Apr.30

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GOP 53

Progressive Democrats Unveil Their Affordability Agenda

Yesterday, the Congressional Progressive Caucus got its act together and released what it is calling a New Affordability Agenda. It includes 10 new bills that relate to the cost of living. If sold right, it could be as powerful as Newt Gingrich's Contract with America in 1994, which flipped 54 seats from blue to red.

Here are summaries of the 10 bills:

1. Establish a government program to sell generic drugs at a discount.
2. Crack down on for-profit utilities overcharging consumers.
3. Make gas cheaper by imposing a windfall-profits tax on oil companies and rebate the money.
4. Make child care cheaper by limiting it to no more than 7% of a family's income.
5. Build millions of new homes to bring prices down and offer first-time buyers a $20,000 credit.
6. Crack down on grocery stores that fix prices and companies that abuse seed patents.
7. Ban dynamic pricing where companies use AI and personal data to set individual prices.
8. Require companies to pay double time (not time and a half) for overtime.
9. Abolish super PACs so billionaires can't buy elections anymore.
10. Guarantee every worker 2 weeks of paid vacation

Some of these babies will cost money and that will be obtained by raising taxes on the wealthy. The last two don't exactly cut costs or raise wages, but are widely popular, so they got thrown in.

Most of these items poll well with a majority of voters. If most of the Democratic Party gets behind the list, it could have a big effect. Of course, getting all the noses pointed in the same direction won't be simple, but it would give many Democrats around the country something to run on and it would get a lot of publicity. (V)