For years, one of many bedrock adages of electoral politics was “it’s the economic system, silly.” The quip, coined by former Invoice Clinton strategist James Carville, warned celebration leaders that financial issues will at all times outrank different points within the thoughts of voters
However lately, Carville’s iconic recommendation feels prefer it’s been forgotten.
In President Joe Biden’s administration, social and cultural issues rose on the Democrats’ precedence listing. Insurance policies like a $15 minimal wage and addressing value gouging in grocery shops weren’t entrance and middle to Vice President Kamala Harris’s quick presidential marketing campaign (or at the least, not as entrance and middle as different points).
Beneath President Donald Trump, who gained partly on a promise to decrease costs for shopper items, costs have nonetheless gone the wrong way, pushed by his punitive tariff technique and a conflict with Iran that has disrupted the power market.
Due to this, issues in regards to the economic system — and particularly the price of residing — have by no means been extra vital to voters. That actuality has led each events’ candidates within the 2026 midterms (in addition to potential candidates within the 2028 presidential election) to undertake a brand new deal with “affordability.”
The A-word simply is perhaps the buzziest factor in politics proper now. It’s in coverage papers and tv advertisements, and on the marketing campaign path after it was popularized by New York Metropolis Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose profitable 2025 marketing campaign was laser-focused on the difficulty. At its coronary heart, the concept isn’t that completely different from Carville’s: A candidate should present credibility on “kitchen desk” points earlier than the rest, particularly at this second.
That being stated, affordability means so many issues to so many individuals (together with to Trump, who has referred to as it a “hoax”). I needed to spend this week on America, Truly breaking down the buzzword and getting a way of the coverage positions that inform this new focus.
So I talked to Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, in regards to the group’s lately launched “New Affordability Agenda.” It’s a 10-point coverage proposal outlining in additional concrete phrases what progressive Democrats imply once they say affordability.
I feel the timing of the proposal is especially fascinating, with Democrats out of energy in each chambers of Congress and Trump nonetheless within the White Home. Why are progressives releasing this now? And what number of of those proposals do they imagine can garner bipartisan help?
Learn on for an excerpt of our dialog, flippantly edited for size and readability. There’s way more within the full present, so hearken to America, Truly wherever you get your podcasts or watch it on Vox’s YouTube channel.
Why launch this agenda now? Democrats are clearly not within the congressional majority. Why at this second?
The brand new affordability agenda is the Progressive Caucus’s 10-point plan to deliver down prices for on a regular basis folks, particularly by taking up the large companies and the ultra-rich which might be screwing you over and making their cash jacking up your costs. And the explanation that we put this agenda out now could be as a result of we wish candidates campaigning on this agenda of their primaries.
We wish folks to win their elections by going and connecting with their voters about driving down prices. Right here’s the unconventional half: If we take the bulk, I would like us to go these sorts of insurance policies to deliver down your utility invoice by $500 subsequent yr, to cap your childcare price or cut back that pharmaceuticals price, after which dare Donald Trump to attempt to block it.
In the event that they go it, nice. In the event that they block it, then voters will know who in charge. However proper now, the concept I hear from plenty of voters is, okay, they know who Trump is. They is perhaps actually pissed off at his lies and the way he’s, however they need to know what Democrats stand for, particularly with regards to these day-to-day financial points.
Congress hasn’t essentially gotten itself a fame for passing massive payments during the last couple years. How achievable is these items?
Voters are so upset and rightfully pissed off proper now on the approach their prices hold going up and up and up. And so I hear from elected officers throughout, however particularly my Democratic colleagues, that we’ve acquired to do one thing about this. And so I feel this can be a key alternative to lastly beat Large Pharma and begin producing tons of our personal generic medicine as a rustic and collapse the costs of so most of the medicine folks depend on for his or her healthcare.
Proper now could be a second to lastly tackle these tremendous PACs which might be attempting to purchase politicians and elections and insurance policies. And so I scent blood within the water on this second, whereas voters are upset, to forge a brand new consensus within the Democratic Social gathering.
