House progressives release an agenda for 2025, with ideas for Biden to excite the base
WASHINGTON — Top House progressives will unveil a sweeping agenda Thursday to lay down a marker for the policies they’ll push next year if Democrats win the 2024 election, from a higher minimum wage and strengthening antitrust laws to new federal benefits for seniors on Social Security and parents raising kids.
WASHINGTON — Top House progressives will unveil a sweeping agenda Thursday to lay down a marker for the policies they’ll push next year if Democrats win the 2024 election, from a higher minimum wage and strengthening antitrust laws to new federal benefits for seniors on Social Security and parents raising kids.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus agenda, first shared with NBC News, doubles as a blueprint of political advice for how it believes President Joe Biden can win over progressives and young voters who are uninspired by his re-election bid ahead of a rematch with former President Donald Trump.
“If the progressive base is not excited and enthusiastic — and if they don’t feel like we are trying to earn their votes and that they are important — then I think the horrific idea of a second Donald Trump presidency could become reality,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the progressive caucus chair, said in an interview. “We cannot afford to let that happen. And we won’t.”
The seven-point agenda is heavily focused on economics and lighter on cultural issues, carrying echoes of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. It begins with provisions to boost the federal minimum wage to $17 per hour by 2028 and pass the PRO Act to strengthen unions, as well as other provisions, such as guaranteeing overtime pay. It includes policies to reduce the cost of living — by capping child care costs at 7% of income for all families; expanding Social Security benefits by closing tax loopholes; adding dental, vision and hearing benefits to Medicare; and enacting a series of policies to protect renters and make housing more affordable.
“It’s really about worker power and raising wages and lowering costs for poor people, middle-class Americans and the working people across this country,” Jayapal said.
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