The dust is still settling on a remarkable night of elections, where Democrats gained control of both the House and Senate, and several candidates flipped seats in unlikely states and districts by decisive margins.
There will be a lot of post-election analysis about what motivated voters. But one thing is already crystal clear: the candidates who won on Tuesday were all using a remarkably similar playbook, one rooted in a clear understanding of how deeply American families are hurting right now and a sharp critique of the way outsized, concentrated political and financial power has allowed big companies to squeeze working people. From the most moderate to the most progressive candidates, the message was consistent: it’s time to take on the powerful interests that are making life harder for working families.
Looking back on The Century Foundation’s research this year, that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Families have consistently reported struggling to afford basic necessities like food and medication. Prices on everything from school supplies to Thanksgiving dinner have skyrocketed. Credit card debt has gone through the roof, with more than 110 million Americans behind on their bills and debt payments now eating up over half of a worker’s income gains. Health care has become a luxury good instead of a basic service. And while families rightly blame the Trump administration for much of their challenges, they also understand that wealthy people and big corporations play by a different set of rules and are complicit in raising prices and ripping off consumers.
So, what comes next? How can policy leaders across the country show that they are listening to what families need and translate the mandate voters delivered into action? Here are four things I believe are absolutely essential:
1. Ease the financial pressure on families.
While families at the top of the income ladder are enjoying a strong economy, the majority of Americans are struggling to make it from week to week under the strain of high prices and stagnant wages. Candidates promised to tackle affordability—and for the sake of our economy and our democracy, they need to deliver. Congress should focus on big steps that provide meaningful and immediate relief and that take big financial stressors off family balance sheets, like policies that promote higher wages and reforms that drastically reduce the price of healthcare and eliminate the threat of medical debt. Congress should look beyond government investments and identify ways to release the pressure on family budgets by holding big businesses accountable. Capping credit card interest rates, for example, would help ensure that big banks charge fair prices rather than reap profits off people’s past-due bills.
Figure 1
2. Stamp out corruption and bribery and break the corporate grip on government.
Senator Jon Ossoff put it well when he described American politics as coin-operated: “money goes in, favors go out.” The Trump administration’s blatant self-dealing has created some extreme examples of government corruption. But the everyday influence of money in Washington, combined with the sheer power that the biggest companies in America have exerted over the government and the economy, has eroded Americans’ faith that the government can work for them. This isn’t the kind of corruption that can be handled with ethical pledges and financial disclosures alone. Congress must move an anticorruption agenda that actually shifts economic and political power toward regular people and breaks up concentrated power at the top. One obvious place to start is confronting the outsized power Big Tech has in dictating Americans’ lives, from how their groceries are priced to what their kids learn to whether or not their jobs will exist at all.
3. Aggressively root out corporate abuses that drive up costs and squeeze families.
Nearly everywhere American families turn, whether they’re buying a car, paying a medical bill, helping their kids with homework, or planning a vacation, they are confronted with the many ways that big businesses have rigged the system to drive up prices, waste their time, or force them to accept terms that are patently unfair. Often when policymakers go after corporate abuses, they start with the lowest rung of bad actors, like fly-by-night scammers or predatory lenders, and they focus on small-scale consumer protections that squelch problematic practices. This time, Congress should go big. Start with the biggest companies, and focus on two things: (1) near-term wins that put money back in people’s pockets and end harmful practices, and (2) structural remedies that rewrite the rules for corporate America to restore worker power and consumers’ right to a fair deal.
Figure 2
4. Place guardrails on Big Tech.
Policymakers cannot afford to keep playing catch-up with technology companies, addressing one harmful practice at a time while allowing these companies to accumulate ever-greater power and influence. Instead, policymakers need to articulate clear lines in the sand around what they will and will not allow Big Tech to take from people, how much power individual companies ought to have, and how tech companies should be accountable to the public. That means, for starters, protecting children’s data and privacy, ensuring workers aren’t left to bear the costs of technological disruption and job displacement, and making sure that decisions about our schools, workplaces, and communities more broadly aren’t dictated by a handful of powerful executives.
None of this will happen automatically. While last night’s results signaled a seismic shift, the fundamental balance of power in Washington has not changed. President Trump still has two years left in his term, and much of the positive agenda that new leaders in Congress ran on will likely be stymied by a hostile executive branch. But a new congressional majority is far from powerless—they still have ample tools at their disposal to get to work.
Congress can use its oversight authority to expose corporate abuse and hold corrupt politicians and corporations accountable. They can build the case for major policy change and pass affirmative legislation to rebalance power in healthcare, labor, education, technology, and beyond—forcing the president to decide whether or not to veto overwhelmingly popular proposals. And they can use the bully pulpit to name and publicly challenge the corporations whose power grabs have too often flown under the radar amid the chaos and corruption of the Trump administration.
These tools are not simply ways to oppose the president. They are opportunities to show Americans, regardless of how they voted, what a government that works for them looks like. And they are the start of fundamentally rebalancing economic and political power in ways that directly benefit working people, not powerful interests. That’s what Americans voted for, and it’s what the 120th Congress must deliver.
