Tackling Economic Inequality, Cost of Living, and Affordability
There are far too many households across the 9th District that cannot afford basic living expenses in the current economy. I remember growing up in this district and having to make undignified choices between heat and health care. Corporations are making record profits in industries that should be human rights, executive compensation is skyrocketing, all while people are nickel and dimed everyday.
Everything we need – groceries, electricity, child care, education – is increasing in cost. Housing and health care costs are also skyrocketing and it’s leaving too many people across the country barely getting by. Countless households are in deep debt working two and three jobs just to afford basic needs. Too many people work hard then have to deplete their savings or retirement accounts to keep a small business running – like my mom had to do during the Great Recession of 2008. Then there’s the churn of real people falling through the cracks of support programs like SNAP, Medicaid, and energy assistance programs.
To help bring down the cost of electricity, I would call for a crack down on privately-owned and publicly-traded utility companies. We need to have more members of Congress championing the shift to utility companies as a public good, owned by the people. With the growing energy demand from artificial intelligence and data centers, we are seeing private equity firms now targeting the purchase of utility companies. This is a path that does not help anyone, except investors and the private equity firms themselves. Everyday people are at the mercy of energy companies, largely because they operate as monopolies in their regions.
I am rolling out A Just Economy plan that includes seven policy pillars:
- Reverse Trump’s tariffs that are driving up the cost of food and inventory
- Implement a national ban on private equity companies buying rental housing and flipping them into luxury housing
- Raise the national minimum wage to $25 per hour and end the subminimum wage (when inevitably meeting pushback, I would compel our members of Congress to live on $7.25 - the national minimum wage since 2009 - or less per hour for three months while freezing other assets and have to submit a report to the entire body on their experience)
- Bring forward renewable energy proposals to work in tandem with new housing construction to create new jobs
- Make universal free childcare available to all low-income households earning under 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, and costs capped at 5 percent for all other families - just like legislation I championed in the Illinois legislature
- Reimplement the federal Child Tax Credit to lift up to 50 percent of children out of poverty in America
- Give gig workers the right to collectively bargain
