Bluesky

The Congressional Progressive Caucus released its “New Affordability Agenda” this week, an essential step in defining what Democrats are for. The agenda contains 10 concrete legislative reforms, each providing help for Americans sinking beneath the rising costs of basics: healthcare, energy, housing, childcare, wages. The goal is to forge an agenda that all but the most compromised Democrats could unite behind. Twenty-two national organizations endorsed the agenda on its release.

The CPC’s initiative comes at a critical time. This year’s congressional elections will largely be a referendum on the corruption, chaos, and catastrophes of Trump’s misrule, with Republicans facing a brutal reckoning. “Had enough?” will be the Democrats basic appeal. But the same polls that show growing dismay with Trump should sober Democrats, because voters don’t think much of either party. Voters basically believe, for good reason, that most politicians are bought and sold peddlers of false promises.

That leads much of the Democratic establishment to focus on Trump’s failures, arguing that voters won’t believe anything we promise in any case. The CPC’s effort is to break through that cynicism—of the party establishment and of the voters.

Its New Affordability Agenda is essentially filling a vacuum left by the leaders of the party. It makes the tough strategic choice to put forth not what CPC chair Greg Casar hails as progressive “flagship reforms”—Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, tuition-free college, etc.—but rather sensible, immensely popular reforms that could center a platform that Democrats could unite behind.

The initiative recalls the Contract with America, the platform that Republican Newt Gingrich put forth for the 1994 elections when Republicans gained 54 seats and won the House majority for the first time in 40 years. That election was centered on voter dismay with the first years of the Clinton administration. Gingrich’s Contract promised voters that if elected, Republicans would introduce and pass within 100 days each item of a 10-point agenda. The agenda included only reforms that registered over 60 percent support in polls. Divisive right-wing passions like ending abortion or prayer in the school were omitted. It combined basic conservative shibboleths—tax cuts, a balanced budget, deregulation, welfare reform, a crackdown on crime and child pornography, plus some popular gimmicks like term limits. Gingrich lined up 300 candidates on the steps of the Capitol for a photo opportunity that suggested that if elected, they might really be able to do what they promised. The content of the contract was in many ways less important than the pledge and the photo.

As was done with the Gingrich Contract, the CPC released polls showing that its proposed reforms all enjoy 60 percent or greater popularity. It is built on 10 legislative proposals ready to be passed. Unlike the Gingrich contract, the CPC Affordability Agenda is focused on providing concrete help to working Americans struggling with wages that aren’t keeping up with the soaring costs of necessities. The reforms are summarized below.

The CPC initiative leads different efforts by progressive organizations to develop a bold, positive agenda for Democrats. The Working Families Party has released its Worker Guarantee, a six-point program that features both progressive flagship reforms—like Medicare for All and a National Union Jobs Program—with reforms that overlap with the CPC initiative. It has been endorsed by 18 members of Congress, led by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley, CPC chair Greg Casar, Ro Khanna, and Pramila Jayapal. The WFP supports candidates who will run on this guarantee, in the hope of building an ever-stronger progressive surge in the party.