The Congressional Progressive Caucus on Wednesday rolled out a 10‑bill package aimed at lowering everyday costs for American families — pitching it as a midterm road map for the entire Democratic Party.
Called the New Affordability Agenda, the package is a liberal twist on Newt Gingrich’s 1994 Contract With America. It goes after the price of nearly everything: housing, electricity, gas, childcare, prescription drugs, groceries and other consumer goods.
It also offers a window into where some of the party’s rising figures — including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez of New York and Rep. Ro Khanna of California — want to steer Democrats in the years ahead.
“Donald Trump calls affordability a hoax, says surging gas prices are a small price to pay and says we don’t have the money for healthcare and child care because he needs it for war,” said Rep. Greg Casar of Texas, the caucus chairman. “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.”
The 10 bills include a federal program to manufacture generic drugs at discounted prices, universal down‑payment assistance of $20,000 for first‑time homebuyers, a cap on childcare costs at $10 per day for half of all families and a windfall‑profits tax on large oil companies that would fund quarterly rebate checks for consumers.
“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,” Mr. Khanna said. “But really, what we need to do is end this war. That’s what’s going to bring the gas prices down.”
Mr. Khanna and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island have introduced a Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax bill.
Other proposals would crack down on utility price gouging, ban the use of artificial intelligence to set prices based on personal data, reduce corporate control over seed patents, guarantee two weeks of paid vacation for all full‑time workers, raise overtime pay to double time, and cap super PAC contributions at $5,000 per year, thereby ending their unlimited spending power.
Ms. Ocasio‑Cortez, whose Child Care for Every Community Act is part of the package, said the agenda is meant to look beyond the next election.
“We want to not just plan for winning an election, but plan for governance — what a Democratic majority can do and what we are capable of in this country,” she said. “Finding quality childcare should not be a privilege. It should not be a luxury. It should be a right available to every American.”
The group said polling shows a majority of Americans from both major parties support its ideas.
Mr. Casar framed the agenda as a signpost for a party still defining itself beyond opposition to Mr. Trump.
“We have to be more than just the anti‑Trump party,” he said. “The Progressive Caucus is showing, not just telling, Americans how we are going to make life less expensive for you.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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