Voters Demanded a More Affordable Life. Where Do We Start?

This week, Americans delivered a clear message at the ballot box: the cost of living is too high, and elected leaders need to do something about it.

Families need more than promises that the economy is improving. They need to afford the rent, buy groceries, pay for child care, and see a doctor without falling into debt.

For the communities we work with, that urgency has been building for years. People are working hard and still falling behind. They are postponing medical care, stretching groceries, and hoping the car holds out until the next paycheck.

The election put that frustration squarely before the people who govern us. Now they have to deliver.

At Baseline—the new name for Golden State Opportunity—we will hold leaders in Sacramento and Washington accountable for turning that demand into financial security people can feel in their daily lives.

Here’s where we start.

Change the Federal Poverty Level to Reflect What Life Actually Costs

Too many families earn too much to qualify for help and too little to pay their bills. That gap is where an outdated definition of poverty leaves them.

The federal government’s official poverty measure was developed in the 1960s around the cost of a basic food budget. Although updated for inflation, it does not account for geographic differences in the cost of living. It falls far short of describing what families need for stability today.

It’s as if America built a house with a basement, then drilled down to the sewer and decided that was an acceptable living standard in the wealthiest country on earth.

We need to raise the baseline to a place where people can actually build a life. That means overhauling the federal poverty level and the eligibility rules tied to it so they reflect the actual costs of housing, food, child care, transportation, and health care where people live.

Changing a measure alone will not pay anyone’s rent. Reform must change who qualifies for support and whether that support is enough to make a difference. The goal is a standard of financial security that families can actually live on—and policies that help them reach it.

Make Getting Help Simple—and Make Getting Ahead Pay

No one should have to become an expert in government bureaucracy to feed their children or get health care.

Pre-fill applications. Automatically enroll eligible people wherever possible. Stop making families prove the same income to five different agencies. Provide help in the languages people speak, through organizations they trust.

Make keeping that support simpler, too. Repeated paperwork and confusing renewal notices should not cause eligible families to lose essential help.

And end the benefit cliffs that punish progress. A raise should mean more financial security.

Support should taper gradually as earnings grow, so taking another shift or accepting a promotion leaves a family better off.

We should build programs around the lives people lead—and measure success by whether help actually reaches them. This is just common sense.

Get Money to People Before a Setback Becomes a Crisis

A car repair can protect a job. A few months of rental assistance can prevent an eviction. Help with a utility bill can keep a family from taking on debt they cannot afford.

We will push for flexible, short-term cash assistance that reaches people quickly, before a manageable problem becomes a lasting financial disaster.

Families know which bill is about to tip everything over. Give them the ability to address it.

No one should have to lose everything before they qualify for help.

Stop Subsidizing Billionaires. Invest in Working Families.

Every proposal to help working people faces the same question: How will we pay for it?

Start by asking what we are choosing to pay for now.

Our federal government is committing billions to expanding immigration detention and spending billions on war with Iran. Those are choices about where public money goes—and whose security matters.

Meanwhile, we are told that helping families keep a roof overhead or afford child care costs too much. We reject those priorities.

Put tax breaks and subsidies for billionaires and wealthy corporations on the table. End those that enrich people at the top without delivering a clear public benefit. Close loopholes that allow extraordinary wealth to escape a fair contribution. Require the wealthiest households and corporations to contribute more. Then invest that revenue in the foundations of financial security.

We have the wealth to raise the baseline. We need the political will to direct more of it toward the people whose work keeps our communities-and our economy– running.

Public dollars should deliver public results. Apply that standard to every corporate subsidy, tax break, detention contract, and military expenditure—with the same scrutiny demanded of programs that help families pay the rent.

We can afford to invest in workers and their families. It’s time to make them the priority.

Turn the Election’s Message Into Action

Voters’ frustration demands results. Elected leaders should respond with a concrete agenda, a timetable, and accountability for what changes.

Baseline will organize with community partners and working Californians to press for those changes. The people who spend hours applying for help, lose benefits after a raise, or risk their jobs over a car repair know where the system breaks. Their experience must shape how we fix it.

The test is straightforward: Can more people pay their bills? Can they handle an emergency without losing everything? Can they begin to save and plan for the future?

The election delivered the message. Now comes the obligation to act.

It’s time to raise the baseline.

Amy Everitt
President, Baseline

Next Steps

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