All right. Back at the Young Turks at the DNC. Jake, look at this. Adam Green dropped by Adam Green, of course. Leader of the progressive Change campaign Committee. And, Adam, all right, you now speak for all progressives. Congratulations. Thank you. [00:00:15] And, so, Kamala Harris, a little bit more of an establishment candidate. You were backing Elizabeth Warren in 2020? Obviously not Kamala Harris. Tim Walz seems to be a pretty good progressive. - So what say you about this ticket? - It's electric so far. [00:00:30] Now, if you had asked me two months ago, would she be my first choice? I'd give you all these policy reasons why not. June 2017 is everything. And it's all about new versus old, fresh versus old, strength versus weakness. And we got the vibes on our side and that feels really good. [00:00:46] Now, fortunately in the last two weeks, she's done a bunch of stuff that also were progressive. Tim Walz calling for cracking down on price gouging and groceries, bringing back a bunch of progressive economic people to advise her. So I'm feeling pretty good, both on a substantive level and a vibes level. Oh, elaborate on that last part. [00:01:02] Bringing back progressive people to help. Advisor. I want to know more about that. Sure. Yeah. So I'll say like. Two weeks ago, I did a series of calls on people who were freaking out. Like who was advising her on policy. Was Biden-Harris, like a nice honeymoon. And we're now going to go back to the Clinton days of Larry Summers and stuff like that. [00:01:18] And then Brian Deese was announced to be advising her again. He's like the keeper of the flame of the Biden-Harris agenda. He still has $1.5 trillion of stuff to get across the finish line that he came to vote short on. Bharat Ramamurti, who is Elizabeth Warren's top cop on Wall Street Advisor, [00:01:34] was the number two guy in the white House doing economics. He left about a year ago. He's back in the circle. Every card that was a mystery that has been unveiled has been a good card so far. - So I'm just feeling very good. - Yeah, that makes me so happy. - Oh, I like. - That you're happy. - I didn't know about that. - This is a happy Ana kasparian. That's awesome. [00:01:50] You're welcome. YouTube. This happiness go viral? I don't even know. - I we're all so angry. - So drama. - And then that'll go viral for you. - Larry summers. Yeah. Yeah. No. No. Operation Joy has gone by. We started that here on Young Turks. Yeah. [00:02:05] And all of a sudden, that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz were doing it. So there you go. Okay. No, those are great developments. And by the way, now when you add those cards on top of Tim Walz and actual positions, now it's sounding really, really good. Yeah. So I think the number of people I heard from the day that Tim Walz was announced [00:02:22] who said, I'm so used to being disappointed, I can't believe that like the best case scenario happened. I can't remember the last time this happened. It made me want to cry because it was like it was so inspiring and so seriously, she's not gonna do everything right. I know that I'm ready to be disappointed eventually, but so far it feels so good. [00:02:39] Yeah, look, I couldn't agree more. So let's talk about those policy positions then. Yeah. So is there anything missing that you would have loved? Is there anything that is in the proposals that you doubly love? So I consider everything we've heard so far, which is not a ton to be a down payment, a directional down payment, which hopefully [00:02:58] we'll hear more about on Thursday night. Right. So we actually have been advising you on economic messaging. We do polling every week with data for progress. And we had a six point memo. The first one was groceries, groceries, groceries. Talk about groceries. It's the biggest pain point in people's lives by 2 to 1. The second was talk about [00:03:16] corporate price gouging. Right. Somebody's going to be left holding the bag for prices. It's either the person in charge, Joe Biden, or the big corporations. It's one or the other. Talk about it. And her first economic speech was that grocery price gouging, right. I would like to hear more about big tech and more about banks and credit cards, [00:03:32] and she will get to that, I'm sure. One piece of messaging advice that Biden has actually not just used in the state of the Union, but on the campaign trail, is the idea that they want to cut Social Security, to give tax cuts for the rich. We will tax the rich and protect Social Security. She hasn't really addressed taxation yet or the safety net. [00:03:48] But why wouldn't she? You know, she'll she'll talk about it in her speech a little bit. She has proposed increasing the corporate tax rate. Unfortunately not back to 35%. Prior to the Trump era tax cuts, but to 28%, which is what Biden had proposed and didn't really fight for. [00:04:04] - So I've been fact checked. - Yeah. No, I mean, I don't need to fact check you. I didn't know about her economic adviser. Sometimes we miss things, so. Yeah. Yeah. And to your. Point, Adam, I'll believe it when I see it. Right, right. And. But the fact that she's proposed it is positive because it changes