Congressman-elect Micah Lasher on affordability

Joining us now is the new congressman-elect, Michael Asher. Welcome to the show. You are in Washington, D.C., as we just said, for new member orientation. There'll be more than a hundred new members in Congress next year. What's the energy like right now up there? Is it kind of like freshman orientation back in college? I saw some people kind of comparing it to school a little bit. Well, it's good to be with you. There is a great energy here in Washington. This will be the class of new members of Congress since 1932, which I think is telling that the American people have had a reaction to the Trump administration, something akin to the reaction after the Great Depression. But there's a great there's a real excitement to get to work on the question of how we reduce costs for the American people, how we end the parade of corruption that has characterized the Trump administration. And we are ready to get to work. And, you know, as you've heard a million times, there was a massive blue wave last week that swept the country. But your district, New York 12, it's been solidly blue for years. And I don't think many people thought it was going to be really going red. But blue wave or not, you did go through a hard fought primary, which you won. But what was your takeaway? You know, where did you feel like voters are staying specifically in your district after last week's election? I think in my district, we have similar issues to the challenges facing the rest of the country. The median rent for an apartment in Manhattan just cost $5,000 a month. The average cost of childcare in New York City is $24,000 a year, which means by federal standards, you should be making $330,000 a year just to be able to afford childcare. People cannot afford to live in my district. They cannot afford to live in the city of New York. And increasingly, life across the country is unaffordable. That is directly connected to actions taken or not taken by the federal government. And so I think the voters in my district, like voters across America, are crying out for change. Yeah. Now, earlier this week, Republicans narrowly blocked a resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Do you want this to be a top agenda item when Democrats take control of the House on January 1st? Well, I think the first order of business when Democrats take the House on January 1st is concrete action to reverse the costs that have been imposed on the American people by the Trump administration through the tariffs, which are costing American households $1,000 a year, ending the reckless war in Iran, which is costing Americans $47 billion and counting. Increasing the minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009. That's what we need to do on day one. But impeaching Pete Hegseth, who took us to war recklessly in Iran, who launched murderous boat strikes in the Caribbean without any legal basis or authorization. Impeaching Pete Hegseth is an important thing for Congress to do as well. You know, so many people talk about affordability, but what does affordability mean to you? What are some actual policy ideas that you're looking forward to tackling when you get to Congress? Affordability means that you can keep up with the basic costs and necessities of life without having to make impossible choices. You can work an honest day's work, be paid an honest wage, and be able to afford the basic necessities of life. And I think when you look at the costs facing the American people on housing, on child care, on energy costs, these costs are going up and up and up. Wages are not keeping up, and we need to address that. We need to build millions of new units of housing. We need to invest in child care across the country so people can afford to raise kids in this country. We need to increase the minimum wage. These are concrete things that a new Democratic majority in the House can and should do immediately. You said in an interview a few months ago that you would push to impeach President Trump next year if Democrats took control of the House. Do you still feel that way? I think the thing we need to do right upon taking office is addressing the affordability concerns facing the American people. I think Donald Trump has committed more high crimes and misdemeanors than all his predecessors combined and would certainly support and push for impeachment as well. Is that going to be a priority for you? I know that, you know, many recent polls show that right now the impeaching President Trump isn't particularly popular. It doesn't have majority support, you know, across most polls. Do you think that this is a priority? Do you think this is something Democrats should tackle at the very least next year? I think we're going to have a big conversation in the Democratic caucus about the best ways to hold this administration accountable. ...accountable for its corruption, for its self-enrichment, and it's connected to the affordability issues facing the American people. Look at the tariffs that are costing American households $1,000 a year. Donald Trump made exemptions from those tariffs available to a handful of companies worth $27 billion. That's the value of those giveaways that he gave to this handful of companies that contributed $70 million in political contributions. to Donald Trump and his various campaign entities. Let's look at how the costs to the American people are connected to the political and financial benefit of Donald Trump and his cronies. Let's do that through oversight and investigations and potentially impeachment. Now, you were a co-sponsor here in the State Assembly for the one-year data center moratorium. The AI landscape, though, has