MY PRIORITIES
HOPE FOR A BETTER AMERICA:
Imagine a United States where hate is not a reliable political message. Where white is not turned against Black, men against women, citizen against immigrant, urban against rural people. Imagine a United States where We the People control the government, not Trump – a dictator-in-waiting – or the corporate interests that treat Congress like a vending machine: money in, goodies out.
Imagine a United States where our children and grand children can live safe, comfortable lives knowing their children will enjoy the same. Imagine a United States that doesn’t work better for some of us while leaving the rest of us behind. Imagine if Congress put working people first. Or cared about ending persistent racial inequality. Or cared about the health of the natural world, on which we all depend.
As a nation, we have embraced that vision at various times in our history. We can do so again, if we take back our government from the billionaires and the giant corporations that have dictated federal policy for decades. We need another (non-violent) revolution, this time against the tyrant in the White House and the tech billionaires who think they should control us and our government.
They will not prevail.
Not on our watch.
As your US Senator, not on my watch.
PROTECTING OUR RIGHTS
No Appeasement. No collaboration. No conciliation. Not now. Not ever.
Trump is hellbent on destroying the rights and freedoms our Constitution secures for us. I would counter Trump and his gang of Constitution-hating sycophants with the ferocity of Al Green, Bernie Sanders, Chris Murphy, and AOC. Tyrants like Trump must be confronted, not indulged. Americans need to understand the depth of this crisis. Congressional Democrats are failing to get that point across.
FIGHTING CORPORATE POWER
Our current constitutional crisis is the inevitable outcome of obscene concentrations of wealth in the hands of a few. You can’t have deep income inequality and highly concentrated economic power and a democratic system of government. Monopoly capitalists want it all: all the wealth, and our democratic government, too.
I will never play along. I will term limit myself after one year, leaving the greed-obsessed without leverage over me. And I will never take corporate PAC money. When the mega-corporations push for actions that hurt us, like ending the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, I will confront those companies and rally resistance to those actions.
ECONOMIC FAIRNESS & HEALTHCARE
Middle income Americans have lost ground economically in the last 50 years while the billionaire class has enjoyed enormous gains. They use their wealth to rig the system. That needs to stop. We need:
Medicare for All to reduce the considerable burden of health care expenses on working families, especially lower income Americans.
A Financial Transaction tax on trades of stocks and bonds for individuals with incomes of more than $300,000.
A Wealth tax comparable to Elizabeth Warren’s 2 percent annual tax on individuals with a net worth of $50 million or more.
Antitrust enforcement to break up and halt consolidation of big banks, large tech companies and others that have excessive control over the market.
Increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Permanently expand the Child Tax Credit to reduce childhood poverty.
CLIMATE CHANGE & ENVIRONMENT
We need legislation and a political movement to protect our bodies and our environment from microplastics, pesticides and herbicides and air and water pollution. We need to incentivize carbon reduction and protect natural landscapes including forests and plains that function as carbon sinks as well as defend biodiversity.
SUPPORT K-12 & HIGHER EDUCATION
We need to protect the Department of Education and ensure robust federal funding of K-12 education. We need to use federal funds to close achievement gaps across geographic, racial and other demographics. We need to defend teachers from right-wing attacks and restore the Office of Civil Rights.
IMMIGRATION
Provide a prompt path to citizenship and the end of detentions for detainees who have not otherwise violated the law (beyond entry into the U.S.) or pose a security risk or a risk to the public.
Ensure that US immigration policy complies with the US Constitution and international human rights law, i.e., no detentions or deportations without due process, humane treatment of detainees and respecting the rights of asylum seekers.
Provide an accelerated path to citizenship for DACA recipients and those with temporary protected status.
RACIAL JUSTICE
Restore DEI programs and affirmative action via legislation enacted by Congress.
Redirect federal grant funds that provided police departments with military-grade weapons toward programs to encourage police to function as “peace officers” rather than as “law enforcement.”
Address racial disparities in maternal mortality.
Restore environmental justice programs.
Support reparations programs to help close the 40 percent gap between white and Black wealth and salary differentials that exists between equally qualified individuals.
Uphold treaties with native nations and ensure funding parity for the Indian Health Service and correct funding and other deficiencies with the Bureau of Indian Education, and mandate federal agency compliance with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
Oppose life at conception legislation or any other that enshrines fetal personhood into law. Repeal the Hyde Amendment.
Support the Women’s Health Protection Act, sponsored by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.