If you think America is costly now, wait until — heaven forbid — voters give it over to people preaching “affordability.”
On Wednesday, the Congressional Progressive Caucus unveiled what it called its “New Affordability Agenda.” If it ever gets enacted, it’ll go down with “jumbo shrimp” and “open secret” in the great oxymorons of all time.
But don’t listen to the members of the caucus, who are pushing “affordability” as the buzzword for Democrats ahead of the midterms.
Their solutions? Make drug, oil, utility, and grocery companies pay more — and force all companies and taxpayers to provide freebies — under the unsupportable idea that none of these costs will be passed on to you.
“These bills tackle the biggest parts of most American’s budgets, making cheaper: prescription drugs, groceries, housing, utility bills, gas, and childcare,” a media release read. “New polling from Data for Progress shows every single proposal in the New Affordability Agenda is supported by the vast majority of Americans.”
Yes, well, so is Santa Claus giving you every present on your Christmas list — until you’re a parent, of course, which is the problem with this logic.
The first item of business would be “establishing a government program to sell generic drugs at a discount,” which doesn’t sound horrible except for the vagueness of it and the old maxim that if the government were put in charge of the Sahara they’d run out of sand in five years.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus meanwhile promised to make “utilities cheaper by cracking down on for-profit utilities overcharging consumers,” which will supposedly in no way be passed on via other costs or worse service.
They also plan to make “gas cheaper by charging big oil companies a tax on extra profits because of the war, then refunding that money to consumers.” Again, totally won’t be passed on. Also, that email in your spam folder really is from a Nigerian prince, and all you need to get a massive inheritance is give him your account and routing numbers.
Other soak-the-corporations provisions which absolutely, positively won’t trickle down to you, dear consumer:
- “Making groceries cheaper by cracking down on big grocers who fix prices and on companies that abuse seed patents to make farming more expensive.”
- “Making time off cheaper by guaranteeing every worker two weeks of paid vacation time.”
- “Putting money in pockets by requiring companies to pay double wages for overtime, as opposed to the current time-and-a-half standard.”
And when they’re not forcing corporations to pass on the price to you in creative ways, they’re finding ways to get government to make things cheaper by making them more expensive for someone who they swear won’t be you, for real, Scout’s honor.
Their plan for cheaper housing, for instance, is “building millions of new homes, offering every first-time homeowner $20,000 in downpayment assistance, and expanding rental assistance.”
They also want to make “childcare cheaper by guaranteeing no family pays more than 7% of its income – under $10 a day for most families.”
Oh, and also throw in a wonderfully anti-First Amendment provision, as well: “Abolishing Super PACs so billionaires can’t buy more policies that make stuff more expensive.” If abolishing entities that made “stuff more expensive” was at the top of my agenda, I’d have something to say about the Congressional Progressive Caucus, but never mind.
“Affordability is not a ‘hoax,’ and it also has to be more than just a slogan,” Rep. Greg Casar, the Texas Democrat who chairs the caucus, remarked.
“The New Affordability Agenda shows how Democrats can actually make things cheaper for working people by taking on special interests who are ripping people off. These are the kind of bold, populist ideas Democrats should talk about in 2026 and pass in 2027.”
Meanwhile, deputy chair Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, said that the agenda “lays out bold steps to lower costs for childcare, housing, groceries, gas, and healthcare.”
I mention this merely because Omar’s home state has become the poster child of how this doesn’t work, with tens of billions of dollars burned into the ether because of “Quality Learing Center“-esque scams that weren’t acted upon, even after red flags were raised, until a whistleblower report forced them into it.
Let this be a reminder: Every single agenda item here will make you or other Americans poorer in some way. Progressivism is a shell game whereby the costs are hidden and the plutocrats are to blame, all while government apparatchiks twirl metaphorical villain mustaches behind Capitol Hill desks.
If you want to know how expensive life is going to be if the Democrats take over either chamber of Congress in the midterms, all I ask is this: Look how much they want to make “free.”
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