Today, Explained - "Affordability" is the new progressive

Episode Date: May 9, 2026

What do buzzwords like “progressive” and “affordability” mean to voters? We went to one of the most Democratic congressional districts to find out. This show was edited by Kasia Broussalian, fact checked by Esther Gim, mixed by David Tatasciore, video edited by Christopher Snyder, and hosted by Astead Herndon. Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) rolling out out a new affordability strategy along with other House Democrats from the Progressive Caucus. Photo by Tom Brenner/Getty Images. You can also watch this episode on youtube.com/vox. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Buzzwords like progressive and affordability are thrown around all the time in politics. Maybe now more than ever. But what do they actually mean? And is there a difference between what it means to the elected officials and what it means to the people? Today, I'm going to talk to the head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to give his answer. And then we're going to go to one of the most progressive districts in the country to see what people actually think. Last week, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, one of the largest black people, of Democrats on the Hill, release their new affordability agenda.

That's 10 planks meant to make Americans' lives cheaper in areas like utility bills, child care, or prescription drugs. And I'll highlight some of the biggest policies included in the list because I think it's important, like requiring companies to pay double wages for overtime, not just time and a half, banning surveillance pricing, where companies use personal data to raise prices through AI. And offering every first-time homeowner $20,000. in down payment assistance and expanding rental assistance.

But if you ask me, I think the most interesting thing about this proposal is the timing of it all. Democrats aren't in control of Congress. Donald Trump will still be the president for the next couple years, and it doesn't feel as if these policies have any kind of short-term viability on the Hill. Why is this happening now? I think we should see it as an effort in flag planting and litmus test creation, and progressives in Congress are trying to define what afforded. ability means to them, ahead of the 26 midterms, and ahead of a 2020-A presidential election

that will define the party's future. And so as we think about a post-Trump America, this feels to me like a good place to start. What's up, y'all? I'm Skyler Diggins, seven-time WMBA All-Star, Olympic gold medalist, and mom. And I'm Cassidy Hubbard, host and reporter for nearly 20 years covering the biggest names and stories in sports and mom. And this is Ammom. a community for athletes, game changers, and moms of all kinds. Dropping May 14th. Tap in with us. Joining me now is Congressman Greg Kaysar.

He's the head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a member from Texas. Thank you for joining us. I mean, as we talked about, we wanted to talk about the new affordability agenda that the Progressive Caucus released. And my first question was kind of why released this agenda now? Democrats are obviously not in the congressional majority. Why at this moment? Look, the new affordability.

agenda is the Progressive Caucus's 10-point plan to bring down costs for everyday people, especially by taking on the big corporations and the ultra-rich that are screwing you over and making their money jacking up your prices. And the reason that we put this agenda out now is because we want candidates campaigning on this agenda in their primaries. We want people to win their elections by going and connecting with their voters about driving down costs. And then here's the radical part. If we take the majority, I want us to pass these kinds of policies to bring down your utility bill $500 next year, to pass policies to cap your child care cost or reduce the cost to that prescription drugs cost. And then dare Donald Trump to try to block it. If they pass it,

great. If they block it, then voters will know who to blame. But right now, the idea I hear from a lot of voters is, okay, they know who Trump is. They might be really pissed off at his lies and how he is. but they want to know what Democrats stand for, especially when it comes to these day-to-day economic issues. It sounds like you find these planks achievable in, you know, the ability to kind of keep Democrats together and kind of unify the caucus around them. Can you explain that to me because, you know, Congress hasn't necessarily gotten itself a reputation for passing big bills over the last couple years. How achievable is this stuff? Voters are so upset and rightfully pissed off right now at the way their costs keep going up and up and up. up. For sure. And so I hear from elected officials all over, but especially my Democratic colleagues,

that we've got to do something about this. And so I think this is a key opportunity to finally beat big pharma and start producing tons of our own generic drugs as a country and collapse the prices of so many of the drugs people rely on for their health care. Right now is a moment to finally take on these super PACs that are trying to buy politicians and elections and policies. And so, And so I smell blood in the water in this moment while voters are upset to forge a new consensus in the Democratic Party. If I hear you right, it sounds like you're saying some of this agenda should be seen as a signal to fellow Democrats in 2026, 28, saying this is what affordability means to us. Yeah, look, as a progressive and a progressive district, I could put forward an economic agenda that polls really well in Austin, Texas, but maybe has more trouble, say in some rural parts of the country. We chose strategically not to do that and instead put out an agenda that polls very well with two out of three Trump voters, seven out of ten independents.

