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Showing posts with label 4th District. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 4th District. Show all posts
Friday, July 25, 2025
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
ICYMI: Rep. Auchincloss ‘By Invitation’ in The Economist: “A congressman on how Democrats can regain the initiative on the economy”
In a recent guest essay for The Economist, Congressman Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) outlined a new framework for Democrats to reclaim voters' trust on the economy by treating cost disease—the economic phenomenon where prices in key sectors rise faster than wages year over year. Cost disease explains why rent and healthcare costs consume so much of Americans' wallets, and why that share keeps rising. Rep. Auchincloss sets out how treating cost disease, particularly in housing and healthcare, must be core to the Democrats' agenda for financial freedom.
Please find below Rep. Auchincloss's op-ed:
"Cost disease is also known as the Baumol effect. It helps explain why rent and health care consume so much of Americans' wallets—and why, in the case of health care, the share keeps rising. William Baumol, an American economist, showed in the 1960s that inflation is not evenly spread across the economy. Service industries with low productivity growth inflate fast. Manufactured goods and automated services deflate prices.
The Baumol effect is both esoteric and everywhere. Housing and health care are prime examples: together they consume half of a typical middle-class family's income in America. Families wondering why their rent and health-insurance premiums are going up faster than their take-home pay are asking the question that Baumol helped to answer.
Three decades before Baumol described the problem, Theodore Wright, an American engineer, had found the cure for cost disease. Wright's law observed that cost per unit goes down as more units are produced. Want a service to be affordable? Turn the service into a product. Then, manufacture the product at scale to lower the cost per unit. New manufacturing jobs will not be taken from other countries through tariffs. They will be created from services, by turning them into products.
Rep. Auchincloss ‘By Invitation’ in The Economist
Take computers. A century ago, a "computer" was a person. Sitting side-by-side, hundreds of individuals scribbled out algorithms. It was an expensive service. Then a "computer" became a product. It was a machine as big as a room. That first product was expensive, too. But then computer manufacturing took off, and cost per unit fell. Today, computing is cheap. It was cured of cost disease.
Mass production requires consistent standards. Production is an act of learning. To compete, factory managers learn how to produce more with less. This learning under competition delivers Wright's law: that cost per unit falls as production increases. When product specifications change unpredictably, though, much of the learning on the factory line has to reset. Costs go up, not down.
Democratic states and cities have been changing and adding specifications (for multi-family housing, for instance) for decades, through regulations. Frustrated by the resulting high costs, politicians then send out money to constituents (in the form of, say, housing vouchers). In the short term this does help them muddle through. In the long term, though, cost disease is inflamed by this cycle of regulations that restrict supply and then subsidies that increase demand.
To lower costs, America needs to build a lot, fast, the same way. Housing should be the priority for mass production. Americans may perceive housing as a product—something you buy and own—but most of it is a service. It is constructed, not manufactured, and construction is labour-intensive, with low productivity growth. Since the 1960s, in fact, construction productivity has actually gone down. Manufacturing productivity, by contrast, has risen by more than 500%. Manufacturing more of America's housing could help deliver the 7m extra homes that the country needs, quickly and cost-effectively. Just like with computing, turning house-building from a service into a product would cure it of cost disease.
The government can help with both permitting and financing. For example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) could issue an advanced commitment for thousands of manufactured housing units. Fannie Mae, a government-sponsored mortgage giant, could be used to finance this at low interest rates. HUD specifications could be made the national standard for building permits. And any city accepting federal low-income housing tax credits could be required to adopt not just that permitting, but denser zoning too.
When Austin, Texas adopted land-use reforms of this sort, apartment construction boomed and rents plunged. Cambridge, Massachusetts has followed suit. Those who doubt that Democrats can think differently on regulations, take note of Cambridge: a city where Kamala Harris won 86% of the vote adopted a new zoning law in which three-quarters of the text was to do with deleting old rules.
Health care is a more traditional Democratic issue. Democrats earned Americans' trust on health care by expanding coverage. Now, we must lower its cost.
There are two ways to treat cost disease in health care. The first is more conventional: turn custom services into mass-produced goods. Generic drugs, therapy bots and over-the-counter hearing aids are examples. Each affordable product meets a need that was previously addressed through expensive clinical services. Democrats should accelerate this service-to-product pipeline, which will require taking on various special interests within the health-care system.
