LEADER JEFFRIES ON WNYC: "REPUBLICANS ARE ON THE RUN IN TERMS OF THEIR FAILURE TO DELIVER POLICIES THAT ACTUALLY MAKE LIFE MORE AFFORDABLE"

Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show, where he highlighted that Democrats are dedicated to making life more affordable rather than prioritizing the interests of the wealthy, well-off and well-connected:
 

BRIAN LEHRER: So, on the Affordable Care Act, I don't have to tell you that the extended subsidies will expire at the end of the year, and premiums are projected to double without those. The Senate Republicans primaried a vote, the Senate Republicans, but not House Speaker Mike Johnson. Now I see reporting that President Trump will propose a two-year extension with some other changes. Have you seen details of that yet?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Not seeing details, and Donald Trump has not had any conversation with any Democrats on Capitol Hill, as far as I know, about moving forward. For weeks, we made clear that on December 31, tens of millions of Americans were going to experience dramatically increased healthcare premiums because of the Republican refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. The same group of people who, back in July, with great urgency, enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. As a result of their actions, hospitals, nursing homes, community-based health centers are closing. We know in that same [One Big Ugly Bill], what they did was also rip food away from the mouths of hungry children, seniors and veterans by enacting a $186 billion cut to SNAP, the largest cut to nutritional assistance in American History. And they did all of that in order to pass massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors, which they made permanent. And now, at the 11th hour, Donald Trump purportedly has a proposal. Here's our view as House Democrats. We've put forth a three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits to make sure that working-class Americans, everyday Americans and middle-class Americans can have the same level of certainty as it relates to their health insurance costs that Republicans just provided to their billionaire donors in enacting massive tax cuts for them and then making those tax cuts permanent.

BRIAN LEHRER: Well, what could House Democrats support? The reporting I cited said Trump will propose a two-year extension. You just said a three-year expansion of the extended ACA subsidies. Reportedly, the President wants a few things, like lower income limits for getting any subsidy and no version of Obamacare policies that have premiums of $0. Can you confirm that or say if you're open to those? Maybe you're not so far away if you're talking about a two-year extension versus a three-year extension.

LEADER JEFFRIES: We'll have to look at the details of President Trump's purported proposal and its impact on small business owners, on entrepreneurs, on working and middle-class individuals in an environment where life in this country is already too expensive. And it's interesting to me that the President and Republicans seem interested in taking things away from folks as opposed to being additive. That said, you know, if there's a proposal that is offered up, we'll evaluate it on the merits, look at the four corners of it, and then figure out, you know, how to proceed. It's unfortunate that though Democrats started aggressively making clear as soon as early September that we needed to deal with this prior to October 1, when notices were going to go out to tens of millions of people about their health insurance, that Republicans have delayed and delayed and delayed. And now at the 11th hour, let's see, you know, whether their proposal has any merit.

[...]

CALLER: Good morning. Yes, thank you. And I'd like to thank you for all that you've done for the New Yorkers, for all of us. And I actually wanted to know what your plan is in terms of making housing more affordable, specifically for our young people. I have two sons who are born and raised in New York. And they are college graduates, they work hard, and they cannot afford to live in the City. So I want to know if there's a proposed plan for there really to be affordable housing. I know we use that term lightly, but unfortunately, it has not actually manifested.

BRIAN LEHRER: Linda, thank you very much. Well, we know that's one of the reasons Mayor-Elect Mamdani was elected. How about a federal role in that? Do you see one?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, absolutely. And Linda, thank you so much for calling in and for that very important point that you made. I think there are far too many young people in this city, and certainly that's the case throughout the country, who don't believe that the American dream, which has always been largely anchored in homeownership, can be achieved. And that's a shame because in this great country of ours, when you work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to live a comfortable life and live what I've sometimes referred to as the good life. Good-paying job, good housing, good healthcare, good education and ultimately a good retirement. And there are far too many people, particularly young people, who are working hard and playing by the rules, doing what they were told to do, but are unable to get to that last step. Living the good life. Achieving the American dream. And so it's important for us to lean in on this question of the high cost of living aggressively and across every level of government—city, state, and federal. And so your question, Brian, certainly the federal government needs to get into the business of affordable housing. Now there's several things that can be done. Use the tax code to incentivize the construction of housing that people can afford. That means a dramatic expansion of the low-income housing tax credit. That means making sure that we are incentivizing and making it more affordable for people to pay a down payment on their first home, similar to what President Obama did in the aftermath of the Great Recession. That's a program that I think we can consider, too, reviving, which is a significant tax credit that can be used to defray the down payment costs, which often prevent people from being able to purchase homes. We can also look at portability in terms of how you can transfer mortgage rates that are lower, as opposed to them basically fluctuating, depending on whatever the moment that exists, and that locks housing into place and prevents young people from being able to take over mortgages that might otherwise be affordable. So there's a variety of different things that we will propose over the next year and work hard to implement if the American people give us the privilege of serving in the majority after the midterm elections.

[...]

BRIAN LEHRER: You know, lots of people have theories about why President Trump was so complimentary to Mamdani at the White House on Friday. Do you? And then we're out of time.

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, listen, I think Republicans are on the run in terms of their failure to deliver policies that actually make life more affordable for the American people. And we saw that decisively in their electoral defeats that took place. The American people are running away from Republican extremism and running toward the Democratic values that we've been articulating, fighting to drive down the high cost of living, fighting to fix our broken healthcare system and fighting to clean up corruption and making clear to the American people that you deserve better than what they've gotten from Donald Trump and Republicans since January 20. And perhaps it was an acknowledgement, of course, that the vision that was articulated throughout the campaign and continues to be articulated as Mayor-elect Mamdani transitions from where he is now to taking over the city on January 1 is one that New Yorkers embraced, and it's one that was embraced by the people of New Jersey with Mikie Sherrill and her decisive win. It's one that was embraced by people of Virginia when Abigail Spanberger won a historic victory, and Democrats swept across the state up and down the ballot as we did throughout the nation. So maybe it's part of a retreat that we're seeing from Donald Trump, recognizing that they better start embracing and addressing the issues that matter for the American people, or they're going to get wiped out in the midterm elections next year.

Full interview can be listened to here.