And I didn't just do that for political reasons. We did that because we want to get this agenda passed. This is a kind of no excuses agenda. It plays well in every district and helps voters with the thing we hear, number one, from every day, especially disengaged voters about, which is how damn expensive life. is getting in this country. To that point, is that the reason that I don't see things like climate change or even Medicare for All listed amongst these planks? You're mentioning that you wanted to focus on things that have consensus across the party

and across kind of an achievable group of people. Is that the reason I feel like some progressive priorities of the past that I remember hearing, things like the Green New Deal, for example, aren't on this list? So as a progressive caucus, we have things called our flagship agenda. that includes Medicare for all and the Green New Deal. We keep on fighting for those flagship bills and to bring more parts of the party together around on those ideas. But you're right, it is not the overwhelming number

of Democratic members of Congress. That's part of my job, is to keep convincing folks on those issues. But these are not our flagships, this new slate, are battleships that go in addition to our flagships. These are the kinds of issues. Flagships and battleships. Yeah, these battleships, man, we've got, in some cases, 80% support of voters, not just right now, but consistently. And so let's move that stuff,

since we can have consensus on it while still pushing for the big ideas. It does feel a little bit, though, that Democrats are talking about climate less. Is that true? I think that what we need to make sure we do in the climate movement is connected to everyday people's lives. The moment that Republicans tried to make it seem that tackling the climate crisis was about buying more expensive products or was kind of an elite. luxury, we took a big hit. And so I think that it's very important if we care about having a livable climate agenda, we need to talk about how electrification is going to make things cheaper. Let's get this restarted by taking on the insane price of your electric bill, earn people's trust,

and then show folks how a agenda on climate can actually make your life more affordable instead of more expensive. I hear the connection between climate and affordability that maybe wasn't front and center of five or six years ago. I wanted to also ask about the ban on surveillance pricing in particular. I know you introduced a bill on that policy, and your bill would prohibit the use of surveillance-based pricing and wage setting. It would also prevent the use of AI to set wages and personal data, like an individual's finance history rather than their performance. This all makes sense to me, but I wanted to ask that it feels kind of downstream from a bigger question of tech and AI regulation that we've heard from members of the House who have called for a moratorium on data centers overall. I was wondering why isn't something like that on this list?

And it's instead of focus on surveillance pricing and that more narrow issue. We need AI regulations big time. But let's get started with, in my view, taking on the AI lobby on something that makes sense to basically everybody watching at home. So this is still a priority of that achievability, it sounds like. Yeah, yeah. But let's just talk about the surveillance pricing just for a second. because it rightly pisses people off.

We had the other day, somebody on Twitter, tweet at JetBlue, and trying to get to a funeral. Somebody just died. And in the last day, the price on this flight has gone up like $250. And the customer service rep responded from JetBlue saying, clear your cash, clear your cookies. And this is the thing that people know is going on. You're getting your private data scooped up.

They run it through AI and they figure out how to set a price for you. that is the kind of thing that should unite Democrats, but also tons of independent and Republican voters to say, yeah, these folks are using AI to screw us. Part of the premise of this episode is we want to break down buzzwords like affordability and even progressive. You know, we talked about the former, but I think the latter matters as well as it's one that can be misdefined. What does being a progressive mean to you in 26? And how would you distinguish it from just being a Democrat? For me, being a progressive means at least two things.

One, being willing to unite lots and lots of people, all of the folks that are getting screwed over against the powers that be that are making your life worse, whether that is oppressing you on a civil rights issue or jacking up your costs like we just talked about. It's about bringing the everyday person that may not have money power, but should have political power together to take them on. And then second, I think it being progressive is essentially a hopeful enterprise that you think, I think that the world can be much better, that we don't have to settle for crumbs or settle for the status quo. How does that differentiate you from what we're seeing in establishment democratic politics today? Yeah, traditional Democrat. Yeah, if we want to talk about AI, which you just asked me a question about AI. I think a lot of the establishment traditional democratic politics, this is happening in Washington,

DC right now, or telling candidates don't even say the words AI. And if you do say there needs to be safety, but innovation and then shut up, right? The traditional democratic politics is don't step out there, don't take a risk because maybe AI lobbyists are going to spend tons of money against you in a campaign. Or there's a lot of sort of democratic politics that says, we've got to be in this race against China on AI. And so we can't have guardrails against surveillance. We can't have guardrails against it taking your job because we've got to beat China. And in my view, being progressive means let's unite all the people that are getting their costs jacked up and have them vote for a politician, even if the AI industry spends against them.