The other way to reduce health costs is to deflect patients from the most expensive sites of care. In America, those sites are generally intensive-care units, emergency rooms, nursing facilities and jails. Interventions that reduce demand for beds at those sites help treat cost disease. Examples include lowering co-pays (deductibles) for prescription drugs, promoting telehealth for the old, expanding community health centres' footprint and taxing sugary beverages.
Health-insurance executives are likely to object that they do this already through their plans—or so they claim to Congress. Yet health-insurance premiums keep rising faster than inflation. Democrats should square off against the big insurers and show that we can lower costs where they will not.
The policies above, from housing to health care, are diverse. Yet they are not hard to communicate if brought together in the frame of the Baumol effect. Few Americans may know Baumol, but they are familiar with the feeling of prices rising faster than their pay. Republicans are making it worse with their chaotic tariffs. Democrats can make it better by treating cost disease."
Thursday, June 19, 2025
An invitation from Congressman Auchincloss - June 23, virtual update & Q&A
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Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Rep. Auchincloss in The Washington Post: “I’m a Marine. Trump is putting soldiers in an impossible position.”
ICYMI: Rep. Auchincloss in The Washington Post: "I'm a Marine. Trump is putting soldiers in an impossible position."
ICYMI, Congressman Jake Auchincloss (MA-04) is a former Marine captain who commanded an infantry platoon at Twentynine Palms, the base from which 700 United States Marines were deployed to Los Angeles by President Trump last week. Rep. Auchincloss set out in The Washington Post how these Marines are trained for urban warfare abroad, not crowd control at home.
Please find the text of the op-ed below:
"The president's deployment of Marines to Los Angeles is not only unnecessary and illegal. It is also unfair to the Marines themselves. As a former captain who commanded infantry at Twentynine Palms, where these Marines are stationed, I empathize with their dilemma.
The sergeants and corporals have to adopt tactics against their training. The lieutenants and captains have to wrestle with the lawfulness of this executive order. And esprit de corps for all the Marines must be suffering as they ask themselves, on this convoy from inland California to the coast, "Is this what I enlisted for?"
These 700 Marines belong to 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines. That's an infantry unit — not military police, not logistics, not communications. Infantry in Twentynine Palms are training at the Marine Corps' premier live-fire base to destroy the enemy. Their tactics are geared to locate, close with and destroy the People's Liberation Army or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, not Angelenos.
The sergeants and corporals who will be the close-in tactical leads in the city are trained in Military Operations on Urban Terrain. MOUT is not urban policing, which is what the Los Angeles Police Department practices. Instead, it involves cordoning off a section of a city, clearing each building with fire and maneuver, and then controlling lines of fire to suppress the enemy in the next section of the city. The population is treated in accord with the law of armed conflict, not the Bill of Rights. It is combat, not crowd control. Property, public or private, is collateral damage.
These tactics make sense when America is fighting a war. But they are wholly unacceptable in an American city. The sergeants and corporals being deployed have reportedly been given four days of thrown-together training in which to unlearn years of urban warfare instruction and adopt the tactics and techniques of police officers. Even the best noncommissioned officers I served with could not make that work. They should not have to. Our country needs them training to defend us, not used as photo ops for a president whose approval ratings are softening.
These noncommissioned officers report to lieutenants and captains, who are platoon and company commanders. They in turn report to the battalion commander, a lieutenant colonel. These officers are sworn to both "support and defend the Constitution" and "obey the orders of the President of the United States." I do not know these officers personally, but I have known many like them and I have sworn that oath myself. I am certain they take that oath solemnly. Right now, their commander in chief is putting them in a Catch-22. What is a 25-year-old officer to do when the orders of the president do not support and defend the Constitution?
As a member of Congress, I can plainly state and act upon my interpretation of the president's executive order. It is unnecessary — Los Angeles is not in "rebellion," as the president claims. And it is illegal — it contravenes both the law and principle of posse comitatus, which generally prevents the president from using the military for domestic law enforcement. But these young officers are not a check and balance on the president, like I am. They are under his command. He is demoralizing and denigrating their units and their service. If and when a judge agrees with me on the illegality of this order, the battalion commander must immediately return his Marines to the barracks.
Critics might counter that the Marines are only defending federal personnel and property as part of a broader effort to uphold law and order. Certainly, all people and property should be protected. Protest is legal; rioting is not. Violence or destruction should be met with arrests. The LAPD is well trained and equipped for that mission. If it needs help, it can ask for regional and state assistance, including from the National Guard under the command of the governor. The active-duty military does not figure in that response escalation; indeed, the Los Angeles police chief has said the deployment of Marines "presents a significant logistical and operational challenge."
