🔴 LIVE: Congressional Progressive Caucus Announces New Affordability Agenda

Added: 2026-04-30

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[00:02:42]>> Pardon?

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[00:02:47]>> Hi, Miss Waters.

[00:02:48]>> How are you?

[00:02:49]>> We're doing well.

[00:02:50]>> I'm good, thank you.

[00:02:51]>> Good.

[00:02:56]>> Okay, y'all.

[00:02:58]>> Good afternoon. Good afternoon.

[00:03:01]>> Well, you know, if you're watching from Texas, it's morning and if you're in DC, it's afternoon. So, good afternoon. Good afternoon, everybody.

[00:03:09]>> Oh, okay. Good afternoon. Thank you guys for following my >> Good afternoon. And today we're launching our new affordability agenda.

[00:03:20]Um my name is Greg Casar. I represent the heart of Texas in Congress and I'm very proud to chair the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Donald Trump calls affordability a hoax, says surging gas prices are quote a small price to pay, and says we don't have the money for health care and child care because he needs it for war. Every single day, Republicans in the building behind us make their rich friends richer and richer by making it harder for working people to get by. And today, we say with one voice, we do not have to live like this. We can choose to live in a country where things get better for working families. So today, the Progressive Caucus is announcing our new affordability agenda. 10 big new ideas to make life less expensive. Because affordability is not a hoax, and it is much more than a slogan. Here's how it works. on our agenda. We make your monthly utility bill cheaper by cracking down on the corporations that are price gouging you and save your family $500 a year. We make your prescription drugs cheaper by saying if companies won't make drugs affordable, we'll just make them ourselves and drive down the cost of a vial of insulin from $300 to $50 a vial. We make it cheaper to grow food by cracking down on the big corporations that are screwing over farmers with their patents. And we make it cheaper to buy groceries by cracking down on big chains fixing prices. We make your gas cheaper by taxing the oil companies who are making billions of dollars off of this war and then giving that money back to our constituents at home. We make housing cheaper by building millions of new housing units, giving every firsttime home buyer down payment assistance, and guaranteeing rental assistance to everybody that needs it.

[00:05:14]We make your child care cheaper by making sure families, most of them, won't have to pay more than $10 a day under this plan or capping child care costs at just 7% of your income. for so many families where child care is like a second mortgage or a second rent. We make sure that what you're buying online gets cheaper by saying companies can no longer use your private data to jack up your costs using artificial intelligence. We make sure that you can afford not just things but time to enjoy them by guaranteeing every working American 2 weeks paid vacation. And we put more money in your pockets so that overtime pays not just time and a half like it has since the 1930s, but finally update that to make overtime pay double time. And then to top it all off, we abolish super PACs. Because one of the main reasons that life is more expensive is because corporations buy elections and make your life more and more expensive by jacking up your costs. So, if you're watching at home, this is the progressive caucus's idea of what government should be doing for you every single day. This is what it could be like. It does not have to be bad news every single time you tune in anymore.

[00:06:29]And we think these ideas are not just progressive, but they are common sense.

[00:06:32]This is what all House Democrats should be able to unify around. No excuses.

[00:06:39]Because these ideas may be controversial in Washington DC, but new polling shows they are not controversial around the country. This agenda, even though pundits say that the country is divided, every single one of these ideas is supported by at least twothirds of American voters. In fact, over 60% of Republican voters support every single one of these fresh progressive caucus policies. Now, the people it won't be popular with are lobbyists and big donors. But it's time for Democrats to get uninvited from some fancy dinners and side with the vast majority of the American people. This is more than just a list of bills. This is a statement about what kind of country we want to live in, what kind of government we deserve to have, and what kind of democratic party we want to build from the ashes. We are saying we refuse to accept that it has to be this hard to get by in America and that we're going to change that by building a Democratic party that stands up to corporate interests and stands up for working people. If Democrats take back the House in November, there will be a lot of very important work to do holding Donald Trump accountable. But we have to be more than just the anti-Trump party. And there will be corporate interests that say that all we should do is talk about Donald Trump. But instead, we need our own big, bold ideas to make it possible for working people to get ahead. And when we have power, it's time for us to pass those ideas. No excuses. And the progressive caucus is going to make sure of it. We cannot just say the word affordability over and over again and and expect that the voters are going to come along. The progressive caucus is showing, not just telling Americans, how we are going to make life less expensive for you. I'm proud to be work with all these brilliant leaders behind me to the great organizations that have helped support this agenda. I'd like like to thank Congresswoman Shakowski for her work on prescription drugs. Rep.

