A reader commenting on Econbrowser says their small Wisconsin firm was told the day before the post that health insurance costs will rise 26% for 2027, a change that adds costs for both employees and the employer. The 26% figure reflects an advance renewal notice for the 2027 plan year, meaning the increase has not yet taken effect. Employer-sponsored coverage is the most common form of health insurance for working-age Americans, so a renewal of this size at a small firm lands on household budgets and operating costs at the same time.

The commenter takes issue with the long-running message from Fox News and most corporate media that “republicans are good for business.” In their experience, they write, Republican governance has instead brought rising health insurance costs and tax cuts for the top 1% that fueled speculative investment — citing the NFT boom under Trump's first term — as well as deregulation that produced bubbles and crashes. They cite the Bush administration's resistance to federal controls over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and over Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) and Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs). Under Trump, they add, higher tariffs have lifted input costs, and what they call another Republican war has driven up fuel costs along with input costs for methane used to make fertilizers, hydrogen, and plastics.

The post also welcomes what the commenter describes as the nationwide rejection of MAGA fascism in the midterm election. In Wisconsin, Democrat Crowley beat Tom Tiffany — whom the commenter calls “Scott Walker II” — by more than 200,000 votes, a margin the writer calls unprecedented in recent Wisconsin history, comparing it with Evers's 29,000-vote win over Walker in 2018 and a 90,000-vote win over Michels in 2020. Democrats now hold a trifecta, with the governor's office and majorities in both the State Senate and Assembly — a one-party governing arrangement that carries enough votes to advance legislation without opposition support.

For readers outside Wisconsin, the commenter traces this outcome to a long process: the Wisconsin GOP and Walker established a gerrymandered lock on GOP control in 2011 — a lock built on district maps drawn to favor one party — and 2026 marked a finally successful struggle to return the state to fair representation. The writer points to background at and

Democrats won every statewide race — Governor (+8), Attorney General (+9), Secretary of State (+5), and Treasurer (+4) — and flipped two Congressional seats. Rebecca Cooke unseated incumbent Derrick Van Orden by a 7-point margin, and Mitchell Berman defeated incumbent Bryan Steil, described as a Paul Ryan staffer, by 4 points. A breakdown of the Wisconsin 2026 election is available here: Nationwide, the commenter notes, Democrats hold complete trifecta control in 21 states following the 2026 midterm elections.