This deployment is not just bad for the police. It's bad for the Marines, too. They did not sweat and bleed in training to be used as political props. As this president grasps for every political advantage, he is attacking not just the Constitution but also the morale and mission of one of this country's greatest institutions, the United States Marines."
Sunday, April 13, 2025
An Invite From Your Congressman - Virtual Update and Q&A on Tuesday, April 15
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Friday, March 21, 2025
Congressman Auchincloss invites you for a Virtual Update and Q&A - March 24
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Saturday, March 15, 2025
An Invitation from your Congressman Jake Auchincloss
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Wednesday, February 19, 2025
NYTimes.com: A Democrat Who Is Thinking Differently (Listen, Read)
From The New York Times:
Continue to read the article via this "gift" link -> https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-jake-auchincloss.html?smid=em-shareA Democrat Who Is Thinking Differently
A Democrat Who Is Thinking Differently (Listen, Read)
Representative Jake Auchincloss discusses how the Democratic Party can offer meaningful alternatives to voters.
You can read the article using the Franklin Library subscription to the NY Times. Follow these steps to do that ->
The article is an edited transcript of an hour long conversation by Ezra Klien and Congressman Jake Auchincloss. You can listen to the podcast episode here ->
Tuesday, February 4, 2025
Congressman Auchincloss extends invitation for an Update and Q&A on Feb 8 in Franklin
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Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Congressman Auchincloss schedules a congressional update and Q&A at Franklin High School Feb 8
Via Congressman Auchincloss
"Congressman Jake Auchincloss (MA-04) is hosting a congressional update and Q&A in Franklin, MA. This is an opportunity for constituents to raise questions, hear updates on what Congressman Auchincloss is doing to represent the district's values and advance its priorities, and receive assistance with casework.This event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 12:00 pm.If you have questions, please call Congressman Auchincloss’ Newton office at (617) 332-3333 or the Attleboro office at (508) 431-1110.
When: Saturday, Feb 8, 2025 at 12:15 PM (to 1:15 PM)
Where: Franklin High School Auditorium
The event is free. Registration via Eventbrite ->
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/congressional-update-and-qa-wth-congressman-jake-auchincloss-tickets-1221026927409
To learn more about Congressman Jake Auchincloss, visit https://auchincloss.house.gov or connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube.
Sunday, January 19, 2025
Congressman Auchincloss Appointed to Energy & Commerce
Congressman Jake Auchincloss (D, MA-04) has been appointed to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce for the 119th Congress. The Committee is at the forefront of health care, technology, and energy policy. Rep. Auchincloss will serve on the Health, Energy, and Environment subcommittees.
In particular, the committee has responsibility for matters including telecommunications, consumer protection, food and drug safety, public health and research, environmental quality, energy policy, and interstate and foreign commerce.
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| Congressman Auchincloss Appointed to Energy & Commerce |
A photo from Congressman Auchincloss’ first full-committee meeting can be viewed here ->
Sunday, January 5, 2025
Memorandum: Jake Auchincloss’ Fourth Year in Congress
This year, the House GOP pursued a series of wedge issues, torpedoing bipartisan policies in subservience to Donald Trump. Congressman Jake Auchincloss remained focused on working left, right, and center to deliver local wins and bipartisan solutions for the Fourth District of Massachusetts.
Congressman Auchincloss’ Legislative Victories and Representing Values
- As a “heavy hitter on national security issues,” Auchincloss remained a forceful voice against China, Iran, and Russia’s global axis of authoritarianism serving on the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
- Served as Democratic co-chair of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party’s Fentanyl Policy Working Group, where he led three bipartisan bills to crack down on the Chinese Communist Party’s role in subsidizing fentanyl precursors and analogues by coordinating U.S. government actions and implementing sanctions and fines.
- As a Member of the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, helped draft and pass the overwhelmingly bipartisan reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration, including improvements to air traffic control recruitment and training and his own legislation to help airports reduce congestion at the curb.
- Continued his leading role as an advocate for Ukraine’s right to defend itself from Russia’s invasion forces, and was a strong proponent for the congressional aid package earlier this year.
- Led a letter with 52 House Members urging the Biden administration to pursue more vigorous Russian oil sanctions and questioning an exception granted to a U.S.-based company conducting business in Russia and fueling Vladimir Putin’s war economy.
