Bees.

Dems controlled both houses of congress. What stopped him from pushing his public option plan then?

Manchin and Sinema, mainly, but also the 60-vote filibuster threshold. Forgot already?

then why are people worried about project 2025 and “dictator on day 1” Trump?

Because reasonable people don’t want the president to attempt authoritarian rule in order to progress his agenda. The fact that it is possible to do that is a big fucking issue and yet here we are, watching it happen with Trump. That doesn’t mean Biden should do it. It should not [and cannot be allowed to] happen at all.

That hasn’t been my experience /shrug

Hm, you know, you’re right, that’s a fairer point than I expected. I think what I hadn’t appreciated (but do now, after thinking through your reply) was how much “back-pressure” the new home construction puts on the market. The current median house price is about double that 200k-equivalent figure, and while the growth in median house size doesn’t directly account for all of that, the availability of new houses is effectively throttled by the size increase so the prices of all houses rise.

I think it was hard for me to imagine, because I have a fairly small house (1800 sq. ft) bought recently, no garage, built in the 50s, oil heating (very old), and it was 600k. Which is massively expensive compared to 200k and has none of the “big excessive new house” traits you’ve mentioned. Median is median, though, I suppose.

This is a gross oversimplification and in part just illogical. Yes, new small homes would help everyone out. But compare house prices to purchasing power then vs. now. It’s absolutely incomparable to 1960. That’s not because of square footage. And car ownership as an input here makes no sense. The costs of a downpayment and mortgage are simply out of reach for many people irrespective of car count. I say all this as a homeowner.