Florida Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz Talks Legislative Priorities

Democrats Won on Costs and Now Must Legislate on Them

Democrats read the midterm result as a verdict on the cost of living and now have to legislate on it. With the largest House majority since 1990, Wasserman Schultz says affordability comes before everything else, naming housing and health insurance premiums as the first targets, and blames Trump's tariffs and the war he is waging for pushing prices higher. Whether Trump signs bills or vetoes them decides how much of that agenda becomes law.

Takeaways

• Affordability decided the midterms. Wasserman Schultz calls the result a cataclysmic response to Republican indifference to the plight of everyday people, and says voters in her Florida district told her their costs had skyrocketed, especially once Trump's tariff policy took effect.
• Democrats will put costs first. She says the agenda will be driven by the election message on groceries, gas, housing, health care and utilities, and calls affordability issue one, two, and three. The party has been drafting it for months.
• Housing is the biggest household cost. Wasserman Schultz says housing takes the largest portion of a household budget and that dozens of bills have been filed to bring it down. The bipartisan Road to Housing Act became law without Trump's signature.
• Health premium subsidies need reenacting. Wasserman Schultz says the enhanced premium tax credits need to be reenacted, and that health insurance premiums have doubled, tripled and quadrupled for families, which is why voters kept raising the cost of coverage.
• Tariffs and the war raise prices. She calls Trump's tariff policy an illegal tax and the war he is waging illegal. The war lifted the cost of fertilizer and of a barrel of oil, pushing gas and food prices beyond reach on top of tariff-driven increases.
• Democrats will target Trump corruption. Beyond affordability, she says Democrats will go after what she calls the Trump crime family's corruption, a theme she says landed in liberal, moderate and conservative districts alike, along with money moving from families to billionaires.
• Trump may govern as Mr. Veto. Leinz notes Trump has suggested he might veto a lot of legislation. Wasserman Schultz says most presidents want a legislative agenda rather than simply blocking bills, and allows that Trump could prove the exception.

The new majority's internal tensions

• Mathieu asks when Hakeem Jeffries will get everyone in a room to hammer out an agenda, noting the party has not settled one publicly yet.
• Many new members ran against data centers and corporate interests, and many pledged to end weapons shipments to Israel, positions that sit alongside the affordability message.