That's the uniting working people part of being progressive. And then the hopeful part of being progressive is saying, well, look, I don't want to become a surveillance state in this race against China. I don't want us to have to lose our jobs. We could ask for more than the status quo. And I think the hopeful part of being progressive is that we can all come together and figure out how it doesn't make us poorer and how it doesn't actually make us an authoritarian state that starts seeming similar to the countries we're racing against. I want to ask you maybe that same question, though, and flip it, if we ask most Americans what they think being a progressive mean, what issues do you think they would come back with? Like, if we ask them to the

define a progressive member of Congress, do you think that they would say the same thing? I think you get all different kinds of answers. But if I am willing to be critical of our own movement or critical of, you know, we always got to be self-critical because I want to win. And in many ways, we had some very significant losses, especially against Donald Trump, just last presidential election. What I think is really important is for people to know that we care about your everyday ability to pay for your childcare and your housing and save some for retirement. But there are lots of folks who think that general civil rights might be our very first idea or ideal. And I, of course, believe in that deeply.

But I think we will continue to lose immigrant rights, continue to lose LGBT rights. We'll continue to lose on those if we do not regain people's trust on your day-to-day economics. And I think once we reclaim that, I think we will. will be able to restore a lot of those civil rights that we've lost. You know, to the point about Republican branding, obviously Donald Trump did a lot of that in the last election. And to your point, did it somewhat successfully. You know, his most effective ad of the 2024 cycle,

at least if you believe the numbers, was the spot that declared Kamala Harris was for they, them, not you. Amala supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners. Surgery. For prisoners. For prisoners. Every transgender inmate in the prison system would have access. And I've been across the country as people have used that ad or even just the progressive focus on cultural issues.

To your point to kind of say that the party have been pulled away from its core concerns, is those things no longer a priority for progressives? We should, of course, defend groups that are being attacked by Donald Trump, trans folks, immigrants, whoever it might be. what we also need to do is point out who the real villains are. Because Donald Trump told this complete story. He said, your rent is going up. Let's blame it on some Venezuelan immigrants. Your health care is getting worse.

Let's blame it on wokeness. But it was not wokeness that raised your rent. It was a Wall Street hedge fund, right? It was not trans folks that made your health care worse. It's a health care CEO. But I don't think we told that story. I think what we need to do is make sure we're targeting. the real villains in the story.

Because there's a lot of people here in Texas who go, Greg, you might be more progressive or more liberal than me on this or that social issue. But you care about making sure I can afford my house without having to work 10, 20 hours of overtime every single week. You know what? I'll be for you, even if we may have our differences on this issue or that.

And that's the kind of coalition I think we need to be able to build. I want to ask about what more. Let's talk about to fund the police because I read in 2020 that you were one of the elected officials that kind of stood with. Austin's movement, and they were one of the few cities that successfully reallocated funds from the police budget to other issues like housing. These days, even folks like Zora Mumdani here in New York have reversed their support for that idea largely. I wondered what you thought about that.

What do progressives think about crime and public safety now as opposed to that? I was always wary of the slogan, even in those times, because that meant that people didn't hear what I had to say next, which is, you know what? What if we move? our DNA labs out from under police departments and have them run scientifically. What if some of the money that we are spending just throwing money at the police association and police unions, let's take some of that, set up domestic violence shelters so that people aren't having to call 911 over and over and over again because they can't get out of an abusive situation. So I think we need to claim public safety and civil rights. And I think we can't just abandon the movement

for police reform, but I do think that we've got to get people to understand beyond the slogans that we care about, not just civil rights, we care about civil rights, but also their safety. I guess I wanted, though, ask that question more specifically. Were Democrats, or specifically progressives over the last election cycle too deferential to sloganeering, too deferential to certain interests or public groups that didn't want them to be as explicit or maybe saying where there was a disconnect between progressive class and the working class? Like, what Why wasn't that said at the time? Like, couldn't you have said?

I don't like the slogan? Here's what I think is so important, is that I think people need to know that we're going to put your interest as a working person first. I know, and I'll tell you a story from the Harris campaign specifically. You know, I went out to Nevada to campaign for the vice president, who I was a strong supporter of in that election. And it's when I knew we were very likely going to lose. Why?

I went and sat in rooms with all these Latino voters. So many people who said, look, I voted for Obama. I voted for Clinton. Lots of folks who said I voted for Joe, but this time I'm going to vote for Trump. And when I asked them why, I got answers like, I feel like y'all are focused on other stuff. And when I pushed them on what other stuff meant, they brought up the cultural issues. And I think that that is the mistake that we've made. That isn't just on the vice president in her short campaign.

it is, I think, a Democratic Party brand issue, and we've got to change the brand now in the election season because if all people learn about our brand is that we're the anti-Trump party and they never learn what we're for, then that will have been a big mistake and a huge failure. Congressman Kaysar, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate your time.