It sounds such as you’re saying a few of this agenda must be seen as a sign to fellow Democrats in 2026 and 2028, saying, “That is what affordability means to us.”
As a progressive in a progressive district, I might put ahead an financial agenda that polls rather well in Austin, Texas, however perhaps has extra bother, say, in some rural elements of the nation. We selected strategically not to try this and as an alternative put out an agenda that polls very properly with two out of three Trump voters, seven out of 10 independents.
We did that as a result of we need to get this agenda handed. It is a no-excuses agenda. It performs properly in each district and helps voters with the factor we hear daily, which is how rattling costly life is getting on this nation.
To that time, is that the explanation that I don’t see issues like local weather change and even Medicare for All listed amongst these planks?
As a progressive caucus, we have now issues referred to as our flagship agenda. That features Medicare for All and the Inexperienced New Deal. We carry on combating for these flagship payments and to deliver extra elements of the celebration collectively round these concepts.
However these usually are not our flagships. This new slate are our battleships along with our flagships. These are the sorts of points the place we’ve acquired, in some instances, 80 % help of voters, not good now, however persistently. And so let’s transfer that stuff, since we are able to have consensus on it whereas nonetheless pushing for the large concepts.
It does really feel just a little bit, although, that Democrats are speaking about local weather much less. Is that true?
What we want to ensure we do within the local weather motion is join it to on a regular basis folks’s lives. The second that Republicans tried to make it appear that tackling the local weather disaster was about shopping for costlier merchandise or was sort of an elite luxurious, we took an enormous hit.
And so I feel that it’s essential, if we care about having a livable local weather agenda, that we have to discuss how electrification is gonna make issues cheaper.
Let’s get this restarted by taking up the insane value of your electrical invoice, earn folks’s belief, after which present people how an agenda on local weather can truly make your life extra inexpensive as an alternative of costlier.
I needed to additionally ask in regards to the ban on surveillance pricing. I do know you launched a invoice on that coverage, and your invoice would prohibit using surveillance-based pricing and wage setting. It could additionally forestall using AI to set wages.
This all is smart to me, nevertheless it feels downstream from a much bigger query of tech and AI regulation that we’ve heard from members of the Home who’ve referred to as for a moratorium on information facilities total.
Why isn’t one thing like that on this listing, and it’s as an alternative a deal with surveillance pricing?
We’d like AI laws massive time. However let’s get began with, in my opinion, taking up the AI foyer on one thing that is smart to mainly everyone.
Let’s simply discuss surveillance pricing for a second as a result of it rightly pisses folks off. We had the opposite day anyone on Twitter tweet at JetBlue, “I’m attempting to get to a funeral. Someone simply died, and within the final day, the value on this flight has gone up like $250.” And the customer support rep responded from JetBlue saying, “Clear your cache. Clear your cookies.”
And that is the factor that individuals know is occurring. You’re getting your personal information scooped up, they run it by way of AI, they usually work out find out how to set a value for you. That’s the sort of factor that ought to unite Democrats, but in addition tons of unbiased and Republican voters to say, “Yeah, these people are utilizing AI to screw us.”
A part of the premise of this episode is we need to break down buzzwords like affordability and even progressive. We talked in regards to the former, however I feel the latter issues in addition to it’s one that may be misdefined.
What does being a progressive imply to you in 2026, and the way would you distinguish it from simply being a Democrat?
For me, being a progressive means at the least two issues. One, being keen to unite heaps and plenty of folks, all the people which might be getting screwed over in opposition to the powers that be which might be making your life worse, whether or not that’s oppressing you on a civil rights subject or jacking up your prices like we simply talked about. It’s about bringing the on a regular basis individual, who could not have [financial] energy however ought to have political energy, collectively to take them on.
Second, I feel being progressive is an basically hopeful enterprise. I feel that the world might be significantly better, that we don’t should accept crumbs or accept the established order.
