2026-02-24 / CBS新闻
周二晚间的2026年国情咨文演讲中，特朗普总统预计将重点关注经济——这是数百万美国人极为关切的紧迫话题，他们表示从食品价格到医疗保健成本不断攀升的问题都让他们忧心忡忡。
这场演讲将于美国东部时间晚上9点播出，将凸显美国经济的强劲态势。白宫发言人卡罗琳·利维特周二上午表示，总统将概述旨在“让美国梦更可实现”的计划。
按常规指标衡量，美国经济表现出韧性。失业率仍保持在4.3%的低位；通胀正在降温；国内生产总值（GDP）持续扩张，美国在很大程度上摆脱了经济学家曾担心可能引发衰退的关税影响。消费者——他们的支出推动经济运转——在1月份新增就业岗位激增的背景下，近期也表示信心有所增强。
与此同时，许多家庭仍在为食品、住房和医疗保险等必需品的高价格而苦苦挣扎。这种矛盾凸显了特朗普在宣传其经济政绩时面临的挑战。
特朗普政府提出了一系列解决可负担性问题的提案。然而，银行家高级经济分析师马克·汉瑞克在给CBS新闻的电子邮件中表示，一些最受关注的举措，例如推动将信用卡利率上限设为10%，尚未显现成效。
皮尤研究中心1月份对美国人的民调显示，他们最担忧的经济问题是食品、住房和医疗保健成本。
食品价格
自2022年通胀飙升至40年来高点以来，食品价格一直是消费者关注的焦点。高食品价格也曾困扰前总统拜登，促使特朗普在竞选活动中誓言要结束“通胀噩梦”。
自特朗普2025年重返白宫以来，食品价格虽涨幅放缓（较拜登政府时期疫情相关供应链中断导致的价格飙升期有所缓和），但仍在持续攀升。
然而，经济学家长期以来注意到，消费者往往更关注货架上商品的标价而非通胀率。尽管食品成本上涨速度放缓，但过去一年部分主食价格仍大幅上涨：牛肉价格同比上涨17.2%，咖啡价格飙升18.3%。
特朗普政府试图通过豁免牛肉、咖啡和香蕉的关税来应对食品价格上涨。本月早些时候，特朗普还表示将增加从阿根廷进口牛肉，以缓解价格压力。
专家告诉CBS新闻，由于阿根廷牛肉进口仅占美国牛肉总供应量的0.6%，这一政策不太可能对价格产生实质性影响。
住房可负担性
根据2月初进行的一项CBS新闻消费者调查，超过80%的美国人表示，现在买房比上几代人更困难。皮尤研究中心近期也发现，62%的美国人对住房成本感到担忧。
特朗普政府提出了多项解决方案，包括禁止机构投资者购买单户住宅。总统还指示联邦政府购买2000亿美元的抵押贷款证券，这一举措可能有助于降低房贷成本。
专家表示，这些措施可能会带来一定缓解，但不足以解决房价上涨背后的深层问题：可负担住房的短缺。2008-2009年大衰退后，住房建设严重萎缩，至今尚未恢复到需求水平。
高盛分析师估计，美国需要在正常建设速度的基础上额外建造多达400万套住房，才能显著缓解住房短缺问题。
医疗保健支出
健康政策研究机构KFF近期民调显示，由于国会去年未能延长《平价医疗法案》的部分补贴，导致数百万投保人保费飙升，支付医疗保健费用已成为美国人最主要的财务担忧。
与此同时，拥有雇主赞助医疗保险的工人在2026年面临约6%至7%的保费增长，这一增幅是当前通胀率的两倍多。KFF发现，自2008年以来，私人医疗保险费用大致翻了一番。
国会未能延长增强型保费补贴（于12月31日到期）后，数百万依靠《平价医疗法案》市场购买保险计划的美国人面临更为陡峭的保费上涨。一些美国人告诉CBS新闻，他们今年因为负担不起飙升的保费而计划放弃投保。
特朗普政府通过其新推出的“特朗普医保”网站（TrumpRx）应对药品成本问题，该网站列出了更低的直接面向消费者的处方药价格。特朗普称该网站是“有史以来最具变革性的医疗保健举措之一”。
但专家指出，该网站主要针对自付费用的消费者，因此无法帮助有保险的人群，也不会计入消费者的医保计划免赔额。
无党派的城市-布鲁金斯税收政策中心高级研究员瓦妮莎·威廉姆森在电子邮件中表示，共和党“大型美好法案”通过大幅削减医疗补助和其他社会项目的支出为减税提供资金。
“再加上拒绝延长《平价医疗法案》的税收抵免，导致数百万美国人的医疗保险保费翻倍，以及削减可负担能源项目，你就能看到过去一年美国人的钱包确实受到了重创。”她说道。
These 3 charts highlight the affordability issues Americans worry about most
2026-02-24 / CBS News
President Trump is expected to focus on the economy during his 2026 State of the Union address on Tuesday evening — an urgent topic of concern for millions of Americans who say they’re worried about everything from the price of food to spiraling health care costs.
