The New Affordability Agenda

The Congressional Progressive Caucus just rolled out new and wildly popular goals.

Every time I go to the grocery store, I wander the aisles in a state of disbelief. Even though I hear all the time how rising inflation and spiking gas prices are making life less affordable, when I see the prices for staples like rice, coffee, and peanut butter, I just can’t believe it. And that’s without considering the major costs like rent, gas, utilities, health insurance premiums, childcare, and everything else that Americans are juggling. Roughly half of Americans struggle to pay their bills on time.

The cost-of-living crisis is also a corruption crisis. It’s not a coincidence that the number of billionaires is growing at the same time that working people are being squeezed by higher bills. It’s not a coincidence that the same president who has gotten the United States involved in a dangerous war that’s costing taxpayers billions of dollars and driving up gas prices has also personally enriched himself and his family while in office – including with a reported $1 billion in crypto holdings, while deregulating the crypto industry. It’s not a coincidence that the Congress that is failing to provide any meaningful check on this Administration’s many illogical and harmful actions also gave unprecedented tax breaks to billionaires. This is all by design: These politicians got into office after receiving millions upon millions from billionaires, corporate donors, and special interests.

We all know what’s happened over recent decades, especially since the Citizens United decision: Behemoth political donors – including private equity, fossil fuel and tech titans – have rigged the political system so they can profit more and pay their workers less. They’ve also made sure they can operate with fewer rules and contribute less in taxes. And in addition to funding candidates who will do their bidding, they’ve also funded groups that write anti-worker and anti-consumer legislation, sue when they don’t get their way, and prop up media organizations that sell their spin. And as a result, the economy is structured for the powerful, and it’s harder and harder for everyone else to make ends meet.

In response to the cost-of-living crisis, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a coalition of Democratic lawmakers, just rolled out a series of policy proposals designed to make life more affordable in this country. Progressives in Congress support a whole range of ambitious policy goals like Medicare for All, a universal living wage, and bold climate action, but because so many Americans need relief from rising costs right now, the Progressive Caucus is introducing a raft of legislation with ideas that are extremely popular with voters across the political spectrum and will make life more affordable right away. For anyone interested in addressing the cost-of-living crisis – and for winning upcoming elections – embracing these policies offer a clear path for standing with working people.

The New Affordability Agenda:

1. Getting Big Money Out of Politics: The Abolish Super PACs Act (sponsored by Rep. Summer Lee) caps contributions to super PACs at $5,000 per calendar year, which would effectively end the role of super PACs as a vehicle for unlimited contributions. That in turn would break the cycle of powerful entities buying elections to buy policies that work for them, not working people.

2. Making prescription drugs affordable: The Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act (sponsored by Rep. Jan Schakowsky) dramatically lowers the price of pharmaceuticals by establishing a federal program to directly manufacture generic drugs and offering them to Americans at a discounted rate.

3. Making groceries affordable: The Fair Competition for Small Businesses Act (sponsored by Rep. Jim McGovern and Rep. Maxine Waters) allows state attorneys general to seek financial compensation from large grocery store chains that engage in anti-competitive behaviors.

4. Making housing affordable: Legislation (sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters) will provide assistance to first-time homeowners and set aside funds for creating and preserving affordable and accessible housing.

5. Making utility bills affordable: Legislation (sponsored by Rep. Greg Casar) will establish a federal standard for just and reasonable increases in electricity bills issued by for-profit utility companies and stop allowing these companies to pass along costs like political lobbying on to their customers.

6. Making childcare affordable: The Child Care for Every Community Act (sponsored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) provides federal investment in locally administered child care so that families nationwide have access to affordable childcare.

7. Making gas affordable: The Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act (sponsored by Rep. Ro Khanna) curbs profiteering by oil companies by imposing a tax on large oil companies, which will return a rebate to customers.

8. Ending AI Price Gouging: The STOP AI Price Gouging and Wage Fixing Act (sponsored by Rep. Greg Casar) bans companies from using AI to set prices or fix wages based on Americans’ personal data. It would prohibit companies from doing things like increasing an airline ticket price after seeing someone read an obituary.

9. Putting more money in people’s pockets: This legislation (sponsored by Rep. Greg Casar) would increase federal overtime pay for the first time in almost 90 years.

10. Vacation time that people can afford: America is the only advanced economy that doesn’t guarantee paid vacation to all workers. The PTO Act (sponsored by Rep. Seth Magaziner) provides every full-time worker with no less than two weeks of annual leave in addition to any paid sick, family, or medical leave guaranteed by law.

Each one of these bills provides a solution to a very real and important problem. The Abolish Super PACs Act might seem the most abstract, but it’s also the one that addresses the underlying issue impacting the rest: Rampant political corruption is driving the cost-of-living crisis.

As we consider the concerns that matter most to us, whether it’s housing, energy policy, union rights, etc., we have to keep in mind that the reason we need solutions to so many problems is that rich political spenders and their preferred politicians have rigged the system against working people. Only when we decrease the power of corporate and billionaire political spenders will we have elected officials who adequately respond to our needs – including by passing legislation that benefits patients instead of Big Pharma, workers and kids instead of tech giants like Meta and Amazon, consumers instead of oil companies, and so forth.

As Rep. Summer Lee, the bill’s sponsor, recently explained on the I’ve Had It podcast: “The reason that my Abolish Super PACs bill is the most important bill to me is because it is the gateway to getting all of the other things that we need in our society.” So, fighting corruption is an essential part of fighting for a pro-active, sustained progressive agenda.