An Open Letter to Progressives Entering Congress

TO: Progressives heading to Congress in January

RE: The Affordability and Anti-Corruption Agenda

Congratulations on your extraordinary electoral victories. I’m sure you’re getting a lot of advice about what to do when you get to Congress in January, and I hope you don’t mind my adding some words of my own. The following isn’t intended to list everything you might or should do but only to emphasize some basic ideas and steps.

1. “Affordability” isn’t just about bringing prices down (which is incredibly hard to do) but also about bringing incomes up.

Your efforts to bring prices down must be complemented by two sorts of measures:

(1) Measures to take financial burdens off average people (e.g., “Medicare for All,” subsidized childcare and elder care) and

(2) Measures to put money into people’s pockets (e.g., a $25 minimum wage; paid family leave; tax reforms that make federal taxes more progressive, such as raising taxes on the top so you can reduce taxes on lower-income people, and eliminating the cap on income subject to the Social Security payroll tax so you can reduce the payroll tax on average workers).

2. None of this is possible without a shift in power from the oligarchy to the people. This is where anti-corruption comes in.

You won’t be able to do any of this without shifting power away from the oligarchy. If power doesn’t shift, you won’t be able to get anything of any significance done.

The public’s concern about corruption is directly connected to affordability. They understand that the wealthy and powerful have rigged the system to their benefit.

Remember: Income and wealth aren’t zero-sum games. Some people can become richer without others becoming poorer. But power is a zero-sum game. It’s not possible for some to become more powerful without others becoming less powerful.

You must seek to shift power from the oligarchy to the working middle class.

3. How can you shift power?

Fight for seven structural changes:

1) Reform campaign finance laws to get big money out of our politics. The easiest fix would be public financing matching small-dollar donations. Harder but perhaps necessary: a constitutional amendment making clear that money isn’t speech under the First Amendment and corporations aren’t people.

2) Change labor laws to make it easier for workers to form unions and harder for employers to fire them for doing so. This is an essential step in shifting power. In the 1950s, when the working middle class took home a far larger portion of total national income, over a third of private-sector workers were unionized. Now, when the working middle class’s share of total income is far smaller, only 6% of private sector workers are unionized.

3) Resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act to separate investment from commercial banking. It was the law from 1934 through 1999. Its repeal contributed to the 2008 financial crisis. The easiest way to make banking boring again, and reduce Wall Street’s gambling addition, is to resurrect Glass-Steagall.

4) Enact a tough new anti-monopoly law to give government clear authority to bust up concentrations of economic power, especially in tech. The entire economy has become concentrated in a few corporate hands, making it easier for large corporations to coordinate prices, wages and investments — to the detriment of average workers and consumers. This is especially true of Big Tech. The Sherman Act of 1890 and Clayton Act of 1914 aren’t adequate to dealing with today’s deeply entrenched monopoly problem.

5) Tax large concentrations of wealth. The wealthy don’t depend on wages; they depend on capital gains. They have little or no taxable income because they can borrow against their vast capital wealth for their living expenses. Put a 2% surtax on wealth in excess of $3 million. And a 0.1% transaction tax on every financial transaction. Restore top income tax and capital-gains rates to what they were before Ronald Reagan became president.

6) Prohibit government officials from profiting off their positions. Ban trading individual stocks by officials in all branches of government, require the use of blind trusts and approved index funds, bar officeholders from launching or backing their own crypto products, and prohibit all federal employees and contractors from participating in prediction markets.

7) Reform the Supreme Court. Push for either term limits (enabling justices to have their jobs for life, as in Article III of the Constitution, but not necessarily on the Supreme Court) or a larger court. Or try for both (for example, mandating that a president gets to appoint a new justice every two years).

4. How to get support for any of this when power is still in the hands of big corporations and mega-donors

This is the chicken-and-egg paradox at the heart of the American system. My suggestion? Organize, mobilize, and energize around the problem of concentrated economic and political power.

1) Put the oligarchs on the defensive. Remind the public repeatedly that they have armies of lobbyists, political advisers, PR specialists and wealthy funders. But we have the people. People are more powerful than money — but only if the people are organized.

2) Drive this home again and again. Use oversight hearings coupled with social media. Utilize every news cycle to hammer this point. Voters — your constituents — need to hear this. Otherwise, the right will blame their economic stresses on immigrants, Muslims, Black people and Latinos.

3) Don’t get distracted into debates over the meaning of “progressive” or “social Democrat” or any other label. Be prepared to make alliances with anyone who will join you, even across the aisle. Every vote counts. Pay less attention to party affiliation than to who funds their campaigns. If they’re dependent on big money from corporations, super PACs or mega-donors, they’re not on your side — even if they call themselves Democrats. If they’re not on the big-money dole, they may be on your side — even if they call themselves Republicans.

5. Finally, aim high but don’t over-promise.

During the next two years, aim to accomplish one or two big things (Medicare for All? a wealth tax?) while you work on the seven structural changes. Let Trump use his veto. What you’re doing is laying the foundation for what Democrats must seek to do when they regain the White House in 2028.

We’re thrilled you’re heading to Washington. We have your back. Good luck.