Democrats Unveil 'Better Deal' Agenda to Counter Trump, GOP

Democrats on Monday unveiled an economic agenda that party-leaders hope will show Americans, and factions within the party, what they stand for while also appealing to working class voters.

The plan is titled "A Better Deal: Better Jobs, Better Wages, Better Future," a clear reference to FDR’s New Deal. Amongst other policies, the plan promotes the breaking up of monopolies, improving U.S. infrastructure and cutting prescription drug prices.

"House Democrats are fighting to make sure that all working people know that somebody has their back," states the release.

Agendas are not legally binding, rather they’re a way of a party signaling to its members, and hoped-for members, the direction it believes the party needs to go. Democratic leaders feel their lack of a clearly defined message is one of the reasons they lost the 2016 election to Donald Trump.

"The number one thing that we did wrong is…we didn’t tell people what we stood for," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told “This Week” on Sunday.

Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California both wrote op-eds about the new plan. In the Washington Post, Pelosi wrote that the Better Deal "is an ambitious economic agenda that represents a renewed Democratic commitment to the hard-working men and women across the United States who have been left out and left behind for too long."

Schumer joined Pelosi, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and a slew of top Congressional Democrats for the blueprint’s unveiling in Berryville, Virginia, an outside-of-the-Beltway district Democrats hope to flip in next year’s election. (It’s currently held by Republican Representative Barbara Comstock.)

"Americans know this economy is rigged," Warren said in Berryville. "Rigged in favor of billionaires and giant corporations and rigged against everyone else. It's not hard to see how this happened. In industry after industry, a handful of corporations have seized power in this country.”

Here are some of the Better Deal’s proposals:

• "Lower the crippling cost of prescription drugs" by creating a “price gouging” enforcer and allowing Medicare to negotiate prices directly with drugmakers

• The formation of the "Trust Buster," a new consumer advocate tasked with closely monitoring corporate mergers and scrutinizing the proposed merger’s effect on jobs, product quality and consumer privacy

• Bring high-speed Internet to "every corner of America" as part of a plan to give “Working Americans the tools to succeed in the 21st Century”

• Cracking down on unfair foreign trade and fighting "back against corporations that outsource foreign jobs"

• Expand apprenticeships and work-based learning programs to "help train young people for the new jobs we will create, and provide pathways for millions of out-of-work Americans to re-enter the workforce."

Is the Better Deal the deal you want to see? Is there anything you’d like added to the platform? Tell your reps, and comment below.

--Josh Herman