[00:08:41]McGovern and Waters for working on groceries and housing. Congresswoman Okasio Cortez for your leadership on child care. Congressman Connor on gas prices. Summer Lee on getting big money out of politics. Rashidita Talib for the incredible work on banning AI surveillance pricing. Dave Min was our leader on our corruption task force.

[00:09:02]Becca Balant on holding billionaires and the ultra rich accountable. Emily Randall on better wages and benefits.

[00:09:09]And Yasman, I'm sorry on making life more affordable. I think I didn't miss anyone.

[00:09:15]>> Um, but I'm just This was a collective project, but it didn't just come out of Washington DC. It came from talking to voters and asking them what they want to see from the Democratic party. And uh the man who has whipped us together on all of this and helped us get this into shape for today uh is the progressive caucus whip Chewy Garcia.

[00:09:36]>> All right. Thank you, Chairman.

[00:09:39]Good uh afternoon uh to everyone uh president and thank you uh chair uh Casar uh and to all our members and staff uh who have worked tirelessly to bring this agenda together. The agenda that we are unveiling today can and should unite all Democrats in swing districts and safe districts among moderates and progressives. Why? We know that the top issue for our constituents is affordability. making ends meet. In these times, we need bold, specific, and effective policies that help people make ends meet. And these 10 policies do exactly that. Every single one of these policies is simple, laser focused, and lowering costs for working people. Every single one of these policies is popular with super majority of Americans, including Republicans. And every single one of these policies provides a mandate to deliver the big change our country needs now more than ever. The Trump administration's policies are waging war on working families right here at home.

[00:10:52]The new affordability affordability agenda aggressively takes on special interests and corrupt billionaires who are ripping people off. I see how people in my district are having a hard time paying their bills. They have to choose between buying medications or filling up a tank of gas in the first two weeks of 2026 alone. the price for almost 900 medications increase f including lifesaving drugs for cancer, type 2 diabetes, and antibiotics. And most of these increases outpaced the growth of inflation. The socalled deals that Trump said he had negotiated with big pharma were made after the companies had already increased prices. And in some cases, people could only get discounted prices by paying cash. Who has the cash and not using their health insurance?

[00:11:58]The Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act is a part of our affordability agenda. It creates a federal program to directly manufacture some of the most needed generic drugs such as insulin and asthma inhalers. The price of brandame insulin could go from 300 per vial to 50 bucks.

[00:12:22]Latino, black, and Native American communities, which have the highest incidence of diabetes and asthma, would directly benefit from these price cuts.

[00:12:33]We need a path to universal health care.

[00:12:35]Medicare for all. We need policies that end child poverty. We need major investments in affordable housing and environmental justice. We can only get there by organizing together and delivering effective policies that reduce special interest influence in politics and bring prices down. Our communities are demanding the new affordability agenda. Let's work together to get every Democrat on board to deliver for the people. Thank you. I would like to introduce uh from the great state of New York, the great city of New York, Representative Okasio Cortez.

[00:13:16]>> Thank you so much. Um good afternoon everyone. Thank you to Congressman Greg Casar, our chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and all members of the Congressional uh progressive caucus who have come out in bold support of the new affordability agenda.

[00:13:36]And uh to the chairman's point, to everyone standing with us today, we want to not just plan for winning an election, but plan for governance of what a democratic majority can do and what we are capable of in this country.

[00:13:52]And today I want to say that we are capable of achieving universal health care in the United States of America.

[00:14:02]The new affordability agenda proposes legislation that nearly 100 members of co of of the congressional progressive caucus can coales around to lower costs for everyday Americans. I am proud that this agenda includes Senator Warren and Mai's child care for every community act to bring affordable child care child care to every American.

[00:14:25]Since 1990, the cost of child care has skyrocketed by 263%.

[00:14:36]Families are shelling out thousands of dollars each month just to ensure their children are safe and cared for cared for. That's a rent payment. That's a mortgage payment just to take care of each child. And for so many families or even people who are considering starting a family, it's just not feasible. Our current system forces working people to make the impossible choice between rent, child care, or leaving the workforce altogether, which often disproportionately affects women.

[00:15:15]Finding quality child care should not be a privilege. It should not be a luxury.

