Affordability? LA Mayor Karen Bass Banning New Oil Drilling Because It's Racist Should Help

I hate to do it, but I have to give Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed credit. No matter how often people bring up his family connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, he sticks to his message: Medicare for all and cheaper groceries. Affordable groceries have been his go-to whenever anyone brings up his hesitation to, say, denounce the antisemitic "we're paying more for eggs to kill more children in Palestine" ad from Cenk Uygur's Rebellion PAC. James Carville's line, "the economy, stupid," still holds, and there's a good chance moderate Republicans and independents will blame President Donald Trump for not lowering grocery prices on Day 1.

El-Sayed might be campaigning on cheaper groceries, but what are the Democrats actually doing about it? In New York City, Democratic Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani has promised five city-owned and run grocery stores that will undercut other stores by 30 percent. The first store has a location, but it's going to cost $30 million to get it up and running, and he's said that won't be until 2029 … which is the same year it will be closed down.

Our own Just Mindy will be glad to know that Orlando, Florida, now has a nonprofit grocery store, which I predict will be out of business within a year. Rep. Maxwell Frost spoke at the grand opening and said that there's a lot more that government needs to be doing to make sure everyone knows there's going to be a meal on their plate.

Dem Rep. Max Frost at the opening of a non-profit grocery store in Orlando, Fla.: "People being hungry is a political decision" "In the richest country on the face of the earth, no child should go to bed with an empty stomach. Everybody should know that there’s gonna be a meal on their plate, three meals a day. And there’s a lot more our government needs to do to fix that."

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 27, 2026

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… on their plate, three meals a day. And there’s a lot more our government needs to do to fix that."

@tomselliott The beginnings of social idiocy is believing government can fix any social dysfunction. If you do not already know this, government consists of many who could never build, create, produce, and certainly not fix anything on their own. The volume of ignorance is astounding.

— IdahoGem (@OutbackSheIdaho) October 27, 2026

@tomselliott Wait until he discovers the profit margin in groceries.

— Robert T. Ives (@Justalurke) October 28, 2026

@tomselliott Non profit grocery store? The margins in the grocery business are negligible. The prices there will be 1% lower than a for profit, but the quality of goods will be inferior. I give them 90 days till shuttered.

— Matthew S Harrison (@MatthewSHarriso) October 27, 2026

@tomselliott Always easy to virtue signal and give away other people's money

— David Blinn (@DLBlinn61) October 27, 2026

What about gas prices? I paid $3.59 a gallon to fill up my tank this morning, and that wasn't cause for sticker shock — certainly nowhere close to the first year of the Biden administration and "Putin's price hike." On his first day in office, President Joe Biden shut down the Keystone XL pipeline. On Friday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced she'd just banned new oil and gas drilling and would be phasing out existing wells, in part because it's racist.

I just banned new oil and gas drilling throughout Los Angeles and we'll be phasing out existing wells. For generations, Black and Latino communities have carried the burden of neighborhood drilling. Your ZIP code should never dictate your health! We are confronting this systemic injustice head-on, because of vital partnerships with Council President Marqueece Harris Dawson (mhd.la2024), Councilmember @katyyaroslavsky, Councilmember @adrin_nazarian and our frontline community leaders, organizers, and activists. Let's keep moving LA forward together! Vote on or before November 3rd.

— Karen Bass (@KarenBassLA) October 30, 2026

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… injustice head-on, because of vital partnerships with Council President Marqueece Harris Dawson (mhd.la2024), Councilmember @katyyaroslavsky, Councilmember @adrin_nazarian and our frontline community leaders, organizers, and activists. Let's keep moving LA forward together! Vote on or before November 3rd.

Cue higher gas tax in LA. Way to go, Bass.

— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) October 31, 2026

@KarenBassLA Eventually, under Democrat single-party rule, our gas stations are going to need bigger signs so they can add a digit and move past $9.99 a gallon.

— Chris Bray (@a_chrisbray) October 31, 2026

@KarenBassLA Not like we need gas or oil, so that’s okay. Did you ban filling reservoirs with water, too?

— ShellsBells66 (@SLDroe) October 30, 2026

@KarenBassLA Sooo, your plan is to raise gas prices on those who can least afford it and eliminate good-paying jobs at the same time.

— Francis McNulty (@mcnultytweets) October 31, 2026

@KarenBassLA Just like "saving democracy", democrats are working on the "affordability" issue in the US. Remember, democrats work in the bizzaro wherein everything they say and promise is the opposite of what they deliver.

— retailguyXY (@retailguyXY) October 30, 2026

Democrats are smart to be campaigning on affordability in the midterms, but they're awfully cagey when it comes to their plans to make groceries and gas more affordable. Biden said in 2024 that he had a plan to tackle high grocery prices. And what was that plan? Sue grocery stores for price gouging. 

They have no plan.

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Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

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