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MORE than half of Americans believe that lowering the cost of living is the top priority for the new president, according to The U.S. Sun’s exclusive polling.
Voters were asked what the one thing was that the next president could do to make working people’s lives better.
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Of the respondents, just over half (52%) said that the most important action would be to lower the cost of living.
Money worries were top on the minds of Americans in The U.S. Sun’s polling.
The second top priority for voters with just under a quarter of votes (23%), was lowering inflation rates.
In third with 9% of the votes was decreasing taxes, 5% said lowering interest on loans such as auto or homes, and 4% said making commuting or travel costs affordable.
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3% had a different priority to improve working people’s lives, while 5% there was nothing in particular the president could do that would help.
Among respondents, there were some generational divides.
58% of Generation X – those born between 1965 and 1980 – said lowering the cost of living was the one thing the next president could do to improve working people’s lives, more than any other age group.
Similar numbers were found among Baby Boomers – with 57% of those born between 1946 and 1964 prioritizing lowering the cost of living.
An equal percentage of those born before 1945 (57%) wanted the next president to lower the cost of living.
That figure was lowest for Gen Z, with a comparatively small 37% of those born between 1997 and 2006 having “Lower the cost of living” as the top priority.
While among millennials – those born between 1981 and 1996 – lowering the cost of living was the most important task of the next president for 37% of voters.
54% of female respondents, contrasted with 45% of male respondents, had lowering the cost of living as their top priority.
And among the regions, 55% of those in the Southeast had the lowering the cost of living as their number-one issue, compared to 46% in the Northeast.
Between party alliances, the voters were similarly split on their top priorities – with 54% of Democrats, 50% of Republicans, and 51% of independents and third-party supporters putting lowering the cost of living as the key challenge facing Americans.
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Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have highlighted the cost of living in this year’s election campaign.
On Thursday, Trump announced he would create a new Cabinet position and issue an executive order to reduce the cost of living on his first day in charge if reelected.
“On day one, I will sign an executive order directing every federal agency to immediately remove every single burdensome regulation driving up the cost of goods,” the Republican told a rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
He also hit out at the “many regulations” he said “hurt” the US.
Trump said the new Cabinet position would be tasked with “doing everything in the federal government’s power to reduce the cost of living.”
No candidates for the potential role have been named.
For her part, Harris told NBC News she would also be prioritizing bringing down the cost of living immediately if elected.
“My first priority, which will be probably a package of bills, is about bringing down the cost of living,” she said.
“It’s about housing. It’s about child care. It’s about what we need to do to deal with grocery prices.”
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The vice president has also said she would continue Joe Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000 a year.
She is also proposing additional tax hikes for the wealthiest Americans, with the long-term capital gains tax rate increasing from 20% to 28% for those earning $1 million or more.
She has also expressed support for a billionaire minimum tax, impacting those whose net worth is more than $100 million – less than 1% of taxpayers.
Trump has called for the lowering of corporate taxes to 15% for certain companies.
Harris also proposed a plan to lower prices by introducing America’s first-ever national price-gouging ban on food and groceries.
Similar price-gouging bans already exist in 37 states including Florida and Texas.
Trump has claimed he would bring down prices by boosting oil and gas production, vowing to allow companies in America to “Drill, baby, drill.”
