California’s AB 1776 would raise costs for consumers instead of lowering them

By Cheri Bustos, President of Next American Era

California has always played a significant role in defining the national policy agenda for Democrats and, whether fair or not, its policy outcomes have become a barometer for how Democrats nationally are judged. With recent news that California came in last place for affordability in a recent annual ranking, lawmakers need to do everything in their power to reverse this trend and that starts by rejecting policies that would drive costs even higher.

This is why I’m strongly urging lawmakers to reject AB 1776, a bill that would raise costs, drive jobs and opportunities out of the state, and harm everyday Californians. 

The intent of this bill is not wrong – it’s meant to hold some of the biggest companies accountable when they commit anti-consumer abuses. That’s something a vast majority of Americans want. But as written, this bill would go far beyond and have harmful long-term outcomes. In fact, an analysis of AB 1776 projected it could cost California a staggering $1 trillion in lost economic activity and 1.6 million jobs in the next ten years. 

I know the intentions behind it are good, but voters care about outcomes, not intentions. They grade their elected officials based on their grocery bill, their rent, their kid's shot at finding a decent job without moving three states away. And when they see Democrats championing affordability with one hand, while advancing legislation that raises costs and chases employers off with the other, it undermines their credibility on economic issues. 

Real consumer protection and a strong economy are not mutually exclusive. You protect people by keeping prices down, by expanding competition instead of stifling it, and by making sure your state is the place to start and expand a business. If you want to protect consumers, then go after actual monopoly abuse with a scalpel, not a dragnet. Measure a bill by whether it lowers costs and lifts wages, not by how well it reads in a press release headline.

If Democrats want to be the party of growth and opportunity, then they must legislate like it. That means the occasionally uncomfortable discipline of telling allies that a well-meaning idea is still a bad one when it costs working families more than it delivers.