the rhetoric. [00:04:23] It makes all the Democrats defend those positions because now the leader has said it. Yeah. So it has value in and of itself. Yeah. As well as if they wind up doing a couple of those things. Right. That would be amazing. But speaking of which, you know, you and I have advocated in a lot of good people [00:04:39] on the progressive side to propose these things because it'll force the Republicans to take the wrong positions. Right. I think it's worked pretty spectacularly so far from the politics angle. So what's your take on that? You mean like bidding traps for them and then walking into it? Yeah. [00:04:54] You know this idea of surprise fees or junk fees, which applies to everything, whether it's Ticketmaster or airlines or hotels or banks or credit cards or rent payments. We were doing a lot of work with the white House and members of Congress on this issue, and Republicans weren't reacting, which was a little annoying because the whole point was to pick [00:05:10] a smart fight until about two months ago, when all these Republicans in Congress started offering bills that would repeal actual things that are now in law, thanks to the Biden administration on the executive branch side. And, you know, basically, the Republicans wanted higher credit card fees, higher bank fees. So finally, they're taking the bait. [00:05:26] And one one member of Congress in a hearing said, the American people don't support these fees. The vast majority support them. They're not junk fees. - And yes, that is so. - Yes. Andy Barr. Well known. Yeah. Something that's very well known about my fellow Americans. [00:05:43] They love paying extra unnecessary fees. - Right. - By the way, in terms of hotels. So hotels do this thing now where they charge you a resort fee once you check in. Yeah. At first it was like $25. Then they raised it to $30. Now it's like 50, $55 a night. That's insane. [00:06:01] Yeah. And, you know, can I say one piece of advice to progressives out there? Anybody, including those who are running for office, are polling consistently shows we got. We got to talk micro, not macro. Right. Nobody cares about GDP. Nobody cares about unemployment rates or inflation rates. [00:06:16] Totally agree. It might even apply to climate change if if framed in nebulous terms. But if your gas prices are going to go down. Right. If your electricity costs are going to go down, if your grocery price is going to go down. Medicare for all. But oh, you're going to get your hearing aids and dental and vision, [00:06:32] you know, free because of your insurance. It's a world of difference. And we all need to talk in these local terms and not talk in these nebulous global terms. - Yeah. - So that's a great point. And I just want to make one more quick point before we go to the question. It's such a simple concept to me and that it's amazing that people haven't figured [00:06:49] it out my entire lifetime until maybe now. Right. Which is that people care about what affects them, not theoretically, what affects someone else. And I wish they did, because for progressives, we care about other people and we empathize, etc. But the average person, of course, is going to naturally be much more [00:07:06] inclined to be concerned about the things that affect them and their family, as opposed to something that's on a global scale or that's hard to discern, to pinpoint in their lives. So that's why, again, the direction that the Harris Walsh team is going is perfect because it triggers for them. [00:07:23] Wait, I hate the increased prices and groceries and and and housing etc. And it makes the Republicans defend those high prices. It's just a it's a great political strategy. The only thing is it makes me a little bit nervous that it's just because it's so politically obviously correct that they're just doing it for politics. [00:07:41] So we have to make sure we make them do it. - If they win, that's for sure. - Yeah. So I don't actually don't have a question on this. I want to make a statement and I don't know. Check you again. No no, no. I think that there is a massive problem brewing right now that's being [00:07:58] completely ignored by both parties. And I think that it's a great opportunity for Democrats to address it and be first on it, which is the insurance crisis. And I'm not just talking about health insurance. I'm talking about insurance for your car, insurance for your home. Insurance companies are jacking up rates like crazy [00:08:16] for a number of different factors. You know, in Florida, for instance, insuring your home has become incredibly, incredibly expensive and unattainable, unattainable for a lot of families due to the climate crisis, due to the fact that it's far more expensive to, you know, take care of homes [00:08:34] that have been destroyed as a result of these natural disasters in California. You know, there could be a fix with actually doing something about crime. But the crime rates have led to skyrocketing car insurance rates as well. Like, these are issues that are really, really hurting [00:08:50] working people in the country. And I get that the factors differ. But I also think that there's some predatory behavior