[00:15:21]It should be a right available to every American. The idea that child care should be a public good is the foundation behind our Child Care for Every Community Act. Our bill will ensure no family pays more than 7% of their income for child care, saving American families $10,000 per year. That means half of families nationwide would pay no more than $10 a day for child care.

[00:15:53]Programs funded under this bill would also offer a range of mental, physical health, dental, and other services to children. And it would end the shortage of child care workers by ensuring that our earliest educators are paid dignified wages to care for our kids.

[00:16:13]It would also guarantee child care worker benefits, training, and professional development because the people who we charge with taking care of our kids deserve care and dignity, too.

[00:16:25]When we invest in our children, when we invest in our families, and when we invest in our workers, we're investing in our country, and we're investing in our collective future. Thank you.

[00:16:39]And with that, I am thrilled to uh to introduce Representative Ro Kana to discuss affordable gas.

[00:16:47]>> Thank you.

[00:16:50]Thank you uh Representative Okazio Cartez for your uh incredible leadership on child care and so many issues. Thank you to Representative Greg Kazar for uh having a real vision for the progressive caucus and offering a bold agenda. We're living in a new gilded age. I mean, they're 19 billionaires, many of them in my district, who have $3.5 trillion, 12% of the GDP. It's three times the wealth concentration of the original guilded age. And yet, there are people, many of Americans, who can't afford food, can't afford gas, don't have a good job. Uh, as a Democratic party, we need to not just replace Trump, we need to re replace the system that produced Trump.

[00:17:32]And that is what Greg and the progressive caucus are doing. My contribution to this is on the uh cost of gas. I just was asking Secretary Hegsath, how much is this Iran war costing Americans in terms of increased food and gas prices? You know, he didn't know. He said it was a gotcha question.

[00:17:51]I said, a gotcha question? How much are Americans paying in increased gas or food? You didn't do the analysis of how much it's going to cost this war. Turns out it's $631 billion over the next year. $5,000 for every American family in terms of the higher cost for gas and the higher cost for food. That's not even counting all the money we're paying on the war in Iran. And the people who are benefiting uh other than the defense industrial complex are the big oil companies. And so what Sheldon White House and my bill does is say that we're going to tax the excessive profits of these big oil companies and provide a refund check of about 300 bucks for most working families every month so that they have some relief in terms of at the gas pump. But really what we need to do is end this war. That's what's going to bring the gas prices down. Thank you uh Greg and to CPC.

[00:18:47]And next, she's lead leading on multiple of these bills. Our own ranking member and a co-founder of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Congresswoman Maxine Waters.

[00:18:59]>> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hello everybody. I want you to remember this is representation of the progressive caucus and our leader leader sees doing a wonderful job in bringing people together and helping to develop what we are all about and where we are going and what we are going to help America be all about. We're in an affordability crisis. We know that. But right now, rent and home prices have surged since the pandemic. High interest rates are locking families out of home ownership, and America is facing an affordable housing and a homelessness crisis. I have to tell you, in my own county, Los Angeles, there are about 70,000 people on the street every night.

[00:19:51]Up in New York, where I recently was, 700,000 people on the street every night. Yet Trump, who promised a so-called golden age, is making the housing crisis worse and leaving families behind with his terrible policies. Democrats are fighting back with a new affordable agenda to bring costs down and put people first. That is why I am strengthening my housing crisis response act to address the full scope of today's housing crisis. This bill will make the single largest and most comprehensive investment toward housing in our history. This updated bill would construct more than 3 million new affordable homes all across the income spectrum and preserve another 3.4 million more agent homes. And this is what leader Caesar has been saying to us. We can do this. and he said, "I want to know how many homes are we going to get built? How many units are we going to get put up all across this country?"

[00:21:03]Yes. Thank you for focusing on that. And we're going to not only have more than three million new affordable homes across the income spectrum and preserve another 3.4 million more aging homes. It would unlock home ownership for firsttime home buyers and especially first generation home buyers with $20,000 down in down payment assistance, closing costs and interest rates, buy downs. This bill would also transform the housing choice voucher program into a federal entitlement so that every household that qualifies for assistance receives it. these long lines, people waiting for years for section 8 will be over when we get this agenda passed in America. Let's be honest, the crisis has only gotten worse. Costs are soaring.

