Representative Dean Phillips here. You had mentioned in one of your earlier responses that, there wasn't much of a conversation about affordability. And it did come up very briefly, in a question that Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis responded to. Talking about how it seems increasingly impossible for [00:00:17] especially young Americans to conceive of owning their own home. And what they were promised by those candidates, Nikki Haley promised to veto government spending bills and grow the economy, and Ron DeSantis said the same and added that he would drill for more oil. [00:00:32] So I feel reassured. Is there anything else hard as it is to imagine that could be done to make homeownership more conceivable? >> Speaker 2: Absolutely. I have to tell you all, I'm sure you feel the same way. I mean, considering these are the top four alternatives to the most [00:00:48] dangerous man in the history of the United States, I'm just astounded by their lack of ideation, innovation, it's all nonsense. And the truth of the matter, this is so simple, we live in a very simple economy, supply and demand. We are 6.5 million housing units short, which means prices will always be high, [00:01:07] no matter interest rates, no matter who becomes president. We need to initiate a 7 million unit massive nationwide housing construction initiative, multifamily high density units all around the country. We know how to do it, we have to change some zoning laws, [00:01:24] we have to reduce some of the red tape, we have to ensure there's capital provision. But until we build more housing units, prices won't go down and availability won't go up. We have 500,000 Americans sleeping in the streets, not just San Francisco and LA and Chicago and New York. [00:01:40] I'm here in New Hampshire, Manchester, New Hampshire across the street, there are veterans sleeping in Veterans park for goodness sake. So this is not rocket science. And when you work in, live in a market economy, it's really simple. If you create the circumstances by which private developers in this case, [00:01:57] want to build cuz they can make a profit, it's so simple. And I cannot believe that, not one of the GOP candidates on that stage tonight, said the most simple thing. We should have a national housing initiative period, end homelessness, ensure that everybody has a home. And yes, interest rates are way too high. [00:02:13] And we should make sure that first time homebuyers, and first generation homebuyers have a chance. I'd also like to see a national service program where after high school, if you take a year and join AmeriCorps or Peace Corps, we will seed you with some capital to buy a home because that's how we create wealth in America. [00:02:31] I think those are some ideas we should consider, and I'd love to hear from my friends. >> Speaker 1: Cenk, let's go to you next. What do you think can be done? >> Speaker 3: Yeah, so first of all, with the Republicans is stunning how little they talk about the average American, almost not at all. They talk about who they're going to invade, they're going to go after China, [00:02:47] they're going to spend special forces into Mexico, different weirdo wars they're going to start. And corporations that they're going to kiss up to etc., and never talk about the average American. So first off, if I was Joe Biden, let alone any of the other presidents, I would have done $15 minimum wage instantly, immediately. [00:03:04] That was their first promise, their bare minimum promise, and they didn't do it, why? Guys, when you increase the minimum wage, it increases the wages for everyone. That's when everybody flips out in, the establishment and goes, my God, inflation. No, you need higher wages to keep up with the inflation that already happened. [00:03:19] So we've got to stick up for the average guy instead of all the multinational corporations. Lower drug prices. Why can't we negotiate drug prices? That's not capitalism, that's the exact opposite of capitalism. They've totally captured our government. And every politician, Democrat or Republican, that becomes president says, it's too hard to do in Washington. [00:03:37] But they never explain why. Why is it too hard to do the bare minimum In a capitalist free market system of negotiating drug prices? It's because the drug companies have bought all the politicians. They gave them literally billions of dollars in legalized bribes. [00:03:52] That is why, when, if Barack Obama or Donald Trump go to try negotiate drug prices, which they didn't, but if they did, they would be met with a wall of Republicans and Democrats who would say, no way. I take money from drug companies, I serve drug companies. [00:04:07] We will keep those drug prices sky high. And then Joe Biden brags that he negotiated drug prices on one drug out of tens of thousands. Congrats, wow, at least you got up to do that. So now, when it comes to the housing prices again, Biden back in 2020 said, these young kids, [00:04:25] they think they have a tough, that's malarkey, we had a much tougher. No, you didn't. That's not even remotely true. According to the facts, student debt is now much higher than it was in Biden's time. Its housing prices are infinitely higher than the 1800s when Biden was first [00:04:41] ,thinking of buying it. I don't know what Biden's first house was. Was it worth $5, $25? It's a literal question. I know that it's not literally $25, but he