happening with the insurance companies as well. - And I want someone to address that. - Yeah. - No, just to say, is. - That on the agenda at all or. No. You know, the last thing you said pretty much fraud. [00:09:07] If there's a fraud element to it, that has to be on the agenda, right? I could be fact checked on this one, but, you know, you book a flight ticket and you have 24 hours to cancel, but they're like, do you want this insurance for 12 extra bucks? And I was like, no, because it's like, wait, this is fake insurance, right? Totally. They're just scaring me. [00:09:23] And it's like, if there's stuff like that, you really need a consumer watchdog, right? So that's my that's my 30,000 foot version of it. There's probably a very wonky stuff that one could say. But do you think that. Kamala Harris will keep Lina Khan as the head of the FTC? Is Reid Hoffman watching? [00:09:39] I don't know. Yes, I do, I do. Oh, interesting. Oh. Oh, yeah. I mean, she's been, a lot of money has been donated to her campaign by billionaires who want Lina Khan gone. Yeah, but, Adam, let me follow up on that, because I feel like Reid Hoffman made a fairly serious mistake by saying it because once he said it, [00:09:59] then it makes her look corrupt and weak if she fires her. So like, he he really, like, screwed that one up, right? It's almost too late. Yeah. Like, it almost guarantees her job, right? Yeah. It actually polarizes it in a direction that's helpful for us. [00:10:14] But again, that that was the kickoff of the freakout phone calls I described. Oh my gosh. Who's advising her? Who will be the defender of Lina Khan? There was no bigger advocate for Lina Khan in the white House than Brian Deese, who was the head of the National Economic Council. The fact that the people around her all love Politicon gives me hope, [00:10:29] but also she has no real vested interest in bucking the Biden-Harris legacy. Right? There might be some other people that are less high profile and less successful, but Lina Khan really is the star. If you had to pick one. Yeah. Fearless. She's fearless. She's changing the game. There's really even the things that she was attacked for early on. [00:10:46] Like she's losing lawsuits. Well, now she's winning lawsuit after lawsuit. Lawsuit. Yeah. And the threat of the lawsuit is stopping potential mergers from even being proposed. Yeah. That's the deal. That's good. Yeah. And of course the mergers and consolidations, which leads to higher prices and less choices, etc.. [00:11:01] And by the way, Adam, you know, we talk about framing a lot. That should be framed as anti-free market. And and so if they were on the campaign trail saying, hey, listen, we're trying to protect the free markets from monopoly power. And so that's why we have to do this to protect consumers. And of course, what will that lead to? [00:11:17] Trump and the Republicans going don't protect consumers. Yeah, right. We need big giant monopoly power. Yeah. And Trump can't help but like respond to every line of attack. - Yeah. - Can I say one more thing on that. Because we have a real opportunity to seize the high ground in terms of being for fair markets. [00:11:33] Right. Markets are good. Small businesses want free markets. Monopolies are the opposite of entrepreneurs and small businesses breaking into the market. Right. Yeah, exactly. Pro small business people. I have been hearing in some circles here among some donors who are business people [00:11:48] and out there criticism of this price gouging like price gouging language. And they're like, you know, well, the easy one is, oh, it's communism or it's like price control, but some of them are just like they're messing up the language. They're positioning us as anti-business. We need to push back on this and make very clear the bad apples make the [00:12:06] entire market worse for the good apples. So I'll give one example. Right. A Ticketmaster or a StubHub. Right. Let's say they want to do the right thing and show you the actual cost of a Taylor Swift ticket or any other ticket. And just be honest with you. Well, if their competitor is artificially saying, oh, it'll cost 75 bucks less [00:12:22] and only on the last screen, if you've done a ton of work, do you realize, oh, it's actually 60 bucks more. You know, 60 bucks more. You're not going to you're not going to go back and get a new. You're just going to. Right. So their incentive is, oh, we have to match the bad actors in order to be viable against them. [00:12:37] If there's rules of the road, the good actors, the good businesses, the ones who are actually pro-consumer can survive. So we need we cannot let them define us as anti-business anti markets. We are the pro markets. They're defending bad apples. Yeah. And then at that point they've got to defend monopoly power and be against free markets. [00:12:54] So I love that I think that's exactly right. One last question. So you mentioned some polling that you guys did and then shared, and that might have even led to the proposals that we see. So what what did you see exactly in the polling on price gouging and on the consumer prices? [00:13:10] Sure. So one of the earliest findings was when we intentionally