House Democrat starts 'abundance movement'-inspired caucus

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Politico

05/08/2025 04:45 AM EDT


House Democrats are getting Ezra Klein-pilled. A bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Rep. Josh Harder (D-Calif.) is launching a new roughly 30-member bloc that’s claiming inspiration from the “abundance movement” championed by the liberal commentator Klein.

“This is a moment that has been building for a while,” said Harder. “I think there’s been a lot of simmering interest in permitting reform and making sure that things are built faster, better, cheaper. But now, I think over the past year or so, it’s really reached a boiling point on both sides.”

It’s the latest sign that some Democrats see the abundance movement’s ideas — something that sprung up around Klein’s book “Abundance” co-authored with Atlantic writer Derek Thompson — as a solution to the party’s woes. The subject is not without its critics. Some progressives have pushed back on the proposals, which they argue fail to focus on what they see as larger problems like the concentration of power.

But in spite of those detractors, Harder said his new caucus has a broad swath of support. “I think this may be one of the only active bipartisan caucuses doing work that has folks across the ideological rainbow,” Harder said.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/08/house-democrat-abundance-caucus-00333760

[Lithos]

1. The book is ideological crap

It's just a rehash of Reaganomics. Remove regulation - let capitalists loose, and the ordinary person will somehow benefit. This book is not for you if you believe in small businesses and the middle class.

[Martin68]

2. Thanks for the insight. Sorry to hear that's where it's coming from.

[Miguelito Loveless]

3. That said

The book does make a compelling case of the problems that we have actually getting money to people once legislation is passed. These are NOT imaginary problems. Once legislation has been passed, the process of getting the money is downright byzantine. I want rules that help people as much as the next liberals but it should not take this long to actually hand out grants.

Here is a prime example of trying to spend the money assigned for deployment rural broadband.

We ignore these problems at our peril.

Transcript:

