the U.S., which translates to an average of 45.9 vacant homes for each homeless person.
1
In some areas, the disparity is even more pronounced. For instance, in Mississippi, there are about 204.7 vacant homes for every homeless individual, highlighting the uneven distribution of housing resources.
1
2 Sources
Implications of the Disparity
Housing Affordability: The existence of numerous vacant homes alongside rising homelessness raises questions about housing affordability and accessibility. Many vacant homes may be in areas where demand is low, or they may be priced out of reach for those in need of housing.
Urban vs. Rural Divide: The distribution of vacant homes is not uniform across the country. Urban areas often have higher rates of homelessness, while rural areas may have a surplus of empty homes due to lower population density and demand.
2
2 Sources
Conclusion
The stark contrast between the number of vacant homes and the homeless population underscores a complex issue in housing policy and urban planning. Addressing this disparity requires a multifaceted approach, including improving access to affordable housing, addressing the root causes of homelessness, and ensuring that vacant properties are utilized effectively to meet community needs.
In California alone, there are more vacant homes than the entire number of homeless in the entire U.S.A. So why is it so difficult to alleviate the homeless crisis?
A recent report using census data found that there are about 16 million homes sitting empty across the U.S. According to KTLA, the study by LendingTree ranked the 50 states by how many unoccupied homes they currently have.
Of the 16 million vacant homes in the U.S., over 1 million of those are in California. While California ranked low on the list (No. 46), the state is so large that it still had the second-highest number of empty homes. The report says 8.7% of California's housing stock is vacant, which totals to about 1.2 million empty homes.
Updated Feb 28, 2025
by the USAFacts team
Around 23 out of every 10,000 Americans — 771,480 people — experienced homelessness in January 2024 according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) annual point-in-time report, which measures homelessness across the US on a single night each winter. That’s an 18% increase from the same report in 2023.
Last edited by Gunnar on Sat Jan 31, 2026 10:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
No precept or claim is more suspect or more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
So why is it so difficult to alleviate the homeless crisis?
Because solving the homeless crisis might involve some rich people becoming a little less rich.
And that would never do.
Maksutov:
That's the problem with this supernatural stuff, it doesn't really solve anything. It's a placeholder for ignorance.
Mayan Elephant:
Not only have I denounced the Big Lie, I have denounced the Big lie big lie.
So why is it so difficult to alleviate the homeless crisis?
Because solving the homeless crisis might involve some rich people becoming a little less rich.
And that would never do.
Yeah, I already figured that out, which only makes the situation all the more deplorable. I think the obsession to maximize one's wealth without limit, no matter how many people they hurt or marginalize in the process, is a kind of mental illness!
No precept or claim is more suspect or more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
.
Trump’s Golden Age hasn’t yet reigned in bankruptcies, which are still on the rise.
Bankruptcy Filings Rise 11 Percent
Published on February 4, 2026
Total bankruptcy filings rose 11 percent, with increases in both business and non-business bankruptcies, in the twelve-month period ending Dec. 31, 2025.
According to statistics released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, annual bankruptcy filings totaled 574,314 in the year ending December 2025, compared with 517,308 cases in the previous year.
Business filings rose 7.1 percent, from 23,107 to 24,737, in the year ending Dec. 31, 2025. Non-business bankruptcy filings rose 11.2 percent to 549,577, compared with 494,201 in December 2024.
Bankruptcy totals for the previous 12 months are reported four times annually.
For more than a decade, total filings fell steadily, from a high of nearly 1.6 million in September 2010 to a low of 380,634 in June 2022. Total filings have increased each quarter since then, but they remain far lower than historical highs.
.
This may not be the desired end result of whatever Trump’s strategy with tariffs was hoping to achieve.
Trade deficit soared 94% in November and was higher than a year ago, despite tariff efforts
THU, JAN 29 20269:41 AM EST
Jeff Cox
KEY POINTS
The U.S. deficit with its global trading partners nearly doubled in November as the shortfall with the European Union swelled.
Following a month where the trade deficit hit its lowest level since early 2009, it shot up to $56.8 billion, an increase of 94.6% from October.
The U.S. deficit with its global trading partners nearly doubled in November as the shortfall with the European Union swelled and the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs worked their way through the economy, the Census Bureau reported Thursday.
Following a month where the trade deficit hit its lowest level since early 2009, it shot up to $56.8 billion, an increase of 94.6% from October. Of that gain, about one-third came with the European Union, where the goods deficit rose by $8.2 billion. The goods deficit with China decreased by about $1 billion to $13.9 billion.
On a year-over-year basis, the deficit through November stood at $839.5 billion, or about 4% higher than the same period in 2024.
