Chairman Aguilar: House Democrats have a plan to bring down the cost of living for working families
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar was joined by Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC) Chair Debbie Dingell and Co-Chairs Maxwell Frost, Lori Trahan and Lauren Underwood to talk about Donald Trump backtracking on his campaign promise to lower costs and House Democrats plan to tackle the affordability crisis.
CHAIRMAN AGUILAR: It's clear that the American people want us to tackle the affordability crisis. They voted to lower their own costs. They didn't vote to lower corporate tax rates. Donald Trump and House Republicans have decided that your concerns aren't as important as the billionaire donors that he has made promises to. Trump repeatedly said during the campaign that he would bring costs down. At a rally in Pittsburgh, he said, “A vote for Trump means your groceries will be cheaper.” In North Carolina, he said, “From the day I take the oath of office, we will rapidly drive prices down.” Fast forward to today and he is already abandoning that promise to working people, telling Time Magazine that actually driving costs down is “very hard”. Was he lying the whole time, or has something changed?
You know what is hard? It is hard to lower the cost of living if you spend all of your time and energy trying to pass a massive tax cut for billionaires at the expense of the American people. Serving your billionaire cabinet over the people who put you in office. Some of the same companies that charge these prices is who he is now advocating for. Under Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress, the American people will pay more for less.
House Democrats have a plan to bring down the cost of living for working families by banning corporate price gouging, building more homes to tackle the affordability crisis and cutting taxes for working Americans to give them the breathing room that they need.
DPCC CHAIR DINGELL: We are ready, House Democrats are ready for what lies ahead. So, if there are the things that are going to help the people that we represent, we're going to be working with everybody. And if they are going to be doing things that are going to only help Donald Trump's friends, the billionaires, we're not going to sit by and be quiet. We are prepared for the work ahead.
I'm going to give you an example of where – well, we're probably not all together, even on our side, some days – tariffs are a tool in the toolbox. If you're from an auto state, you got manufacturing, you got steel. I'm going to work with them to protect my workers. But there are also things that – last Saturday at home, I sat with a group of people in Ann Arbor, and I had a young man who voted for Donald Trump who said to me, “You know, Democrats didn't take seriously the discussion about the cost of a dozen eggs. That really matters to somebody like me who's 27 years old and can't make enough money to succeed.” And now, he's saying it's hard to lower the cost.
We are going to work to lower those grocery prices. We've been doing it, and we're going to continue to do it. Well, he talks about, we're not going to let people defund public services like veterans’ care or taking care of our kids, or what seniors rely on. And his most recent is he's talking about privatizing the post office which would hurt rural Americans the most and especially seniors and others who depend upon the United States Postal Service to deliver their medications.
I'm going to ask you, is the agenda that we're hearing right now the agenda that works for everyday working men and women? House Republicans want to give tax breaks but who is going to get the tax breaks? Those everyday working men and women we are going to fight for? And they are going to give a lot of benefits to the ultra-wealthy. I am just one of those people that think the wealthy should have to pay their fair share, and corporations should be paying their fair share.
Democrats are the ones that are going to put working families first. We always do. We're the party of Social Security and Medicare; the party of job creators; and quite frankly, road repairs; the party of commonsense gun safety. And our hearts, again, go out to the families as we watch another senseless, not understandable shooting in Wisconsin yesterday. We're not going to stop fighting for you.
DPCC CO-CHAIR UNDERWOOD: This is our last week here before we head back home to our families and our communities for our holiday break, closing out what has been a very eventful year and a very eventful 118th Congress. Through it all, every step of the way, our House Democratic Caucus has made it clear that we put People Over Politics and we're focused on the issues that working families are focused on. We show up every day to make life better for the American people and to do the work that they sent us here to do: bringing down costs, keeping our government funded and open, getting families high-quality, affordable health care. Our community sent us here to solve problems and that has been and will continue to be our focus as we head into the 119th Congress.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for House Republicans. It's been a few weeks since we learned the results of the election, and in that time, they have made their priorities for the next two years completely clear. They want sweeping tax breaks for the richest and wealthiest Americans, paid for with deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare. They've attacked LGBTQ Americans. They have plans for a nationwide abortion ban and that they will support tariffs that will bring pain on working families, and that's just what the House Republicans have been up to.