[00:22:01]Housing programs are being wiped out and the need for a serious housing investment is greater than ever. That is why I am pushing to go bigger, bigger, bigger. We got to pay for it. with roughly $1 trillion in housing investments in this bill to finally close this housing gap and get America building again. Ladies and gentlemen, we can do this and it's going to be led by the progressive caucus. And thank you all very much.

[00:22:36]>> And very important to the entire agenda is to take on the corporations that buy elections and then jack up your prices.

[00:22:43]to talk about that. Congresswoman Summer Lee.

[00:22:47]>> Hey, good afternoon.

[00:22:49]>> Always have to ask myself, thank you for the shout out for Pittsburgh.

[00:22:53]I'm Congresswoman Summer Lee and I represent Pittsburgh uh Pennsylvania 12th Congressional District and I am so grateful to stand here alongside my progressive colleagues as we lead uh an affordability agenda that meets this moment. Uh and I'm proud of course to be the lead sponsor of the Abolish Super PAC Act. We know that any agenda that uh tries to address uh the working families of our country's needs has to start with this basic fact that our government can and must address uh the big issues and the material conditions of working people in this country. Donald Trump and his family has made almost $4 billion since the start of his second term in office. At the same exact time, working families are struggling to make rent. as our as our chairwoman said at the uh at the same time, they're they're struggling to pay their gas as the gas prices have gone over $4 a gallon across the country. Groceries cost more than they did two years ago and still people cannot afford health care or childare.

[00:23:53]You may be wondering why a bill about abolishing super PACs would have made a platform about affordability. The reality is is that we did not get here by accident. Right now, super PACEs give cover to corporations and greedy billionaires to pour unlimited money into our elections. That's crypto and AI and APAC and many many more buying access and outcomes in our elections and our democracy. There are people who are spending millions and millions of dollars to keep you from having paid sick leave and family leave. Millions spent to force you off of Medicaid and SNAP benefits. but Medicaid or that these private insurance uh CEOs can line their pockets. MILLIONS SPENT TO CUT BACK environmental regulations that protect us uh from air pollution and and from growing cancer and asthma rates so that fossil fuel industry executives can make another million or billion.

[00:24:49]These are deliberate choices that put the ultra wealthy over the working people who call this country home every single day. So, we have to recognize the source and we have to fight it head-on.

[00:25:03]For as deeply entrenched as some of these systems are, the solutions do exist. We have to cut off the flow of limitless spending from corporations and lobbyists and oligarchs. And in doing so, we will open the flow of policy that actually prioritize the working people of this country and the marginalized Americans who have seen their needs and their interests uh backbenched for time and time and decades and decades. The majority of Americans support the issues that we are here lifting up. Issues like Medicare for all and child care for all and ending endless wars. Billionaires do not have a constitutional right to your government. With my abolish, we'll take that.

[00:25:51]With our abolish super PACs act, we can cut the oxygen supply of super PACs off uh and limit how much each organization or individual can contribute. And as we work to pass this bill, we also have to overturn Citizens United so that an individual billionaire or millionaire will no longer be able to get around uh the loopholes or campaign contribution limits. The reality is this is not a left or a right issue. This is not a red or a blue state issue or a urban or a suburban issue. This is about who wields power, who gets to be heard, and who keeps getting pushed out. And right now it's working families getting left behind. But we can't be the party of working people and the party of corporations at the same time. So if you care about lowering cost, you have to make money and politics your issue. Or if you care about housing, money and politics is where you need to be. If you CARE ABOUT ENVIRONMENT OR HEALTH care or workers rights, this is the fight that we have to take on. Abolishing super PACs is both good policy and good politics. And it's a good way to take back our democracy. The new affordability agenda is a way forward and I'm proud to support it. Thank you so much. Uh thank you chair Casar and I am happy to turn this over to Reb Yasaman Ansari who is leading our lowering costs task force.

[00:27:10]>> Thank you.

