Ukraine continues to dominate news coverage with multiple streams of information in play, influencing our beliefs and actions. This week, we asked:
Given the nexus of events surrounding oil, higher gas prices, advancing green energy, taking a stand against Russia to help protect democracy across the globe, etc., what is your willingness to absorb higher gas prices or sacrifice by changing your personal habits?
Most respondents indicated a willingness to change their behavior and saw such changes as supportive of democratic rule, generally. Many noted personal circumstances that allowed them to more easily do so. But not everyone. As expected, we have many opinions about this topic. A sample of responses is below, edited for length and clarity.
I have NO problem with higher gas prices. Bring it on — especially if it encourages Americans to think about and decrease their energy consumption and shift to public transit (and advocate for improvements in public transit if they don't have or like it). I'm sympathetic to low-income Americans who have no alternatives to driving as a result of poor public transit systems where they live and work. Subsidize them if necessary, but don't cut gas taxes. ~Deborah Brodheim
I am more than willing to pay more, wait in lines and change related personal habits in order to support efforts to get Vladimir Putin to reconsider his Ukraine invasion. I realize (and am grateful) to be in a position to do this without dramatically altering my life and daily routine while others may not be. In other words, “easy for me to say.” But I do feel strongly that, short of starting a war between the U.S. and Russia, all must be done to drive Putin to stop this aggression. ~Bruce Bond
Personally, I am prepared to make considerable sacrifice in terms of price increases for food, fuel and beyond. The reason is simple: Liberty is a delicate gift and protecting it and the democratic forms of government that aspire to providing it is essential even to the point of funding safety, medical care and education, which are essential to the restoration and actualization of a human life. The reason I take this position is because we are currently facing the misunderstanding in our own social system that freedom is about individual rights without consideration for assuming social responsibilities. In other words the preservation of Ukrainian independence and responsible shelter for Ukrainian refugees is critical because in another time and another place we could be “them.” In fact, in another time many of our ancestors were “them.” ~Craig Lindell
I am a zero-waste cyclist who composts. But I’m willing to sacrifice nothing for Ukraine. This is a false choice — our sacrifice will do nothing to help the Ukrainian people. We could and should end this now by stating NATO will not accept Ukraine. That was true before Russia invaded, and there isn’t going to be much Ukraine left anyway if this continues further. ~Lisa C
Whatever it takes. It is the right thing to do. The Purpose of Life:
- To make the world a better place to live.
- To make your life and the lives of those around you more enjoyable.
~Ray A. Curtis
Yes I am willing to accept higher gas prices if they will actually impact the Ukrainian war in a manner that weakens Russian abilities to conduct the war. This is easy for me as I am retired, drive a car that gets 26/42 MPG and live within a couple of miles of most of the places I need to go to. However, I know people who drive pickup trucks and commute 100 miles or more a day. For these folks this will be an economic hardship. ~Bruce Jewell
Not willing to sacrifice anything. We have no business being involved in this war. If our leaders would act for the benefit of our country we would be completely energy independent, produce all we need here and not have to lose our people in foreign wars. ~Arthur Schleinkofer
Pay those higher prices at the pump. I don't mind feeling the sting. It's minor compared to living in fear in a basement with your children and little to no food, no water, and no light, while your husbands, sons and brothers (and in some cases wives, daughters and sisters) fight to maintain a fragile democracy, to retain freedom of thought and expression. It's the least we can do. ~David Soubly
I will sacrifice whatever it takes to end war and strengthen democracy worldwide. Our grandchildren are of draft age. Given all the privileges my generation has taken for granted for decades, it is long past our turn to step up and work for democracy, peace and the environment. We owe it to our ancestors and our heirs. ~Ellen Chaffee
I have previously done virtually all I can to reduce my use of gasoline and minimize the effects of fluctuations in the price of gasoline. As for the current situation with Russia, I support the effort to maintain Ukraine's national integrity any way I can. ~Niel Leon
I am all in! Quite ready, quite willing, and quite able to absorb all it takes to help Ukraine! ~”Gator” Jack Schuler
A view of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 25, 2026. President Donald Trump jolted Republicans during a fiery appearance at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, scrapping a housing bill signing ceremony and clashing behind closed doors with a party rebel who challenged him over the Iran war. Trump had been expected to sign the bipartisan housing.
Only Trump doesn’t care about housing
It was August 15, 2024. Then candidate Donald Trump stepped out of his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club’s columned clubhouse to a gaggle of reporters. He was flanked by tables of groceries and signs showing the rising cost of food. Also on one of the tables was a dollhouse, meant to represent the equally alarming rise in housing prices.
It was a speech about the economy, the single most important issue of the 2024 election cycle, full of promises that went right to the heart of Americans’ anxieties. While former President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris were contorting themselves to posture a good economy that just needed more time to recover from the pandemic, Trump was preying on voters’ very real fears of unaffordable gas, groceries, and homes. It was obviously a winning message.
In that speech, Trump promised, “We’re going to open up tracts of federal land for housing construction. We desperately need housing for people who can’t afford what’s going on now.”
As of mid-2023, there had been a housing shortage of nearly four million homes, according to the National Association of Realtors. Americans all over the country were either priced out of buying new homes due to low inventory, trapped in their existing homes by sky-high mortgage rates, or facing exorbitant rent hikes thanks to corporate investors buying up rental properties. Americans needed help, and Trump promised it.
Cut to March of 2026, when Trump reportedly told House Speaker Mike Johnson, “No one gives a sh*t about housing.”
That kind of thinking may explain why Trump this week suddenly announced he was canceling a signing ceremony for the bipartisan “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,” a housing bill co-sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott that passed the House 358-32 and was approved in the Senate on Monday.
Trump instead demanded Congress pass the SAVE America Act, his controversial election grievance bill that doesn’t have enough Republican support to get passed in the Senate.
It’s just the latest in a line of policy self-owns where Trump has seemingly intentionally made life more difficult for Republicans hoping to keep their majority. Despite midterm elections occurring in the midst of a blistering economy and an unpopular war, they were surely hoping the housing bill would give them something — anything — to brag about when they returned home to their districts.
And very much to the contrary, Americans do give a sh*t about housing. According to a recent survey by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a whopping 79% say the cost of housing is extremely or very important to them. Eighty-three percent say Congress should take action on the issue — like it just did. Eighty-nine percent say the House and Senate need to work together to pass affordable housing legislation — like they just did. And 63% say they would be more likely to vote for a lawmaker if they helped pass legislation to build more affordable homes and lower housing costs — like they just did.
There aren’t many issues that unite Americans like housing does, and very few bipartisan policy wins Congress can point to, and yet, Trump is holding that bill hostage in order to get his pet project — which doesn’t even have the support of his own party — pushed through.
If you’re trying to make sense of something so nonsensical, as I’m sure many Republican lawmakers are, it’s certainly sad but not actually all that complicated. Trump said what he needed to get reelected and then promptly abandoned his promises in order to pursue his own self-interests, even if those interests are bad for Republicans and bad for voters.
That’s just the kind of guy he is.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.