- Delivered cable hit after hit forcefully urging President Biden to remove all remaining restrictions on Ukraine’s use of U.S.-manufactured weapons in the final months of his presidency. Auchincloss’ Wall Street Journal op-ed implored Biden to enable Ukraine to deploy combined-arms tactics inside enemy territory, just as NATO militaries would.
- Drafted and gained 60 bipartisan cosponsors for the “strongest set of reforms introduced in Congress to date” to tackle the prescription drug price-gouging abuses of Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) – the middlemen of drug pricing – with the bipartisan Pharmacists Fight Back (PFB) Act
- Confronted the surge in campus antisemitism by holding to account the eight colleges and universities scoring poorly on the ADL’s campus antisemitism report, and by leading a bipartisan letter with over 20 U.S. lawmakers urging the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to investigate these incidents on college campuses and issue a report to Congress with policy recommendations, as it did 20 years ago
- As an “outspoken advocate for gun violence reduction efforts,” wrote to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to encourage school districts to share federal resources available under the Biden administration on safe firearms storage with parents and guardians.
- Used his unique perspective as the youngest parent in the Democratic Caucus to take on trillion-dollar social media corporations on behalf of parents for their corrosive effects on youth mental health. He co-led the successful TikTok divestment bill and introduced his own legislation, the Verifying Kids Online Privacy Act, to raise the age of internet adulthood from 13 to 16 in support of replacing the phone-based childhood with the play-based childhood
- Worked across the aisle to tackle explicit deepfakes on social media – nearly 100% of which is non-consensual, intimate content of women. His legislation, the Intimate Privacy Protection Act, would amend Section 230 to prevent social media companies from evading their responsibility to remove deepfake pornography from their platforms.
- Delivering Results at Home
Since his first term in Congress, Congressman Auchincloss has secured tens of millions of dollars in water, transportation, and social services funding across the Massachusetts Fourth. The funds have fixed bridges, cleaned water, and unlocked land for housing. In the past year, he was able to secure over $7 million in FY24 Community Project Funding grants.
In the past year, Auchincloss’ office provided assistance to constituents across all 35 cities and towns in MA-04:
- Nearly $1.494 million in tax refunds returned
- 1,270+ casework inquiries completed
- 160+ people helped with Social Security benefits
- 400+ constituents helped with immigration issues
- Nearly 104,598 responses to constituents through emails, letters, and phone calls
Recognized Leadership
Congressman Auchincloss received the Government Leader Award from the Massachusetts Society for Medical Research in recognition of his commitment to strong intellectual property protection for novel innovation, and health insurance reform that ensures first-dollar coverage for medicines.
Democratic Whip Katherine Clark stated “Jake Auchincloss is a policy leader on lowering patients’ prescription drug costs. In his first term, he helped negotiate and pass the law that empowered Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Now he’s at the forefront of efforts to ensure that health insurers improve patient access and lower out-of-pocket costs.
Shattering Echo Chambers
Congressman Auchincloss continued his aggressive “go everywhere” media strategy this year, using his voice as a “prominent, pragmatic, voice among younger members of the Democratic caucus” to reach diverse audiences.
- During his fourth year in office, he made over 275 podcast, local media, and national television appearances.
- While he represents some of the bluest zip codes in the country, the largest city in his district, Fall River, flipped red for President Trump for the first time since President Coolidge in 1924. Congressman Auchincloss appeals to both constituencies, as he is one of the Democrats that makes regular rounds on non-traditional media and conservative media outlets like Fox News.
- As part of this approach, Auchincloss has consistently shattered echo chambers on both the far right and far left: be it flipping the script on the GOP’s pandering to the NRA on conservative media, or pushing back on the far-left’s bad faith attacks on Israel.
- This spring, Auchincloss garnered national headlines for calling out the far-left’s double-standard of failing to condemn the surge in antisemitic college protests.
- Called a “particularly tough interrogator of PBM executives” at a House Oversight Hearing in July, Auchincloss continued keeping the price-gouging abuses of PBMs at the forefront of national attention. Despite the GOP’s caving to the health insurance lobby at the end of this year, he will continue to put maximum pressure on PBMs next Congress.
As we head into another year of Republican leadership and a second Donald Trump presidency, Congressman Auchincloss will continue to defend democracy at home and abroad; uphold the rule of law and the sanctity of the Constitution; and advance bipartisan legislation to deliver results for Bay Staters.
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| Memorandum: Jake Auchincloss’ Fourth Year in Congress |
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