already changed so much since Justice Sommer. What do you think needs to happen next? Well, on the AI data center issue, we need to make sure that communities are not getting screwed with increased energy costs and strains on the grid and challenges to the water supply. We need to make sure the communities have a voice when these decisions are getting made. On AI more broadly, there are significant safety concerns. We need to create robust federal regulatory infrastructure to manage the risks posed by AI. We need to fix the Court laws and the civil liability laws so that AI companies are held accountable when their products do harm. And we need to address the economic upheaval, the transformation of the economy that's going to occur. We need to make sure that jobs are available for the next generation of Americans who at this moment face enormous uncertainty in the workplace. And we need to make sure that the wealth, the enormous wealth that's going to be created by the AI revolution is broadly shared by the American people. Do you think New York should extend that moratorium for another year or is it too soon to say? I mean, things are changing so rapidly in that industry as we speak. What we need to make sure, first and foremost, is that communities do not get rolled by AI developers. The idea that AI developers are going to look out for the public interest is laughable. That's not their job. Their job is to make money. It's government's job to look out for people, for communities, for the public interest. And so whatever our policy is on data centers, whether it's a moratorium or a strict set of rules around what communities can demand if a The data center has proposed Within their boundaries, we need to take robust action to protect the public interest in the face of enormous corporate power. Now, President Trump on Election Day said that the U.S. will stop giving nearly $4 billion in annual aid to Israel by the end of this year. It's still unclear fully how this would work. There are reports out that the U.S. and Israel might work out an agreement where there's military assistance. But outside of all of that, what would you like to see happen with this aid? Well, I can't speak to what conversations Donald Trump may have had, may have had in his own mind. But I do think that there's a new government forming in Israel for the first time in, well, for 16 of the last 17 years, we've had an Israeli government under Bibi Netanyahu that has given us nothing but hopelessness about the prospect of a durable peace. And so I'm optimistic for the first time in a long time that this new government can take real steps to put us back. On a constructive path, ending settler violence in the West Bank, withdrawing the tender for new settlement development in the E1 tract of land in the West Bank, bringing needed aid and rebuilding Gaza without Hamas. These are things that need to happen immediately. And hopefully we can then begin to have a real conversation about getting back to a path of self-determination, safety for Israelis and Palestinians alike. Now, you have a very busy next few months. And when it comes to, excuse me, weeks, it's only weeks now until January. But when it comes to leadership, you know, do you plan to vote for Hakeem Jeffries as House Speaker? I do. And I think the broad swath of Democrats in the majority see Congressman Jeffries as someone who has shown his ability to hold together the broad and varied views of the Democratic Party to lead us to a record majority in the House. And most significantly, from this New Yorker's perspective, it'll be the first time we've had a speaker from New York since 1869. And that guy I had the gavel for one day. So I... I'm incredibly excited about a New York speaker, but I think all of the commentary about this is a little bit of a distraction from the work ahead. What the American people want is for us to get to work, to focus on the cost drivers that are making daily life harder, to end the corruption in government, and to just set about the work that they voted us in to do. We've got a majority on loan, and we've got to show the American people that we deserve their vote again. I know you're not in the Senate, but you are a New Yorker and you do know Senator Tuck Schumer. Do you think that he should be elected a Senate Majority Leader? I think I'll go back to the first part of that question. I'm not in the Senate. I've got an enormous amount on my plate in the House and I will leave it to the to the members of the Senate to figure that out. Last question for you. I saw on social media outgoing Congressman Dan Goldman named you as the new leader of the Bagel Caucus. What kind of bagels are you going to bring to Congress? What is this going to entail? We're going to bring all kinds of bagels, and I will welcome bagels from other districts, provided that they meet the high standards of the residents of New York 12. We are used to some pretty damn good bagels in my district, and I'm excited to share them with my colleagues The outstanding staff on the Hill, not to get you in trouble, but what bagel place are you bringing bagels from first? That's a great question. I'll make some news here. We will, there are some logistical challenges. You got to bring a lot of bagels from New York to DC. You got to get them there early in the morning. So pending those negotiations, I would love to start with some bagels from ESTA bagel. Wow. Okay. Awesome. Over down by, down by Stuyvesant town. Shout out as a bagel. Thank you so much, Congressman Elect. I really appreciate your time and congratulations and have a great next few weeks. I know it's going to be busy. So thank you so much. Thank you so much, Morgan. Take care.