The address, which will air at 9 p.m. EDT, will highlight the strength of the U.S. economy, with White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt saying on Tuesday morning that the president will outline plans to “make the American dream more attainable.”
By conventional metrics, the economy looks resilient. Unemployment remains low at 4.3%; inflation is cooling; and GDP is expanding, with the U.S. largely shrugging off the impact of tariffs that economists feared could trigger a recession. Consumers — whose spending keeps the economy humming — also report feeling more confident of late amid a burst in January job creation.
At the same time, many households still report grappling with stubbornly high prices for essentials like food, housing and health insurance, a disconnect that underscores the challenge Mr. Trump faces in touting his economic record.
Mr. Trump has offered a range of proposals to address affordability issues. Yet some of the most visible initiatives, such as a push to cap credit card rates at 10%, have yet to show benefits, Bankrate senior economic analyst Mark Hamrick said in an email.
Americans polled by the Pew Research Center in January said their top economic concerns are the cost of food, housing and health care.
Food prices
The cost of food has been a flashpoint for consumers since inflation soared to a 40-year high in 2022. High food prices also bedeviled former President Biden, prompting Mr. Trump to vow while on the campaign trail that he would end the “inflation nightmare.”
Since Mr. Trump returned to office in 2025, food prices have continued to climb, although at a slower pace than under the Biden administration, when pandemic-related supply disruptions drove price hikes.
But economists have long noted that shoppers tend to be more focused on the prices they see on store shelves than the rate of inflation. Although food costs are rising more slowly, prices of some staples have continued rise sharply in the past year: Ground beef has jumped 17.2% from a year ago, while coffee has surged 18.3%.
The Trump administration has sought to counter rising food prices in part by exempting beef, coffee and bananas from tariffs. Earlier this month, Mr. Trump also said he would boost U.S. imports of beef from Argentina in an effort to ease prices.
Because beef imports from Argentina represent only 0.6% of the overall U.S. beef supply, that policy is unlikely to move the needle on prices, experts have told CBS News.
Housing affordability
More than 8 in 10 Americans say it is harder today to buy a home than it was for earlier generations, according to a CBS News poll that surveyed consumers in early February. Pew also recently found that 62% of Americans report feeling concerned about the cost of housing.
The Trump administration has proposed several remedies, including banning institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes. The president has also directed the federal government to buy $200 billion in mortgage securities, a move that could help lower the cost of home loans.
Experts say that those ideas may provide some relief, but aren’t likely on their own to address the deeper issue behind rising home prices: a shortage of affordable housing. Homebuilding cratered after the Great Recession in 2008-09 and has never caught up with demand.
The U.S. would need to build as many as 4 million additional homes beyond the normal pace of construction to significantly reduce the housing shortage, Goldman Sachs analysts estimate.
Health care spending
Paying for health care has emerged as Americans’ top financial worry after Congress failed last year to extend some Affordable Care Act subsidies, triggering premium spikes for millions, health policy research firm KFF found in a recent poll.
Meanwhile, workers with employer-sponsored health insurance face increases of about 6% to 7% in 2026 — more than double the current rate of inflation. Since 2008, the cost of private health insurance has roughly doubled, KFF found.
Millions who rely on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces for insurance plans faced even sharper spikes after Congress failed to extend enhanced premium subsidies, which expired Dec. 31. Some Americans told CBS News they planned to skip coverage this year because they couldn’t afford their soaring premiums.
The Trump administration is tackling drug costs through its new TrumpRx website, which lists lower direct-to-consumer prescription prices. Mr. Trump described the site as “one of the most transformative health care initiatives of all time.”
But experts note that the site is geared to consumers who pay out of pocket, meaning that it doesn’t help people with insurance and won’t count toward meeting a consumer’s health plan deductible.
The Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill” act also paid for tax cuts by significantly trimming spending on Medicaid and other social programs, Vanessa Williamson, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, noted in an email.
“When you add to that the refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act credits, which caused health insurance premiums to double for millions of Americans, and the cuts to affordable energy programs, you can see Americans were really hit in their wallets over the last year,” she said.