The High Price of a Roof and the Low Price of Common Sense

Senator Jacky Rosen has taken up her pen—a mighty weapon in these perilous times—to beseech the Trump administration to reconsider its latest foray into the noble art of taxation, which, in this case, manifests as tariffs upon our neighbors, Mexico and Canada.

The cause of her distress is not some abstract notion of international diplomacy but rather the very tangible matter of shelter—the four walls and a roof that citizens require to keep out the wind, the rain, and the tax collector. Rosen warns should the tariffs proceed unchecked, the cost of housing—already high enough to make a miser weep—will ascend to yet more dizzying heights.

“In Nevada and throughout the nation,” the senator wrote in a letter to President Trump, “exorbitant housing prices are putting a strain on already-tight household budgets.”

She described a dire state of affairs, wherein high interest rates, dwindling inventory, and the general mischief of economic forces have conspired to make home ownership a luxury rather than a right.

But alas, the woes of the common folk do not end there! Labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and materials priced as though made of silver instead of wood have turned affordable housing into a grand and distant dream.

And now, with the administration’s intention to slap tariffs upon the very materials required to build said housing, that dream is in danger of being carted off to the junk heap of impractical ideas.

“Compounding our nation’s housing affordability crisis through the imposition of reckless tariffs would be devastating and must be reconsidered,” the senator continued.

She pleaded for the administration to show mercy upon such critical materials as lumber, arguing that national security would remain intact even if a few planks of Canadian wood were allowed to cross the border unmolested. It remains unknown whether the administration will heed her words or whether they will file her letter in that boundless repository of political correspondence—marked “To Be Ignored.”

In the meantime, the citizens of Nevada and beyond shall watch with bated breath, wondering whether their homes will be timber-made or wishful thinking.