The cost of living—affordability—is the issue that Americans care about most, said US Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Democrat who is running for reelection against Republican Michael LiPetri Jr. in Long Island.
He promised that if Democrats can take back control of Congress, they can start working together with moderate Republicans to actually solve problems the country is facing.
“What Donald Trump is doing is not working. The economy is not working for the American people right now, and we have to make it work again,” he told Courier New York.
“I love this country, and I know that we can restore the American Dream for people who go to work every day in our country. In return for working hard, you should get rewarded with enough money so you can afford to buy a house, educate your kids, pay for health insurance, and retire without being scared.
“That’s what I’m committed to and that’s what I think our country needs to be committed to.”
Suozzi was first elected to the House in 2016, and won reelections in 2018 and 2020. After an unsuccessful run for governor, he returned to Congress in a special election in 2024 after Republican George Santos was expelled.
He was then reelected in the same year, in his first matchup against LiPetri. Now, Suozzi is seeking to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District—which contains parts of Nassau, Suffolk, and Queens counties—for another term. To do so, he must defeat the Trump-endorsed LiPetri in a rematch, in a district Trump won by 4 percentage points over Kamala Harris in 2024.
As Suozzi faces a well-funded Republican challenge in his purple district, he said he wants voters to know that he has their backs and their stressed-out budgets in mind, no matter which political party they belong to.
“I’m a Democrat, but I’m not in the Democratic army. I’m in the American army, fighting for all the people that I represent,” he said.
“I’m a Democrat, but I’m not in the Democratic army. I’m in the American army, fighting for all the people that I represent,” he said. He contrasted his philosophy with that of LiPetri, who has Trump’s photo and endorsement prominently featured on his website. “Mike LiPetri is only offering to be a soldier in the MAGA army, and I don’t think that people want that,” Suozzi insisted.
The congressman was born in his district in Glen Cove, New York, and followed in his family’s tradition by serving as mayor of Glen Cove for four terms. His father, uncle, and cousin were also mayors of Glen Cove.
He emphasizes that is a centrist Democrat, not a left wing Democratic Socialist. He said he’s had it with extremists on both the left and the right.
“America is founded on two basic concepts which I support—democracy and capitalism,” he points out. “Capitalism lifted more people out of poverty and created more innovation, made more people’s quality of life better, and democracy says all men and women are created equal. We’ve got to treat everybody well.
“These two systems together made us the envy of the world, the strongest country in the world. But right now, they’re not working too well. There’s a huge concentration of wealth […] the stock market’s booming, but it’s only helping the people that already have a lot of money—the ultra-wealthy. And the middle class has been hollowed out.”
Suozzi blamed five of Trump’s economic policies, which he said Republican members of Congress had supported, for making life for his constituents more unaffordable.
He listed them, starting with the Trump tariffs, which he said are making groceries and all other products more expensive.
Number two: the Iran war, which has caused the price of gasoline, diesel fuel, and heating fuel to soar.
Third, he cited the record-shattering $40 trillion of debt. During Trump’s two administrations, he has added $11.6 trillion to the debt.
Suozzi points to Trump’s so called Big Beautiful Bill Act as a huge deficit-increasing culprit, gifting “an unnecessary tax cut to some of the wealthiest people in America, who didn’t need it, while cutting Medicaid and SNAP benefits for people.’”
The Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation, two non-partisan institutions, estimate that the Big Beautiful Bill will increase the federal deficit by $3.4 trillion over the next 10 years.
Fourth, Suozzi pointed to rising energy costs he attributed to the explosion of energy-sucking data centers that Trump supports. This is a problem made worse by the fact Trump has cut green energy projects all over the country, contributing to an energy shortage, Suozzi said.
Lastly, Suozzi said the Trump administration and Republicans’ refusal to extend healthcare subsidies has resulted in skyrocketing premiums.
Suozzi warned that if he and a Democratic majority are not elected in November, there will be no pressure on Trump to change any of his economic policies, which are hurting the middle and working classes.
If Democrats have the majority, Suozzi argued, they can retake Congress’ constitutional power to control tariffs. The Supreme Court recently reaffirmed that Congress has the constitutional authority to control whether tariffs can be levied.
“We can undo a lot of these tariffs that the president has done, we believe, unilaterally and illegally,” said Suozzi, who argued that some tariffs were acceptable, but others were not.
”I’m OK with tariffing China because I really do think they are trying to beat us, and they are cheating.
“But we should be treating our allies—Canada, the European Union, South Korea, Japan and Australia, who are our allies that share our democratic values with us—not the same as we are treating the Chinese Communist Party.”
He also said he believes that if the Democrats are in charge of Congress, they can restore funding for Medicaid and can force the Trump administration to negotiate on funding healthcare, increasing energy production, cutting the deficit, and ending the Iran War.
“The war has been mismanaged terribly,” he charged.
He said Trump has refused to talk with Democrats since he was elected, but that the only way to solve the country’s problems is to “work together to solve problems. I think the American people are hungering for that.”
Suozzi has experience dealing with major debt reduction. He is a professional chartered accountant and was elected Nassau county executive in 2001, when the county had a $300 million annual deficit and was billions of dollars in debt.
Within a few years, he had eliminated the operating deficit and accumulated surpluses.
He said he sees a long term solution to the country’s finances in finding ways to tax the ultra-wealthy—like Donald Trump and his billionaire donors—who do not earn a salary and receive a W-2. “They don’t get salaries and bonuses. They live off their real estate and stock holdings; those increase in value.
“They get richer and richer and they don’t pay any taxes!”
Suozzi ended the discussion by saying he’d like to see the minimum wage raised throughout the country to at least what it is in New York state—$16 an hour—if not $20. He also has proposed bipartisan legislation called the SHARE Act which incentivizes companies to distribute 5% of their stock to their lowest-paid 80% of employees.
“We want Americans to own stock and as company earnings are going up dramatically we want employees to participate in that success so that we are all in it together,” he said.
“Like a rising tide which will lift all boats. But right now the tide is only lifting the superyachts.”