Tags: voting, election, midterms
Voters Have Sent a Message: It’s Time to Take On Powerful Interests
The dust is still settling on a remarkable night of elections, where Democrats gained control of both the House and Senate, and several candidates flipped seats in unlikely states and districts by decisive margins.
There will be a lot of post-election analysis about what motivated voters. But one thing is already crystal clear: the candidates who won on Tuesday were all using a remarkably similar playbook, one rooted in a clear understanding of how deeply American families are hurting right now and a sharp critique of the way outsized, concentrated political and financial power has allowed big companies to squeeze working people. From the most moderate to the most progressive candidates, the message was consistent: it’s time to take on the powerful interests that are making life harder for working families.
Looking back on The Century Foundation’s research this year, that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Families have consistently reported struggling to afford basic necessities like food and medication. Prices on everything from school supplies to Thanksgiving dinner have skyrocketed. Credit card debt has gone through the roof, with more than 110 million Americans behind on their bills and debt payments now eating up over half of a worker’s income gains. Health care has become a luxury good instead of a basic service. And while families rightly blame the Trump administration for much of their challenges, they also understand that wealthy people and big corporations play by a different set of rules and are complicit in raising prices and ripping off consumers.
So, what comes next? How can policy leaders across the country show that they are listening to what families need and translate the mandate voters delivered into action? Here are four things I believe are absolutely essential:
1. Ease the financial pressure on families.
While families at the top of the income ladder are enjoying a strong economy, the majority of Americans are struggling to make it from week to week under the strain of high prices and stagnant wages. Candidates promised to tackle affordability—and for the sake of our economy and our democracy, they need to deliver. Congress should focus on big steps that provide meaningful and immediate relief and that take big financial stressors off family balance sheets, like policies that promote higher wages and reforms that drastically reduce the price of healthcare and eliminate the threat of medical debt. Congress should look beyond government investments and identify ways to release the pressure on family budgets by holding big businesses accountable. Capping credit card interest rates, for example, would help ensure that big banks charge fair prices rather than reap profits off people’s past-due bills.
Figure 1
2. Stamp out corruption and bribery and break the corporate grip on government.
Senator Jon Ossoff put it well when he described American politics as coin-operated: “money goes in, favors go out.” The Trump administration’s blatant self-dealing has created some extreme examples of government corruption. But the everyday influence of money in Washington, combined with the sheer power that the biggest companies in America have exerted over the government and the economy, has eroded Americans’ faith that the government can work for them. This isn’t the kind of corruption that can be handled with ethical pledges and financial disclosures alone. Congress must move an anticorruption agenda that actually shifts economic and political power toward regular people and breaks up concentrated power at the top. One obvious place to start is confronting the outsized power Big Tech has in dictating Americans’ lives, from how their groceries are priced to what their kids learn to whether or not their jobs will exist at all.
3. Aggressively root out corporate abuses that drive up costs and squeeze families.
Nearly everywhere American families turn, whether they’re buying a car, paying a medical bill, helping their kids with homework, or planning a vacation, they are confronted with the many ways that big businesses have rigged the system to drive up prices, waste their time, or force them to accept terms that are patently unfair. Often when policymakers go after corporate abuses, they start with the lowest rung of bad actors, like fly-by-night scammers or predatory lenders, and they focus on small-scale consumer protections that squelch problematic practices. This time, Congress should go big. Start with the biggest companies, and focus on two things: (1) near-term wins that put money back in people’s pockets and end harmful practices, and (2) structural remedies that rewrite the rules for corporate America to restore worker power and consumers’ right to a fair deal.
Figure 2
4. Place guardrails on Big Tech.
Policymakers cannot afford to keep playing catch-up with technology companies, addressing one harmful practice at a time while allowing these companies to accumulate ever-greater power and influence. Instead, policymakers need to articulate clear lines in the sand around what they will and will not allow Big Tech to take from people, how much power individual companies ought to have, and how tech companies should be accountable to the public. That means, for starters, protecting children’s data and privacy, ensuring workers aren’t left to bear the costs of technological disruption and job displacement, and making sure that decisions about our schools, workplaces, and communities more broadly aren’t dictated by a handful of powerful executives.
None of this will happen automatically. While last night’s results signaled a seismic shift, the fundamental balance of power in Washington has not changed. President Trump still has two years left in his term, and much of the positive agenda that new leaders in Congress ran on will likely be stymied by a hostile executive branch. But a new congressional majority is far from powerless—they still have ample tools at their disposal to get to work.
Congress can use its oversight authority to expose corporate abuse and hold corrupt politicians and corporations accountable. They can build the case for major policy change and pass affirmative legislation to rebalance power in healthcare, labor, education, technology, and beyond—forcing the president to decide whether or not to veto overwhelmingly popular proposals. And they can use the bully pulpit to name and publicly challenge the corporations whose power grabs have too often flown under the radar amid the chaos and corruption of the Trump administration.
These tools are not simply ways to oppose the president. They are opportunities to show Americans, regardless of how they voted, what a government that works for them looks like. And they are the start of fundamentally rebalancing economic and political power in ways that directly benefit working people, not powerful interests. That’s what Americans voted for, and it’s what the 120th Congress must deliver.
Tags: voting, election, midterms