[00:27:13]>> Hi, good afternoon everyone. My name is Yasaman Ansari. I'm very proud to represent Arizona's third congressional district. As we all well know, while Donald Trump is using or trying to use taxpayer dollars to build his ridiculous $400 million ballroom and abuses his office every single day to enrich himself and his family to the tune of billions of dollars, the people in my district and across the country are suffering, forced to decide between paying for groceries or their rent. As the Congressional Progressive Caucus's Lowering Costs task force chair, I am having conversations about costs with real Americans in communities all across the country. And what I am hearing is exactly what the polling that we released today shows on our Affordability Across America tour. I'm hearing from people on all sides of the political spectrum and across zip codes about the actual policy changes that they want to see that would lower prices. And what we have heard so far that I really want to emphasize is that people want to see bold, decisive, and quick action, not endless deliberation or perfection. They see that the Trump administration has worked on overdrive to make their lives worse. We as Democrats and especially as progressives need to be just as quick, but to improve lives for every single American, not wait for the broadest possible consensus or for legislative perfection. On the first stop of the tour, Congressman Horford and I heard from service workers in Las Vegas about how ever rising prices are changing their lives from the inside out and the shame that they associate with no longer being able to afford their basic necessities. But this is a crisis of Donald Trump's making, not a personal failure. It is he who should be ashamed. The people that we spoke to have worked for decades and often forced to work multiple jobs only to be able to to be unable to make rent, pay their car insurance, or god forbid afford quality health care. People of all backgrounds and ages. One man said that he saw his rent go up from $900 a month to $1,400 a month. That should never happen. And as the youngest woman in Congress, I know that young people are feeling the affordability crisis in a distinctly hopeless way, wondering if they will ever be able to afford a home, let alone how they will be able to pay for health care or future child care or ever be out from under the thumb of student debt. We want Americans to thrive, not just to survive. Besides being able to literally make ends meet, when was the last time you or your family could afford to take a real vacation to celebrate at a nice dinner or to buy new clothes or spend on anything that wasn't an absolute necessity? This year is America's 250th anniversary, and I know that there is a knee-jerk association that is not necessarily overtly positive during these especially difficult times. But we should want to renew patriotism in this country to rebuild systems for people that work for for people who are not billionaires or the ultra wealthy or massive corporations. To live in an in an America where your enjoyment of life is not only tied to your income. An America that my parents sought out when they immigrated here to build a better life for me and my brother. This new affordability agenda includes the bills that we know can build broad support to pass as soon as Democrats take the majority in Congress. And this lowering cost task force is working on a bold suite of bills to put money back in Americans wallets. And we heard this from folks on this tour as well. And we have multiple stops to go. But people are asking us to be specific. They want caps on rent. They want opportunities for home ownership. They want Medicare for all. They want public free transportation, free child care, and an economy that works for all of us. And as progressives, we need to be the ones to not just think big, but act big, not sit around for endless vetting. We know what the solutions are. Change is needed, and we are the ones leading it. And with that, I am very excited to to pass it over to my colleague, Congresswoman Becca Balant, who is the chairwoman of the Ending Corporate Greed Task Force.

[00:31:53]>> Thank you. It's an honor to stand with my colleagues today um knowing that we are all fighting the same fight across this country. And I always want to say at these kind of events, I'm here representing rural America. I represent the state of Vermont, the entire state, every dirt road, uh, across my state.

[00:32:16]And I got to tell you, rural in Vermont is the same as rural in Kentucky is the same as rural in Michigan. And people are really, really struggling. And Americans couldn't be more clear with us.

[00:32:30]Everything is too damn expensive.

[00:32:32]Everything. It doesn't matter what your line of work is. you're having a hard time making it all pencil out. And people work hard, sometimes multiple jobs. They go to the store, they can't believe how much their groceries are costing, and people will say, "Oh, that's a h 100red bucks." And they look and there's like nothing in their bag. That's what we're talking about here. We're talking about people, you can't even talk about them filling up their tank. They're not filling up their tanks. They're looking to see how much money they have in their pocket and that's how much money uh they're able to afford to put gas in their car. And it is absolutely demoralizing for Americans to be working as hard as they can and still not be able to make ends meet. And sometimes we don't talk about the uh emotional cost to this.

[00:33:23]A huge part of this problem, which many of my colleagues have spoken about today, is the problem of the bigs. Big pharma, big tech, big oil, rigging the system, making sure it works for them, making it work for the people who take their donations, making it work for the people at the very top while the rest of us get shafted. That's what we're talking about here today. They rake in the cash hand over fist with no sense of how the rest of Americans are living. So I lead the ending corporate greed task force. I'm proud to be heading that up and I know that we have to do the work. As many of my colleagues have said, we can't just talk about it. We can't just convene focus groups on this. We have to put forward an agenda, lead on that agenda, get elected on that agenda, and then implement that agenda. And that's why we're all out here today because we have to deliver for people. When we get the gables back, and we will. We will get the gables back. We will take control of the House. And I'm looking at you in the Senate as well. You're going down as well. And we are going to put this stuff into action. So, I'm excited to take on these powerful and yes, oftentimes greedy corporations who are getting rich off of the backs of millions and millions of Americans, who have seen their ability to take care of their families diminish.

