Lower the Cost of Living: Putting Money Back in Your Pocket
Families across CA-04 are working harder than ever and still falling behind. Rent, groceries, utilities, health care, childcare — everything costs more, while giant corporations post record profits and pay little or nothing in taxes. That's not an accident. It's a system rigged to work for the people at the top.
Eric's plan attacks the root causes of rising costs — and every dollar is paid for by ending fraud, corporate tax dodging, and corruption, not by borrowing and not by cutting your services. When corporations finally pay what they owe, we use that money to lower costs for working families.
How we pay for it: Restoring corporate tax rates fair levels, closing the loopholes that let companies like PG&E and Big Pharma pay zero, going after tax cheats, and eliminating fraud and waste. That's the funding source behind every plank on this page. Yes, it’s enough.
The Problem: Corruption Encourages Politicians to Maintain Status Quo and High Costs
As corporations and fraudsters fund our politicians, our so-called representatives do their bidding: they fight each other instead of delivering real solutions — making sure to distract us, avoid real action, and keep costs high for their funders’ profit.
Meanwhile, politicians in both parties have no problem spending our money and increasing the debt — all while allowing their corporate funders to cheat on their taxes and ignoring waste & fraud.
The result is a system where costs continue to rise, wages do not increase, and our debt grows.
Eric’s Plan to Lower Costs
Working Class Tax Cut
Real, direct relief for working- and middle-class families.
Tax Cuts: eliminate income taxes on first $150,000 made — effectively ending income tax burdens for the working class
Up to $10,000 in tax refunds for working American families — putting money in your pocket to help cover everyday expenses, give households room to breathe, and grow your wealth
Paid for by: ending corporate tax dodging, restoring fair corporate tax rates, eliminating waste & fraud.
End PG&E's Monopoly and Lower Your Bills
PG&E's monopoly power, safety failures, and executive bonuses have driven rates through the roof.
Use federal powers to break up PG&E’s monopoly and allow municipal competition
Crack down on unjustified rate hikes
Hold utilities like PG&E accountable for wildfire prevention — and hold executives financially and legally liable for preventable wildfires
Tie executive pay to safety and affordability
End the cycle of ratepayer-funded bailouts
Ban monopolies from charging ratepayers for their lobbying acts
Explore municipal alternatives that put reliability and lower bills first
Paid for by: utility reform, monopoly busting, and ending bailouts — savings go straight back to ratepayers, not new spending.
Expand Medicare — Vision, Dental, Hearing, and In-Home Care
Medicare should cover the care seniors actually need.
Expand Medicare to include dental, vision, hearing aids
Make Medicare cover consistent in-home nursing visits starting at age 65 — so families can keep loved ones at home instead of in costly facilities or hospitals
Paid for by: being cheaper than the current system — preventative care dramatically reduces the average cost per patient in seniors. Keeping seniors out of hospitals and in their homes costs far less.
Lower Prescription Drug Costs
No one should choose between medicine and rent.
Take on Big Pharma
Make generic prescription drugs free for everyone
Let Medicare negotiate drug prices on non-generics
End the price-gouging that monopolies depend on
Paid for by: saving the system money with free generic prescription drugs, negotiated drug savings, and closing Big Pharma tax loopholes.
Make Rent Tax-Deductible
Homeowners get to deduct mortgage interest. Renters get nothing.
Make rent payments tax-deductible — so the 40%+ of our district who rent finally get the same break
Paid for by: closing corporate & investor real-estate loopholes, banning private equity & foreign homeownership.
Open the Door to Homeownership
For most families the down payment — not the mortgage — is the wall.
0% down, fixed-rate pathways for first-time buyers
First-time homebuyer tax credit
National Housing Construction Bank to finance building at scale.
Build 2 million homes per year — a national goal to increase housing supply, take hold of housing costs, and help more families buy homes
Paid for by: closing speculation and corporate real estate loopholes; the housing bank is financed and will generate revenue, not a giveaway.
Build More Homes by Cutting the Red Tape
The housing shortage is a cost crisis.
Cut red tape for local builders — making construction faster and cheaper, while keeping profits in our communities
Modernize zoning — so we can actually build, instead of holding our communities back
Clear the bottlenecks that block construction — building faster and cheaper from Petaluma to Yuba City
Paid for by: regulatory reform — lowers costs without new spending.