Donald Trump has been busy starting on Project 2025, walking back on his campaign promises and filling his cabinet with unqualified and alarming picks. It's extremism, and it's completely out of touch with our community. And while we will always work to find common ground on any issue, we will not yield to this, not now and not throughout the 119th Congress. Now, our job as the DPCC is to make sure that our Caucus has the tools to communicate these priorities decisively to the American people. And we are very, very excited about the work ahead.
DPCC CO-CHAIR TRAHAN: The American people made it clear in November what they want from Washington: lower costs, better jobs and a clear focus on the issues that matter most to working families. What they didn't vote for is Donald Trump undermining and defunding the government services that actually work for them. That's why many Americans were understandably shocked by yesterday's announcement that President-elect Trump is seeking to privatize the United States Postal Service. Millions of Americans rely on the mail every day for their life-saving prescriptions, to pay their bills, receive their Social Security benefits and during the holidays, mail out their presents. And they do it through the USPS because they can do it in a timely fashion and at a cost they can afford. That's why, year in and year out, the Postal Service is rated one of the most trusted, reliable agencies in our country. Tell me how gifting this service to a billionaire CEO who will raise prices to pad their bottom line helps working families who will be forced to pay more. You can't because it doesn't make any sense.
This is a classic bait and switch by Donald Trump, who, since Election Day, has proven that he is willing to say one thing on the campaign trail but do another in office. In fact, in addition to taking steps to increase American shipping and delivery costs, the President-elect is also walking back his promise to lower grocery prices. He's not even in office yet and he's decided that is just too hard.
Let's be clear: House Democrats will not give up on the fight to lower prices for working families, and we're willing to work hard with any of our colleagues who are serious about joining us in that effort. But privatizing the United States Postal Service will do the opposite. It will raise prices for families and House Democrats will oppose any effort like that that will hurt hard-working Americans.
DPCC CO-CHAIR FROST: Like Chair Dingell did, I just want to express my condolences to the families and the people who lost their lives and lost loved ones in the horrible shooting that happened yesterday.
You know, I love the Maya Angelou quote, “When someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time.” When Donald Trump went to the NRA headquarters and said, “I'm going to work for you,” I believed him. When he goes to billionaires and oil executives and says, “You give me X amount of contributions, and I will do everything I can to make sure you make more money,” I believed him then. And what we're seeing now is him living up to the promises that he gave to the most wealthiest people in this country, valuing profits over our lives and our livelihood as working people.
The images that come to mind are the fact that yesterday, there was a second grader on the floor on the phone with 911 to say that there was a shooter in the school. And while that second grader was on the floor making that call, their teacher was at the door with a pair of scissors, ready to defend the lives of the kids in the classroom. When just a few months ago in the campaign trail, Donald Trump made it clear that he values the profits of the gun industry more than he values the lives of our children and our people. The images that come to mind are billionaires like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy walking through the Halls of Congress, talking about firing unelected bureaucrats when they're actually talking about civil servants and people who help make our government work. And this is Donald Trump living up to the promises he gave the wealthiest in this country that he would do everything he can for them.
But he also lied to a bunch of us. He lied to the working-class people because he's not fighting for us. I mean, just look at the fact that he's amassed one of the richest cabinets in the history of this country. I don't know how he expects, I mean, I don't expect a man worth $340 billion, Elon Musk, to decide what's going to happen with the agency, Social Security Administration, that's going to administer my mother's $1,200 Social Security check. So, these are the things that we hope people will pay attention to over these next four years, is that Donald Trump has lied to us but he's living up to his promise to his billionaire friends. And he will continue to live up to the promise to the wealthiest people in this country.
And that's why we're going to work hard as House Democrats, of course, to figure out where we can work with our Republican colleagues. But we're going to fight, we're going to fight for people, no matter who you are, because we believe that seeing the world through the eyes of the most vulnerable is the best way to legislate, and that's what makes us different than the Republican Party.
Video of the full press conference and Q&A can be viewed here.
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