[00:34:57]And Americans desperately need to see us fighting.

[00:35:02]And this agenda is all about that. It is about saying to Americans, "We see you.

[00:35:07]We hear you. And we're going to fight for you." Because that's the message that every single one of us in our caucus needs to be running on, whether you're a progressive or not. The progressive agenda here is what everybody can be leading on in our caucus.

[00:35:27]And I can tell you, I stand here as a member of Congress, but I also stand here as a former teacher. I stand here as a mom of two teenagers and I need every day when I come home from this building be able to say to them what it is that I have done each week to fight for them. That's who we have to answer to. So, we are doing that with every plank of this agenda. And we're not done until we are able to deliver for the American people and make it possible to envision a positive future for working people across this country and their children and their grandchildren. And that's why I'm in this fight. Thank you so much. Thank you.

[00:36:13]>> And I'm very excited to introduce Emily Randall who heads up the Better Pay and Benefits Task Force for the CPC.

[00:36:20]Thank you.

[00:36:24]Hello, I'm Emily Randall and I'm so proud to represent Washington State's sixth congressional district, the Olympic Peninsula, Kitap Peninsula, and Tacoma. and beyond proud to be standing here with my Congressional Progressive Caucus colleagues to roll out an agenda that really centers the needs of hardworking families.

[00:36:44]As the chair of the Better Pay and Benefits Task Force, we are working on exactly that. Better pay and benefits for working people. Working people who are working harder than ever before, harder than the generations before them.

[00:36:59]more shifts, double jobs, not able to take time off to be with their family, not able to afford their child care, not able to afford their rent, barely able to afford health care if at all.

[00:37:12]Families are struggling and it doesn't make sense why. Because they are working so hard. But it is the corporate greed.

[00:37:21]It is a rigged system. It is the inability for regular people's voice to rise above super PACs that has made this all possible. That has built a system that makes folks work day in day out without seeing the benefits that they deserve. In conversations across my district, I have heard from families who are tired, who are losing hope, who don't understand why government is working not as even as hard as they are for themselves, but working that hard against them. And they want us to stand up and fight alongside them to roll up their sleeves and to make life easier to ensure that they can afford housing, healthcare, and child care. to ensure that when they show up to take that extra shift, it actually means something in their budget. And we have real policy solutions that we are rolling out today that put money back in people's pockets and saves taxpayer dollars on childare, on utility bills, on prescription drug prices. While Trump is spending billions of dollars overseas and funneling millions more in government contracts to his family to increase their net worth, we are standing here today to ensure that working people across the country in rural and urban communities in big cities and small towns in red states and blue states can afford to live their lives. can afford to take time off when their kid is sick or they have a new baby or they want to go on vacation that they can finally afford because of the work that we are doing. Our new affordability agenda includes so many exciting policies that you have heard about today from my colleagues and it also includes some real practical solutions for to expand benefits for working people. Double overtime beyond just the time and a half so that those extra shifts mean something so that families can afford to put money in their savings account. so that families can afford to pay all of their bills. It's the first adjustment to overtime pay that we have seen in 90 years. And I know families feel that we're also rolling out 2 weeks guaranteed paid time off because you should be able to take a break. Folks are working so hard without the ability to afford time off. So many people that I talk to in our communities and across the country go into work sick, go into work injured, go into work exhausted, go into work not knowing that their child care is going to hold for the day because they just can't afford to take a break. And they deserve to take time off. These policies pull well not just amongst progressives, amongst Democrats, amongst independents, but amongst Republicans too because everyone deserves the benefits that they work so hard for. And we are rolling up their our sleeves to fight for pay better pay and benefits for working people and to fight for an affordable future that doesn't just sound good, but delivers real results for all Americans. And now I'm excited to introduce my colleague, fellow freshman chair of the fighting corruption task force, Dave M.