KLEIN: This is all running through the NTIA, the National
19:56
Telecommunications and Information Administration, which I know you're all big fans of. JON STEWART: Sure.
20:01
They've done fabulous work. EZRA KLEIN: Yes. So step one is the NTIA must issue NOFO--
20:06
a Notice of Funding Opportunity-- within 180 days. I want to note, by the way, that within 180 days
20:11
is already kind of something interesting here because you look at, say, the Works Progress Administration.
20:17
JON STEWART: Uh huh. WPA-- what is that, the 30s? EZRA KLEIN: Yeah, the New Deal, right? And Harold Meyerson has a great piece on this back from the 2010s.
20:24
And that was employing people by then. I mean, 180 days is--
20:29
I could do some quick math here. It's about half a year. JON STEWART: The 180 days is just them notifying. They have to notify people that there
20:36
might be this opportunity. EZRA KLEIN: Yes. Medicare-- when we passed Medicare in this country, it gave people Medicare cards one year later.
20:44
So we are taking half a year here just to tell people that there is going to be an opportunity
20:51
to apply for grants. JON STEWART: And I hate to even break this down even further because this is just-- EZRA KLEIN: I'm so glad we're doing this.
20:57
This is my shit, man. This is like-- I didn't expect we'd go here. JON STEWART: Ezra, I think it's so important for people,
21:02
though, to really get an understanding of just what is the bureaucracy.
21:07
It's this faceless thing. Right now at DOGE, it's demonized as though the people that are running the bureaucracy
21:14
are the evil ones, like they're just executing what they've been told to do by Congress. These are just hard-working, smart people
21:21
trying to do the right thing by what's been legislated. EZRA KLEIN: I want to say, this is a big part of the book.
21:28
We talk a lot about how hard it is to be a civil servant. We get incredibly talented people
21:35
to come into the government. Then we make it incredibly hard for them to do their jobs. I'm a huge fan of this book by Jen Pahlka called
21:42
Recoding America, which-- JON STEWART: Absolutely. EZRA KLEIN: It absolutely shows like how the bodies are buried and how frustrating this is.
21:47
But OK, so what I'm reading off of here is testimony that was offered by Sarah Morris, who was
21:53
part of the Commerce Department to Congress in March 4th-- on March 4, 2025.
22:00
So everything I am telling you is valid post-Biden Administration, right?
22:05
March 4, 2025. OK, so we have to issue the Notice of Funding Opportunity within 180 days. That's step one.
22:11
Step 2, which all 56 state applicants completed, is states who want to participate must
22:18
submit a letter of intent. After they do that, they can submit a request for up to $5
22:24
million in planning grants. Then the NTIA-- step 4-- has to review, and approve, and award,
22:32
again, planning grants-- not broadband grants, planning grants. JON STEWART: And it's still at the NTIA.
22:38
It's still at the first step of the. EZRA KLEIN: Yes. JON STEWART: Just out of curiosity, what is the half a year?
22:45
What's going on in the 180 days between when this is passed
22:50
as legislation and when they're going to notify people it's been passed, and it's an opportunity? EZRA KLEIN: So the NOFO is being-- the Notice of Funding
22:57
Opportunity is being written. And in the book, I actually spent a lot of time on the Notice of Funding Opportunity
23:04
for the CHIPS and Science Act because that's not a small thing. And I don't have the NOFO for this in front of me. But the Notice of Funding Opportunity--
23:09
JON STEWART: NOFO. EZRA KLEIN: --for the grants that will go to semiconductor factories-- or, I'm sorry,
23:15
manufacturers to locate semiconductor fabs, as they're called, in America. That NOFO was long.
23:22
I read it. And it is just full of stuff. Look, I call this everything-bagel liberalism--
23:28
the tendency-- like, an everything bagel, you put a little bit of stuff on the bagel, and it's great. And you put too much-- and if you saw the movie Everything,
23:34
Everywhere, All at Once, it becomes a black hole from which nothing can escape. So Notice of Funding Opportunities can make a project very complicated.
23:41
When CHIPS and Science passed, I, a naive and idealistic policy reporter, thought, oh, good,
23:47
we're going to give a bunch of semiconductor companies money to locate their plants here. And then I read the NOFO because somebody
23:53
alerted me to it. And there's a part that's like, in your application,
23:59
explain how you are going to attract more women into the construction industry-- JON STEWART: [GROANS]
24:04
EZRA KLEIN: --which is a totally fine goal. But does the Taiwanese semiconductor
24:09
manufacturing corporation know a lot about that? Or how are you going to diversify your subcontractor chains?
24:15
And there's a seven-step process. And one idea is maybe you can break deliveries into smaller subcategories.
24:22
It's all this stuff. JON STEWART: This is for your application. EZRA KLEIN: Yeah, this is for your application. There's a thing about showing your plans
24:30
to put child care on site in the factories, which, again-- I want child care.
24:36
It's great. But you're trying to do something really hard. We have lost semiconductor manufacturing to Taiwan,
24:44
to South Korea, to, at a lower level, China. And we are trying to get it back.
24:49
And one reason we've lost it is we made it very expensive to do here. And so now we're putting more than $30 billion
24:55
to make it cheaper to do here. And in the NOFO, to get people to apply for the $30-plus
25:00
billion, we are putting in a bunch of things that are going to make it more expensive. And they're going to make it harder to do the thing.
25:05
Eventually, that money did go out, I want to say. But, you know, we'll see how it works out. JON STEWART: And also, by the way, going to make it impossible--
25:12
impossible-- for anyone other than larger corporations to comply because the expense that
25:19
it would take for smaller, more agile, more local businesses--
25:26
they would not have the manpower, the financial resources. You are excluding an enormous amount of the American economy
25:36