put our finger on the scale and said, economists say the unemployment rate is at a record low. Inflation rates are going down. Okay. Now hearing that, is the economy getting better or worse for people like you? Two thirds of the people say worse, right? [00:13:26] Those were the main two talking points that the white House was using all last summer. So we showed it to the white House, we showed it to the Biden campaign, and we were asked, well, if people aren't paying attention to that, what are they paying attention to? Well, like, you know, we could guess, let's just pull it. We gave people 25 choices and said, which of these three are [00:13:42] the biggest pain points in your life? By far, 61% of people given 25 options picked groceries right after that was gas, utilities, housing. Right. And then other language about cracking down on price gouging, you know, predictably spoke to their to their hearts and minds. [00:13:58] So that just says to me, all right, we have something that we need to say. And unfortunately, when I was watching the Republican convention, speaker after speaker after speaker, who are not policy wonks, who much rather would have been talking about Kamala Harris's birth certificate if they could talk about grocery prices. And I'm like, they got the memo right. [00:14:14] And that's why we literally gave the Harris campaign a memo. Groceries, groceries, groceries at the top of the list. And thankfully, Democrats are doing that. I mean, I'm glad. That, you know, Biden took your advice and immediately pivoted to the fact that he expanded NATO, because every American is really concerned about that. [00:14:31] Don't get me started. - So, yeah, listen, guys. - I love this album. And it's called progressives.org. All progressives.org. And I love this because you guys just got an insight into the how politics works internally. [00:14:46] Right. So these policy positions don't come out of nowhere. They come from polling to see what do people like. And it's just that what happened on the Democratic side here is they took that same information that the Republicans had or seem to have because of what you mentioned about their convention. [00:15:02] And I noticed that as well. And they proposed something that was policy, thereby gaining the high ground and making the Republicans switch from talking about how bad prices grocery prices are to defending how bad grocery prices are. [00:15:17] And so and the reason the Republicans couldn't do that is because they don't want those policy positions. They want to protect big business. They so they would never put forward a proposal to be anti-price gouging and all these populist, progressive policies that we put forward. [00:15:34] The great thing that we have on our side is that this is actually our core, right? These are the things we actually believe in. So it's easy for us to put forward proposals on this, which Republicans never would. What was been greatly frustrating to people who work in progressive politics, [00:15:50] like Adam and I for these last 20 years, is that oftentimes Democrats wouldn't put them forward. And you're like, why don't you want to win? Let alone actually instituting those policies? Right. And now, Adam, I think that's part of the explosion of joy, right. That because I can't believe they're doing all the right things. [00:16:08] - Yeah. - Same. I mean, I've been surprised quite a bit by this ticket. Yeah. It says something about our community and over time, becoming more influential and credible on the inside because we have enough people around the table that are saying, look at these numbers. [00:16:23] Right. They're keeping in touch with those fully on the outside. You're like, oh, what's the idea? Let me deliver that in a politically smart way. And we're also a good example. Barack was like a junior Elizabeth Warren staffer ten years ago. And now he is like, literally he's been in the Oval Office [00:16:39] is now advising Kamala Harris. That takes time. That takes effort, and that takes power building. I just want to say this is my 19th year of being a member of the White Army. I'm looking forward to celebrating my my 20th year next year. Democracy survives. I might be in Europe, but I hope I'd be here in America. [00:16:56] And. And Anna is about, what, 11 years for you? I wish no, it's I mean, I wish only because I can't believe it's been, like, 18 years. No. Which, yeah, which reminds me of my age. And I don't like that. Yeah. 2006 I started when I was 20. I'm 38. Now. I'm like, just wait. 2007 seven. Yeah. [00:17:13] Okay. So I met Jack in 2005 at a conference. Yeah. Yeah. So Adam is not just the leader of the D triple C, he's also one of their earliest members and and tight history, so. Yeah. - Damn right. - For my 20th anniversary. [00:17:28] Can I come back on and can you play the original tight theme song? Oh my God. That's. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you definitely will. I just drove down your couch. Sorry about before. Hello, people. Sorry about that. - No, no. - Adam Green, bold progressives.org. [00:17:44] - Much appreciated brother. - Thanks for watching. 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