probably bought a house for around $20, $25,000. That doesn't happen anymore, in the big cities nobody can afford houses. [00:04:58] Now coming straight out of Compton means you're a millionaire, because that's what the houses in Compton are going for in LA, okay? So how do you get a hold of it? You do real things that can help. First of all, private equity is swallowing up all the residential real estate in this country. Do you understand what happens if they do that? [00:05:13] Number one, the number one way that American families build wealth is through their houses. If the private equity guys, Wall Street buys up all the houses, then we can no longer build any wealth. And then they've got us, we're indentured servants forever because we have no wealth to fight back with, [00:05:32] we have no house of our own, and then we have to pay them rent. So they just extract and extract and extract. So in cities like LA, New York, etc., they constantly talk about building more houses, fighting homelessness, as Dean referred to. [00:05:47] And then they take a giant amount of money from us, and they never fix the problem, why? They actually do dedicate a lot of money to real estate, but real estate is usually the number one donors in state politics. So what they do is they take the money and [00:06:02] build luxury high rises because those pay more. I get it, they get a break in profit, but don't do it with our money. If we're financing building houses, it should be affordable housing, and it should be for the average American. So we're getting robbed left and right, from both the companies and [00:06:20] the politicians. >> Speaker 1: You mentioned the Wall Street actually, just earlier today, Jeff Merkley and Adam Smith introduced a bill that would ban Wall Street, like gobbling up of real estate. Marion, I want to go to you next. Should we be focusing mainly on big corporations effect on the supply and [00:06:35] hoarding housing, or is there something else that you think could have a bigger impact on housing affordability? >> Speaker 4: Yeah, there's something else. Obviously, private equity is a big part of this. But still that's just talking about the symptoms, and we need to talk about the root cause. The root cause of all of this is the fact that the American economy is so rigged. [00:06:53] In the 1970s, the average American worker had decent benefits, could afford a house, could afford a car, could afford a vacation, could afford for one parent to stay home with the kids if they wanted. The couple could, and they could afford to send their kids to college. Over the last few decades, there has been a $50 [00:07:11] trillion transfer of wealth from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. So the housing crisis is like everything else. It is a malevolent strain of vulture capitalism, that has its tentacles into every sector of American society. [00:07:27] We need to cut the cord with that aberrational, neoliberal, trickle down chapter of American History and begin again. We need an economic bill of rights. Remember, one of the reasons people can't afford a house is they can't afford anything. There's a saying that Americans can't afford America, so [00:07:43] why can't they afford a house? It's not just the prices of houses, it's everything else they have to pay for. That's why in an economic bill of rights, we have universal health care. It's not just negotiating with the pharmaceuticals, we should go on and have Medicare for all universal health care, we should get rid of [00:07:59] these college loan debts, we should have tuition free college and tech school. We should have subsidized childcare. We should have guaranteed sick pay. We should have guaranteed housing, which might include a domestic marginal plan and a guaranteed living wage. This is not just about a higher minimum wage, [00:08:17] we need a living wage as long as we have an economy. And so we are not addressing the fundamental fact, that we are a government of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations, not just in housing, but in everything. And return to the to the fundamental commitment to a government of the people, [00:08:36] by the people, and for the people, then even if you make it right on the symptom of housing, you're still gonna have too much, in fact, what is now ubiquitous human suffering in this country. Public policy should help people thrive. And in too many cases, in fact, in issue after issue after issue, [00:08:53] our elected representatives pass laws, that make it easier for those who already have capital to have access to more, and make it harder for everyone else who is even struggling to get by. So it's really important that we see that, about housing and about everything else. These are symptoms, and we need to address the underlying problem. [00:09:10] And that's what the Democratic Party should stand for. That should be our counternarrative to the Republicans in 2024, that they are a group of people at this point and a set of policies, that stand only for the very, very rich and for the corporate entities that they represent. [00:09:28] The Democratic Party is sort of split right now, and the left needs a spine. And we need to truly stand up for a complete fundamental economic reform, a fundamental economic U-turn and a new beginning. Economically and in every other way concerning justice, criminal justice, [00:09:44] racial justice, economic justice in this country.