in terms of building things, by laying on compliance costs that would drive most
25:42
companies into the ground. EZRA KLEIN: Yes. That is very true. I will say, on the semiconductors, you don't have a lot of small semiconductor manufacturing.
25:48
JON STEWART: Right, but in other areas. EZRA KLEIN: --in general, what you were saying is completely right. OK, back to rural broadband. So, the NOFO that comes out can have a lot of things in it
25:56
that you wouldn't expect. It's going to try to achieve a lot of different goals. What are the workforce standards?
26:01
What are the equity standards? What are the subcontractor approaches? JON STEWART: Meaning you can't apply unless you live up to those?
26:07
EZRA KLEIN: Yes. JON STEWART: OK. EZRA KLEIN: This is what's going to have to be in your application. They are setting out a series--
26:12
you might think that, basically, what they're setting out is, here's how to persuade us you are going to be the best at building whatever we're trying to get you to build.
26:18
Again, I don't have this NOFO in front of me, so I don't want to say things that may not be true about it. But having read other reporting on this,
26:25
my sense is all this stuff was in the NOFO because-- and I have a bunch of examples in the book. It's all in every liberal bill now, right?
26:31
They pass bills, and then in the process where the different interest groups and players can come in
26:38
and shape how the bills are turned into regulations, and grants, and so on, that's where it's much easier to say yes to all these other members
26:45
of your coalition. And by the way, it's not like Republicans are great here. It's just their circling interest groups are, like,
26:53
the oil companies and so on. There is a lot of bad stuff that happens after a bill passes, in part because most of the system
27:01
stops paying attention. When we're fighting about it in Congress, there are reporters. There are members of Congress.
27:06
There's a lot going on. The regulatory process, which is very, very powerful and important, does not have
27:11
that level of attention on it. It's more complicated. It's slower. It's annoying. There's less conflict. OK.
27:17
JON STEWART: I'll give you something else, Ezra. EZRA KLEIN: Yeah, please. JON STEWART: This, I think, is also an important part of the process.
27:22
Congresspeople are very busy. And so the space between what they have the capacity
27:31
to do to delineate these things versus what lobbyists in these industries have to do-- in other words,
27:38
a lot of what's in these wish lists are industry wish lists.
27:44
The lobbyists who have the time-- industry is writing a lot of what's in these bills.
27:50
EZRA KLEIN: Yes. Yeah. And this goes to something that we talk about throughout the book because it affects
27:56
housing and everything else. It happens at the local level. We have created, with all good intention,
28:03
a lot of processes meant to expand the role of citizen voice. You know, regulatory notice and comment
28:09
periods are, in theory, something that anybody can show up to. But how many regulatory notice and comment periods
28:15
have you shown up to? Possibly, actually, you specifically-- JON STEWART: I actually have gone to a few. EZRA KLEIN: You've shown up to a couple?
28:21
But you're-- JON STEWART: But I know how it works. EZRA KLEIN: --a special flower, right? JON STEWART: Yes. EZRA KLEIN: So, these things get captured.
28:26
Who knows when the planning meeting is happening? It's the people who have houses down
28:32
the block from the potential affordable housing complex.
28:38
It's not the people who might benefit from living in that complex in the future. All right, so the NTIA must issue a NOFO within 180 days.
28:46
States who want to participate must submit their letter of intent. Step three, they can request up to $5 million
28:52
in planning grants. JON STEWART: Just planning. EZRA KLEIN: Just planning. Step four, the requests are reviewed, approved,
29:00
and awarded by the NTIA. Then-- JON STEWART: How long is step four, by just out of curiosity? EZRA KLEIN: I actually don't know.
29:05
It's a great question. JON STEWART: OK. EZRA KLEIN: This process we are talking about, which, currently, all 56--
29:12
three years later, all 56 applicants had passed through at least step five.
29:19
It took more than three years, so it's a long time. States must submit a five-year action plan. JON STEWART: Oh, my god. EZRA KLEIN: So the state's got go back,
29:25
and they think about how they're going to do this. And they don't just say, OK, thank you for the money. We're going to spend it, and you can
29:31
see how It worked out later. We're like, here's our five-year action plan. Then the FCC must publish the broadband data maps
29:42
before NTIA allocates funds. So, this one is, I think, a little funny, at least.
29:48
So these maps, right? This is supposed to show you where you don't have enough broadband. But it then says in parentheses,
29:54
"and states needed opportunities to challenge map for accuracy." JON STEWART: [LAUGHS]
29:59
EZRA KLEIN: So, having done the NOFO, the letters of intent, the request for planning grants,
30:04
then the review, approval and awarding of the planning grants, then the five-year action plans-- in between that,
30:11
the federal government has to put forward a map saying where it thinks we need rural broadband subsidies.
30:17
And then, of course, the states need an opportunity to challenge the map for accuracy.
30:23
And you can imagine this doesn't all happen in, like, a day. OK. JON STEWART: Oh, my god. EZRA KLEIN: So then the NTIA--
30:29
step 7-- has to use the FCC maps to make allocation decisions. Then, having already done their letter of intent,
30:36
their request for planning grants-- it's hard even to talk about this, man. JON STEWART: Ezra, I just want to say, if you were going to design a machine that would keep people
30:47
from getting broadband-- EZRA KLEIN: Yes. JON STEWART: If you were to design a machine that would-- it's almost as though they have designed this to make sure that
30:55
people in rural areas never-- by the time this is around, Musk will already
31:02
have the chips in our brains. We won't even need it. EZRA KLEIN: Well, that literally is happening, by the way. By the time this could have gotten off the ground,
