Not all Democrats are ready to jettison big business

Moderate Democrats looking for their party to take back control of the U.S. House in November are offering an alternative to the economic populism message peddled by their more liberal counterparts.

A new blueprint from the center-left New Democrat Coalition, shared exclusively with CNBC, lays out a road map for addressing affordability — top on voters’ minds — without splashy populist promises.

“Buzzy sounds good in a sound bite, but you often end up with unintended consequences or unworkable solutions,” New Democrat Coalition Chair Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., said in an interview. “We’re hearing people saying they are frustrated with the bombast, but also the hollow promises, and they want to see their government coming up with thoughtful solutions.”

The new plan underscores a tug-of-war within the Democratic Party over its economic message ahead of the pivotal November elections, which could return the party to power after President Donald Trump and his Republicans swept the 2024 elections. And with Trump’s polling on the economy plummeting, picking a winning strategy could be the difference between making the president a lame duck and spending two more years in the political wilderness. 

The New Democrats argue Americans want a more moderate approach that bridges the gap between big business and the average voter.

“I reject the idea that business is bad,” said Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., one of the plan’s authors. “This is a set of solutions, tangible, practical, doable solutions, and an answer to ‘what are you going to do when you’re in charge?'” 

Among the road map’s proposals are lightening the federal permitting process for energy projects with the aim of lowering utility costs, reducing homebuilding regulations with the goal of getting affordable housing built more quickly, and developing a national strategy for data centers to spread out the “benefits and costs” of the facilities and make sure they don’t “overburden” certain areas.

Absent from the proposal are sweeping new taxes on the wealthy, a cap on credit card interest rates and the creation of a single-payer health-care system, which are popular with prominent progressives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. 

They, along with state and local officials like new New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, are calling for an ambitious, populist agenda that forsakes the wealthy — a movement that’s gained traction as wealth has consolidated at the top and eats into Trump’s own populist base. 

“If there are good ideas that will reduce costs for families, sign me up,” Warren said Tuesday in a brief interview at the Capitol when asked about the New Democrats’ dialed-back…