[00:40:44]>> Everyone, Dave Men, proud to represent California's 47th congressional district in the heart of Orange County. And this is a place that Ronald Reagan not so long ago described as the place where good Republicans go before they die. And so glad to be a proud progressive now representing the area. Uh now when we talk about the affordability crisis and the new affordability agenda, let's let's talk about what we're really feeling here. It's about families sitting around their kitchen tables uh figuring out how they're going to make more money, how things are going to get cheaper so that they can actually pay the bills. Uh trying to imagine ways that they can make ends meet. Uh because right now it's not working. And I think the biggest challenge, and you've heard my colleagues so eloquently describe this, is that for families around America, even in wealthy districts like mine, uh they feel like they're never going to get ahead. That this is not a temporary problem. That this is the inevitable result of a system that is completely rigged against them because Washington DC doesn't work for them. It works for special interests. And that is why fighting corruption is such an important part of affordability. When we talk about economic opportunity, we are talking about the sense that the people in Washington DC are going to work for the people and not for the special interests that have bought and sold us.

[00:41:57]Now, we have seen unprecedented corruption from this administration, the paytoplay, uh the meme coins, uh Jared Kushner going around the world soliciting bribes on behalf of the Trump administration. uh a cabinet full of billionaires, full of billionaires, plural, not just one, but all of them uh working on behalf of their own special interests. Uh this is outrageous and we have a lot of work to do. Uh but Congress itself is completely beholden to special interests and that's the problem right now is Americans know that Donald Trump is corrupt. We've seen that in the polling when you talk to people, they recognize Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in United States history. But they also believe and I think rightfully so that Congress is the most corrupt Congress we've ever seen.

[00:42:41]And that is why it's important to clean things up right now because Americans are not stupid. They see special interests uh pushing for war in Iran and we end up paying the price as far as higher gas prices, uh the cost of everything we pay right now. We see big oil pushing to end uh subsidies and for clean energy, pushing for an all oil approach. We're the ones now paying the price as far as our higher utility bills. Uh we saw special interests pushing for more tax giveaway to billionaires. Uh and we're the ones paying the price as far as our higher health care premiums. Uh all the cuts to food programs out there. Uh the system is rigged and we have to do something about it. And that is why affordability and corruption are so endemically intertwined. Uh, and so we're going to keep be rolling out packages to end stock trading, to end the corruption here in Washington DC, to clean up campaign finance reform, to make Americans believe again that Washington is working for them and not for the corrupt special interests that control us right now. So, thank you everybody to my colleagues for this new affordability agenda. Uh, let's go take back the house and take back our country.

[00:43:47]>> What do you ALL THINK ABOUT THAT?

[00:43:52]ALL RIGHT. ANY QUESTIONS for any of the speakers?

[00:43:56]>> Go ahead.

[00:43:56]>> Well, a lot of you have said >> and for each of you, even when I know you, could you say your name in your outlet or or whoever >> with great television? You know, a lot of you have said that you want the entire party to be on board with this platform, but right now it's not. How do you get the entire Democratic party behind this? Well, look, the typically the establishment of the Democratic Party for my lifetime has not been willing enough to take on corporations and the ultra rich, but that is changing rapidly. When you look at some of these bills, for example, our bill to crack down on the outrageous increases in utility bills, that is a bill co-authored by me as progressive caucus chair and by Josh Riley, who represents one of the most conservative districts in America, represented by a Democrat.

[00:44:38]And so I think voters are so upset at how the ultra rich are getting away with not paying their taxes, buying elections, jacking up your prices. The Democratic party is starting to coalesce around taking on the ultra rich and these big corporations. The new affordability agenda is our way of planting a flag that way and uniting our party around those values. Anybody else in that? Okay. Anybody else? Go ahead.

[00:45:04]Riley obviously with political. How would you characterize your discussions with leadership at this point and have they the the discussions have been very uh productive on this? My very first meeting uh with the leadership after being elected as progressive caucus chair was around uh this idea that beating Donald Trump on his corruption and on his in we knew he was going to break his promise to drop prices. We knew it. And so this was what our very first meeting was about. And I think that the leadership should really consider making these the kinds of bills that we vote on every single week in a Democratic majority because there's no excuse. These bills win in Trump districts, in Democratic districts, and in swing districts all across the country. And so, uh, I think that these should be the kinds of consensus bills that we can that we can govern on. We can campaign on on these in our districts. uh we can win on these ideas and then we can actually pass them in the majority.

[00:46:09]>> Okay, thank you guys very much. We'll be around in case you need us. Thank you.

[00:46:19]>> 45 minutes.

[00:46:22]>> That was the real crew here.

[00:46:27]>> Oh, great. Thank you. Yeah, we got to free you guys here.