31:08
Musk is taking it over for Starlink. JON STEWART: Right. EZRA KLEIN: OK. Step 7 is NTIA must use the FCC maps
31:14
that were already challenged for allocation decisions. Then, having submitted all this--
31:19
I think this one is actually quite amazing-- having submitted their five-year plans or letters of intent, step 8 is states must
31:26
submit an initial proposal-- an initial proposal-- to the NTIA.
31:32
Then-- JON STEWART: Is that the result of their $5 million planning fund, this initial proposal? EZRA KLEIN: I assume, but then what was the five-year plan?
31:40
JON STEWART: And what the fuck did they apply for? What was their NOFO? EZRA KLEIN: Like, if the five-year action plan
31:46
isn't the initial proposal, then what's the five-year action plan? OK. JON STEWART: Forget NOFO. Mofo. These are motherfuckers, these--
31:53
this is crazy. EZRA KLEIN: Step 9-- NTIA must review and approve each state's-- again--
31:59
initial proposal. By my read, we have had at least two initial proposals here, but that's a different issue.
32:05
JON STEWART: Oh, my god. EZRA KLEIN: Step 10, states must publish their own map and allow internal challenges to their own map.
32:13
So the government has published a map. They have invited the states to challenge the map. Then states have submitted initial proposals,
32:21
and they then have to publish their own map and allow challenges. JON STEWART: Wait, who's challenging it within the state?
32:27
EZRA KLEIN: Well, organized interest groups, environmental groups. I don't know who specifically. JON STEWART: Oh, my god. EZRA KLEIN: But literally anybody.
32:32
JON STEWART: Right. EZRA KLEIN: I want to say something because it's very important I say this. This is the Biden Administration's
32:38
process for its own bill. They wanted this to happen. This is how liberal government works now.
32:43
JON STEWART: This is something they instituted for this bill. EZRA KLEIN: For their bill.
32:49
JON STEWART: They wanted this. EZRA KLEIN: It's so important to say this. This is not how Republicans handicapped a liberal bill.
32:56
This is a bill passed by Democrats with a regulatory structure written by
33:01
a Democratic administration. OK. JON STEWART: Right. EZRA KLEIN: So the thing I'm looking at-- it tells me, as of March of 2025, how many of the players
33:09
had gone through everything. So until what I just said, states must publish their own map and allow challenges.
33:15
Three years plus into this, all 56 had done that. But now you begin to see players falling out. Step 11-- the NTIA must review and improve the challenge
33:27
results and the final map. So the NTIA has put forward a map. The states have challenged that map. Then the states have put forward their maps,
33:33
had other challenges. And now the NTIA must review and approve the challenges to the state maps.
33:39
OK, at this point, it's 47 of the 56. So we've just lost nine of the applicants.
33:46
JON STEWART: My hair was dark when we started this process. EZRA KLEIN: [LAUGHS] JON STEWART: I was a young, healthy man.
33:53
I had the bone density of a stainless steel. EZRA KLEIN: Your VO2 max was amazing.
34:00
JON STEWART: I didn't need any supplements. And by the way, I want to make sure that everybody understands-- each
34:05
one of these steps, I'm sure-- and pardon me if I'm being presumptive here--
34:11
or presumptuous. Each one of these steps has an amount of time--
34:16
EZRA KLEIN: Yes. JON STEWART: --that they write into it. So, in other words, it's a 90-day waiting
34:22
period for these challenges. It's a 120-day review process.
34:28
There's already, without anybody even submitting anything, that they could have seen on a macro level,
34:37
two and a half years of nothingness built into the plan. EZRA KLEIN: Yes.
34:43
I mean, I can't say because I haven't looked at every regulation here. But yes. JON STEWART: I feel confident. EZRA KLEIN: Yes, yes, yes.
34:49
JON STEWART: I feel confident knowing what the public comment times are. Like, you always have 90 days, 120 days.
34:56
They have a 30-day review process. They have an 800-day-- you know, it's all of this. EZRA KLEIN: So, remember, we've now lost in the--
35:03
oh, by the way, this whole thing I'm looking at-- this testimony-- this is a member of the Commerce
35:09
Department who is part of this, coming to testify in March 4, 2025, before the House Committee on Energy
35:15
and Commerce, their subcommittee on communications and technology, in a hearing called Fixing
35:23
Biden's Broadband Blunder. JON STEWART: Oh, my god. EZRA KLEIN: So this is somebody trying to defend what they're doing to a Republican Congress is trying
35:30
to take their money away. So I just want to note that because it's interesting for them, what gets said, ultimately.
35:36
OK, we've done step 11, NTIA must review and approve challenge results and final map.
35:42
We've lost nine of the applicants at that point. Step 12-- states must run a competitive
35:50
subgranting process. JON STEWART: Oh, my fucking god.
35:55
At step 12? After all this has been done? EZRA KLEIN: Yeah. None of that could have happened along the way here.
36:01
We have now lost 17 more applicants. So now, 30 of 56 have completed step 12.
36:09
Step 13-- states must submit a final proposal. All the proposals weren't enough to NTIA.
36:16
Now that goes to three of 56. So we've gone in the last couple of steps from 56 had gotten to this point to three of 56.
36:25
Step 14-- JON STEWART: [GROANS] EZRA KLEIN: --the NTIA must review and approve the state's final proposal.
36:32
And that is three of the 56 jurisdictions. And states are there. And then I will just tell you, Jon,
36:38
because it will break your heart, as it breaks mine-- as this very, I am certain, hardworking and well-meaning
36:44
public servant stares down a hostile Republican Congress that is peppering them with questions, the next line,
36:51
which is in bold, says, "In summary, colon, states are
36:57
nearly at the finish line." And it says, "to stop their progress now, or worse,
37:04
to make them go backwards, would be a stick in the spokes of the most promising broadband deployment
37:09
plans we have ever seen." End scene.