Nearly half of the databases that public health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were updating on a monthly basis have been frozen without notice or explanation, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The study—led by Janet Freilich, a law expert at Boston University, and Jeremy Jacobs, a medical professor at Vanderbilt University—examined the status of all CDC databases, finding a total of 82 that had, as of early 2025, been receiving updates at least monthly. But, of those 82, only 44 were still being regularly updated as of October 2025, with 38 (46 percent) having their updates paused without public notice or explanation.
Examining the databases’ content, it appeared that vaccination data was most affected by the stealth data freezes. Of the 38 outdated databases, 33 (87 percent) included data related to vaccination. In contrast, none of the 44 still-updated databases relate to vaccination. Other frozen databases included data on infectious disease burden, such as data on hospitalizations from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
The most common vaccination types included in the out-of-date data were vaccinations against influenza, COVID-19, and RSV. Two frozen databases included data on all three vaccines. When the researchers checked in on the databases again in December, only one had been updated, leaving 37 still entirely out of date.
The finding stood out given that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a fervent anti-vaccine advocate who has worked for decades to undermine trust in and use of life-saving vaccines.
“Given the vaccine skepticism of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, it is concerning that nearly 90 percent of the paused databases related to vaccination surveillance, with additional gaps in respiratory disease monitoring,” Freilich, Jacobs, and their co-authors write in the study.
“Damning”
Overall, a lack of updated data can make it more difficult, if not impossible, for federal and state health officials to identify and rapidly respond to emerging outbreaks. It can also prevent the identification of communities or demographics that could benefit most from targeted vaccination outreach.
In an accompanying editorial, Jeanne Marrazzo, CEO of the Infectious Disease Society of America and former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stated the concern in starker terms, writing: “The evidence is damning: The administration’s anti-vaccine stance has interrupted the reliable flow of the data we need to keep Americans safe from preventable infections. The consequences will be dire.”
The study authors note that the unexplained pauses could be due to the direct targeting of vaccine-related data collection by the administration—or they could be an indirect consequence of the tumult Kennedy and the Trump administration have inflicted on the CDC, including brutal budget and staff cuts. But Marrazzo argues that the exact mechanism doesn’t matter.
“Either causative pathway demonstrates a profound disregard for human life, scientific progress, and the dedication of the public health workforce that has provided a bulwark against the advance of emerging, and reemerging, infectious diseases,” she writes.
Marrazzo emphasizes that the lack of current data not only hampers outbreak response efforts but also helps the health secretary realize his vision for the CDC, writing: Kennedy, “who has stated baldly that the CDC failed to protect Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, is now enacting a self-fulfilling prophecy. The CDC as it currently exists is no longer the stalwart, reliable source of public health data that for decades has set the global bar for rigorous public health practice.”
Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, sent Ars Technica a statement saying: “Changes to individual dashboards or update schedules reflect routine data quality and system management decisions, not political direction. Under this administration, public health data reporting is driven by scientific integrity, transparency, and accuracy.”
Nearly half of the databases that public health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were updating on a monthly basis have been frozen without notice or explanation, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The study—led by Janet Freilich, a law expert at Boston University, and Jeremy Jacobs, a medical professor at Vanderbilt University—examined the status of all CDC databases, finding a total of 82 that had, as of early 2025, been receiving updates at least monthly. But, of those 82, only 44 were still being regularly updated as of October 2025, with 38 (46 percent) having their updates paused without public notice or explanation.
Examining the databases’ content, it appeared that vaccination data was most affected by the stealth data freezes. Of the 38 outdated databases, 33 (87 percent) included data related to vaccination. In contrast, none of the 44 still-updated databases relate to vaccination. Other frozen databases included data on infectious disease burden, such as data on hospitalizations from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
The most common vaccination types included in the out-of-date data were vaccinations against influenza, COVID-19, and RSV. Two frozen databases included data on all three vaccines. When the researchers checked in on the databases again in December, only one had been updated, leaving 37 still entirely out of date.
The finding stood out given that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a fervent anti-vaccine advocate who has worked for decades to undermine trust in and use of life-saving vaccines.
“Given the vaccine skepticism of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, it is concerning that nearly 90 percent of the paused databases related to vaccination surveillance, with additional gaps in respiratory disease monitoring,” Freilich, Jacobs, and their co-authors write in the study.
“Damning”
Overall, a lack of updated data can make it more difficult, if not impossible, for federal and state health officials to identify and rapidly respond to emerging outbreaks. It can also prevent the identification of communities or demographics that could benefit most from targeted vaccination outreach.
In an accompanying editorial, Jeanne Marrazzo, CEO of the Infectious Disease Society of America and former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stated the concern in starker terms, writing: “The evidence is damning: The administration’s anti-vaccine stance has interrupted the reliable flow of the data we need to keep Americans safe from preventable infections. The consequences will be dire.”