Thanks a much. Next up, we're headed to Queens, home of one of the most progressive districts in the country. And we're going to go to the streets to ask people directly. What do you actually want from progressives? This episode is brought to you by Nespresso. Hear that?

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are wrapped in the silliest of jokes. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch on YouTube.com slash your rich BFF. So after talking to Congressman Kaysar, I decided to come to Astoria, one of the biggest neighborhoods in Queens and part of New York 7th Congressional District, which is statistically one of the most progressive areas in the country.

It's actually so progressive, in fact. It got nicknamed the Kami Corridor. So we're going to talk to some voters here and see what progressive means to them. Let's go. When you think of the word progressive, what does that mean to you? More modern.

More modern? Less tradition, more, I don't know. There's just new things around here. New ideas? New ideas, yeah. Do you have any issue that comes up at the top of the list? If someone said, I'm a progressive,

is there something you expect of them? Ooh. I guess equality and affordability. Equality and affordability would be top of the list. Yeah. We talked to the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Progressive Group in Congress, and they have a new 10-point plan about affordability, about how to make people's lives more affordable. I want to show you it and get your reaction.

Okay. So these are the different planks that they are trying to focus on. And I guess for you, I would love to know what you find the most important out of that list. And is there something on that list you wish was there? Oh, wow. time people in the poor and money who people's pocket is getting big money out of policies wow is that even a possibility I mean that's why I think a lot of people's question is like is that even viable I know I was like saying I didn't even

think that was I thought that was non-existent I guess you know I think like you you want people to live well I want them to just survive so you live in the 7th district I'll hill a bath this makes me feel this makes you feel sporty so you live in the 7th Correstional District I do I live up on Dittmore if someone's calls themselves a progressive Democrat? What do you think that means? Well, I got a state. I'm from Kansas a reason. I moved here about 10 years ago, so I'm from a very red state. My parents are hog farmers, so that's how I was born and raised.

So moving out here was a bit of a culture shock. Progressive has a negative connotation in Kansas. You know, they actually laid out a 10-point plan of what they said was there at 40-1. I got it actually right now for you. You are in luck. I can't wait. I can't wait to close holes in it or agree with. You are in love.

because right there is a congressional progressive caucuses, this 10-point plan of how to make costs. I am not. I'm actually here because I want folks' real response to it. You can love it, you can hate it, it's up to you. Prescription drugs. I do not know enough about that. So they're actually, so some of these are like a matter of cost cutting.

So they're saying that imposing a corporate tax and refunding that money to consumers. So we don't tax corporations enough? Their argument was that they should tax some more. God, they're just to drive them out. So when we think about all the priorities, when we think about the priorities that Democrats and progressives have talked about, it doesn't always sound like cost of living. Sometimes it's been LGBT rights, abortion rights, immigrant rights.

Like, you know, they've been thinking more about social, cultural issues. I mean, how much do they focus on that versus things like cost of living? None. You think that, you're saying, focus on the money. Focus on affordability. Yes, because that is what all humans can relate to. We all work. If you work, that means you want a better life.

Not even if you want to roof over your head, you want to eat. If you work, it's because you want to not walk around naked. You need clothes. You need to eat. You need to be healthy. You need help. That means groceries. That means money.

So money is essentially the root of everything. I don't care if you're gay. I don't care if you have all that. That's like secondary. Third, like that doesn't, that's not a priority. So yes, that should have been the main focus. So here's a little secret. I actually live in New York 7th Congressional District.

So it doesn't surprise me at all. that when you ask people about the progressive nature of this community or about the diverse nature of this community, they have a lot to say. And when we talked to people, they really helped us understand buzzwords like affordability and progressive a lot clearer. I feel like I heard people say that they wanted their members of Congress to prioritize cost of living above everything else, even if that means deprioritizing some of the cultural issues that progressives have focused on in the last four or five years.

In fact, it sounded pretty close to what Congressman Kesar told me in our interview that these are connected issues and that a politician gains credibility on one by leading on the other. America actually will be in your feeds every Saturday with an interesting interview in politics and culture. And you can, of course, listen to America actually in the Today Explain feed or wherever you get your podcast. Support the show by going to vox.com slash members. That's vox.com slash members. See you next week and cue the music.