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By Steve Mollman
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Congressional progressives are laying out a strategy for Democrats to use their new House majority to test President Donald Trump on some of his own economic promises, including prescription drug costs and credit card interest rates.
Representative Greg Casar of Texas, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), outlined the approach in a three-page memo to caucus members obtained by Politico on Friday. The document argues that the size of Democrats' new majority will strengthen rather than diminish progressives' ability to shape legislation.
The CPC expects to have more than 105 members in the next Congress, including a record number representing districts that flipped from Republican to Democratic control. “Our members will now chair key committees and hold other key leadership positions,” Casar wrote.
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He proposes a three-part strategy: passing progressive legislation, using congressional oversight to target corporations as well as the Trump administration, and "holding Donald Trump to his word on populist economic policies."
In response to Newsweek’s questions about the strategy, White House spokesman Matthew Middleton said the president was willing to work across party lines on the economy.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, this administration has signed the largest working-class tax cuts in history, cut the cost of prescription drugs, added more than one million private-sector jobs, and locked in nearly 20 trade deals,” Middleton said. “Moving forward, the President will work with anyone willing to advance solutions that strengthen our economy. We hope Democrats will put the American people first and join us in that effort.”
Newsweek contacted the offices of Casar and Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader and presumptive next speaker, for comment.
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Democrats' House Majority and the Progressive Strategy
Democrats won control of both chambers in Tuesday's midterm elections, with the party estimating to finish with about 255 House seats.
The size of that majority has raised questions about how much leverage individual Democratic factions will have. With Democratic leaders able to lose more votes while still passing legislation, individual factions would have less ability to determine the outcome of close votes than under a narrow majority.
Casar directly rejects that interpretation.
"While some in the press have speculated that a majority of this size undermines our influence within the caucus, they have it exactly backwards," he wrote in the memo. "Big majorities are good for getting big things done. Our goal is not to win a battle against other Democratic caucuses. It is to pass longstanding progressive priorities that bring down costs, root out corruption, and boost wages."
The argument adds a new dimension to an emerging Democratic debate over the meaning of the midterm results. Progressives have pointed to victories by candidates on the left as evidence for their economic-populist approach, while moderates have cited Democratic wins in Republican-leaning states and districts as evidence of the importance of broader electoral appeal.
Both wings could claim evidence for their interpretation of the election. At least a handful of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)-backed House candidates won on Tuesday, while more moderate Democrats won high-profile races in states including Texas and Kansas.
Casar's memo, however, plays down the prospect of an intraparty battle.
"Small majorities give corporate special interest groups the ability to block popular populist policies by recruiting a small number of opponents; a big majority gives us the advantage," he wrote.
That approach is consistent with how Casar has previously distinguished congressional progressives from the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
"The Freedom Caucus breaks things," Casar told the Associated Press last month. "But if you're a progressive, you want to pass things."
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How Democrats Could Test Trump on Drug Prices, Credit Cards and Housing
In his memo, Casar proposes that Democrats identify economic policies that Trump himself has supported and send legislation addressing them to his desk.
The memo points to a housing measure championed by Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Representative Maxine Waters of California that targeted private equity purchases of homes as an example of what Casar described as one of the previous Congress' few "bright spots for bipartisan lawmaking."
The memo says the CPC should push Democrats to hold Trump to promises to cap credit card interest rates, lower credit card fees for small businesses and reduce prescription drug costs.
Trump has recently said he "doesn't want to be just sitting there for two years vetoing everything," which Casar's memo notes.
"While we oppose him strongly on the vast majority of fronts, we should send bills to his desk that would lower prices and raise paychecks," the congressman wrote. "If he signs them, good. If he vetoes those bills, that will propel us to a continued Democratic majority and a trifecta where a Democratic president can sign these proposals into law."
The prospect of finding areas of economic cooperation with Trump also echoes advice former North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp gave Democrats in comments to Newsweek this week.
Heitkamp said Democrats should focus on policies capable of providing immediate economic relief and send bills to Trump's desk to put the question "flatly and directly into the lap of the White House."
Trump retains substantial power to thwart the new Democratic majority. On Monday, he vowed to become "Mr. Veto" if Democrats took Congress. Overriding a presidential veto requires two-thirds support in both chambers.
Progressives Plan Corporate Investigations Alongside Trump Oversight
The CPC's strategy extends beyond legislation to aggressive congressional oversight.
Casar argues that congressional Democrats should pursue oversight "more aggressively than any Congress in modern history," including investigations of the Trump administration and its allies.
Casar also singled out corporations that use consumers' personal information for "surveillance pricing," healthcare companies he accused of "taking advantage of seniors" through Medicare Advantage, and artificial intelligence companies he said are "putting jobs and lives at risk."
"The Trump administration has dismantled the parts of government that should be preventing companies from ripping off American workers and consumers, and Congress must step in as the cop on that beat by engaging in aggressive oversight," Casar wrote.
The congressman later added: "By focusing not just on the Trump administration but also on big corporations and billionaires, we will show the American people we are not just anti-Trump but also pro-worker and pro-consumer."
That distinction could prove important for Democrats after an election that gave the party considerably more power in Washington but left disagreement over whether voters had embraced Democrats or primarily rejected Trump and his policies.
Former Democratic officials, strategists and academics have cautioned against treating the midterm landslide as an endorsement of the party's entire agenda. Jeffries has described the result as a "change election" and said Democrats "need to deliver dramatic change."
He also acknowledged that "trust has been broken between the Congress and the American people."
Casar's memo identifies longstanding progressive priorities including raising the minimum wage and expanding Social Security and Medicare. It also calls for reversing cuts to healthcare and SNAP, opposing Trump's blanket tariffs, strengthening unions and taking action against what the CPC describes as abuses from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
And while attention will initially focus on Democrats' first 100 days, Casar argues progressives should be prepared for a much longer legislative campaign.
"The media will focus heavily on the first 100 hours and first 100 days agenda, but House Democrats will need a plan to advance affordability legislation for all 100+ weeks of our majority," the congressman wrote.
Newsweek reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here. Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Anthony Murray and Steve Mollman.
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