The study authors note that the unexplained pauses could be due to the direct targeting of vaccine-related data collection by the administration—or they could be an indirect consequence of the tumult Kennedy and the Trump administration have inflicted on the CDC, including brutal budget and staff cuts. But Marrazzo argues that the exact mechanism doesn’t matter.
“Either causative pathway demonstrates a profound disregard for human life, scientific progress, and the dedication of the public health workforce that has provided a bulwark against the advance of emerging, and reemerging, infectious diseases,” she writes.
Marrazzo emphasizes that the lack of current data not only hampers outbreak response efforts but also helps the health secretary realize his vision for the CDC, writing: Kennedy, “who has stated baldly that the CDC failed to protect Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, is now enacting a self-fulfilling prophecy. The CDC as it currently exists is no longer the stalwart, reliable source of public health data that for decades has set the global bar for rigorous public health practice.”
Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, sent Ars Technica a statement saying: “Changes to individual dashboards or update schedules reflect routine data quality and system management decisions, not political direction. Under this administration, public health data reporting is driven by scientific integrity, transparency, and accuracy.”
It is tragic how Trump and RFK have effectively seriously undermined the invaluable work and reputation of the U.S. Government's CDC which, before Trump, had been the world's gold standard for monitoring and preventing infectious diseases and pandemics.
No precept or claim is more suspect or more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
I don’t think that bombing Iran was on Trump’s pre-election List, but with inflation troubles at home and that whole Epstein files problem nipping at his heels, he probably figured that it was as good a time as any for a good distraction, and has attacked over the weekend for reasons that he’s been unable to articulate.
Here’s where things stand at the moment:
Pentagon briefing: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the goal of the strikes on Iran was not regime change, “but the regime sure did change and the world is better off for it.” Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine said the war against Iran would not be a “single, overnight operation.”
Expanding war with Iran: Iran’s top official said Tehran “will not negotiate” with the US. Israel and Hezbollah are trading blows as the conflict widens, while explosions have been heard in Gulf cities including Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha.
Fighter jets shot down: Three US fighter jets were accidentally shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses in an apparent “friendly fire incident,” according to the US military. All crews have been recovered and are in stable condition.
Death toll grows: At least 555 people have died in Iran since the US-Israeli strikes began, according to the Red Crescent Society. President Donald Trump acknowledged there could be more US casualties after four US troops were killed in Kuwait.
While the Trump Administration is trying to figure out what it wants to do in its war with Iran, it has come to light that the campaign promise of DOGE has been discarded and the agency instead is being Investigated over how people within that department have possibly illegally accessed and carried off with private Social Security information on hundreds of millions of Americans.
The government is investigating new claims that DOGE misused Social Security data
Congress and the SSA's Inspector General are investigating whistleblower claims about whether Department of Government Efficiency staff may have misused Social Security data.
MARCH 11, 20269:53 PM ET
Stephen Fowler
Jude Joffe-Block
Shannon Bond
Congress and the SSA's Inspector General are investigating whistleblower claims about whether Department of Government Efficiency staff may have misused Social Security data.
An internal government watchdog and members of Congress are separately investigating new allegations that a Department of Government Efficiency staffer potentially misused sensitive Social Security data.
The Social Security Administration's inspector general notified the leaders of several House and Senate committees on Mar. 6 that it is reviewing an anonymous complaint "on matters relating to the potential misuse of SSA data by a former DOGE employee, among other allegations," according to a copy of the letter obtained by NPR.
This week, Congressional Democrats investigating DOGE's access to Social Security data also announced an expanded probe after receiving whistleblower information alleging a former DOGE software engineer at SSA claimed to have retained copies of sensitive databases filled with personal information about almost every living American. The whistleblower's allegations were first reported by the Washington Post on Tuesday.
According to the Post's reporting, the former DOGE employee claimed at least one database was held on a personal thumb drive, and claimed to have retained "God-level" access to SSA systems, the whistleblower alleged. The former staffer also allegedly told colleagues they wanted to share the data with their private-sector employer, the Post reported. NPR has not reviewed the whistleblower complaint.
Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the House Oversight committee's top Democrat, called the allegations "deeply disturbing" and said they show the Trump administration's "callous disregard for the safety and security of Americans' most sensitive information."
"Not only has an ex-DOGE bro been accused of running around with the Social Security information of every American on a flash drive, he also may have the ability to edit and manipulate data at the Social Security Administration at will," Garcia wrote in a statement.
The Office of the Inspector General for the Social Security Administration declined to comment, saying it doesn't confirm or deny the existence of law enforcement investigations.