[LauraInLA]

4. Excellent point, and one that has hit us Dems hard.

[Miguelito Loveless]

5. Precisely!

This is fuel for the right to show us as wasting money, and seriously, how do you explain that there is a process for applying money to help you with the process of applying for money?

We look like idiots.

[LauraInLA]

7. Have you read the Abundance book? Any opinions? I'm going to get it so I understand their argument.

I can’t believe(meaning I’m disgusted if) they’re touting Reaganomics.

[Miguelito Loveless]

10. It is a simplistic look

at Reaganomics. It looks at that method as a success, which it was from the conservative point of view (it got rid of environmental/fraud/health regulations, which was what conservatives wanted). But, at the same time, in trying to be fair, liberals have gone too far and created a process to apply for funding that meant that Biden's rural broadband program still hasn't given out a dollar, four years after the legislation passed. Had the money started flowing earlier, perhaps we would have won the election.

Why were we able to go from legislation to actual benefits from Medicare legislation in a single year in the mid 60s, to not being able to implement a far simpler program in four years today? Trump is now hampering the distribution of money that should have already been spent years ago. This is why we see Trump getting credit for spending he opposed.

[LauraInLA]

11. Thank you for this!

[Lithos]

12. It is not so simplistic a view

It is just like Reaganomics in that it is designed to move money from the middle class into the oligarchs.

Consider:

- It's a one-size-fits-all solution. Golden hammer fallacy - everything is a nail.
- It focuses on the wrong problems. It argues that the problem is scarcity, but omits that scarcity is often the result of abundance in other areas. For instance, the skewed distribution of wealth.
- Similarly, fixing abundance will not guarantee the addressing of scarcity. Cut the regulations and the developers will build more STRs or high-end Mcmansions as it gives them more profit. Does it help with the real problem of affordable housing? Absolutely not.
- It makes no distinction between anti-trust and bureaucratic regulations from those involving environmental and social protections. That squiggle in the highway that protects sensitive wetlands? Get rid of the wetlands!

[Lithos]

6. I agree to a point

However, from a pragmatic standpoint - let's explain how this is being done in practice in Austin Texas and in the State of Texas.

The problem is that there is not enough housing. Granted. This is a problem caused by the lack of monies caused during the various financial runs.

The regulations that are being removed to expedite development include:

- Wildlife-Urban-Interface regulations. Austin is number 5 in the most fuel-laden urban area - the areas in California that burned were 1-4. Removing these regulations, along with supporting infrastructure requirements, makes any fire far more deadly.
- Reduction of building codes. 120' tall building with only one stairwell? That's fine now. ADA compliance? Just lip service.
- Reduction of the limits to of impervious coverage. This is the amount of land that can have hard coverage (ex: concrete, asphalt) that water can not go through. Not only does this mean areas become more prone to flooding, but it also decreases tree cover, which will increase the heat island effects.
- Water quality. The increased water runoff will put more pollutants into the creeks and waterways.
- The rights of the citizens to petition any zoning changes (and I mean any, including those which deal with businesses rather than residential).

Abundance deals with removing regulations to allow developers more ability to build things, but ignores and outright avoids any attempts at social justice. Developers, when given a chance to take a small profit with affordable homes, versus an opportunity to make a bigger profit with more expensive homes, will take the bigger profit every time. And the greatest profit is going to be in the older neighborhoods near downtown. These neighborhoods are often lower-middle class. And it does not matter if they need to sit on the more expensive home a bit longer, they just run it as an Airbnb until they find someone.

The current round of zoning changes is the primary cause of the gentrification of well-established lower-wage blue-collar neighborhoods. Those who did have homes now are in apartments, and those who were in apartments are now pushed farther and farther into the periphery.

[LauraInLA]

8. Bingo! This is what we're watching for in Los Angeles, only exacerbated by the fires.

[Miguelito Loveless]

9. I agree that when conservatives

"streamline" the process, it is at the expense of important regulations. The regulations I see in need of streamlining are administrative, not environmental. But then, that is the difference a liberal looking at it and a conservative.