U.S. House of RepresentativesCandidate for District 5

As a US Representative, I will support infrastructure-building and job-creating legislation like the Rebuild America Act proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders. Our country currently spends a woefully inadequate 2% of our GDP on infrastructure, while most other leading nations spend four times that. Bridges are collapsing, roads are falling apart, transit systems have fallen behind global standards, many of our nation’s seaports and dams are deficient, our drinking water is compromised and our electrical grid is outdated. It’s clear that we need to make some broad infrastructural improvements, and the great opportunity here is that, while rebuilding and improving our country, we can put over 13 million Americans to work in the process.

 

In line with the comprehensive Rebuild America Act, I would propose doubling current funding for our highways and establishing a ‘National Infrastructure Bank’ to bring in over $125b in private capital to fund new projects. The Rebuild America Act, which I support wholeheartedly and will champion vocally on the House floor, calls for investing $75b in upgrading passenger and freight rail lines, over $12b to improve airports nationwide and over $17b to upgrade air traffic control technology, all of which will bring American transit in the 21st century and create countless jobs.

 

Meanwhile, the infrastructure plan I support will invest $15b over five years to improve inland waterways, shipping channels and coastal harbors, and $12b a year to improve the over 4,000 dams in America that have been deemed “likely to fail” during a major flood. Additionally, the Act allocates $12b annually toward protecting water quality by improving drinking water systems, wastewater plants and stormwater infrastructure. To improve the sustainability and resiliency of our electrical grid, I propose investing $10b a year to modernize power generation, transmission and distribution in a way that favors locally generated and renewable energy like wind and solar, and another $5b a year to improve broadband network access to all Americans.

 

Since our failing infrastructure already costs us over $200b a year, this $1 trillion investment is completely sound. It is about more than rebuilding a crumbling system and bringing America into the modern age; it is about jobs with justice. Under this plan, over 12 million Americans will be employed locally in stable jobs with dignity, and the rebuilding projects will require materials and equipment whose creation will spur further job growth. The plan of investing massively in infrastructure is supported by labor organizations, the US Chamber of Commerce, and even acknowledged by the International Monetary Fund as likely to result in almost $3 of economic output for every dollar spent. Investing in our infrastructure — and getting Americans back to work — is a huge priority, and must be treated that way. 

 

We can pay for this all by requiring corporations to pay their fair share of taxes on the money they have shifted to the Cayman Islands and other offshore tax havens, estimated by the Congressional Research Services to create losses of nearly $100 billion a year.

 

I passionately and enthusiastically support investing in a comprehensive “Medicare for All” plan, very much in line with that proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders — a plan that ensures that all American receive the top-quality health care they need, regardless of their income. When I lost my father to cancer, and our family home to his medical debt incurred in this for-profit medical system, it became abundantly clear to me that we need to transform our health care system to catch up with the rest of the developed world in offering excellent acre to everyone, not just the wealthy. We must build on the Affordable Care Act to create a system that doesn’t simply mandate insurance, but that actually provides a single-payer system that meets the needs of our families and communities. The ‘Medicare for All’ bill that I support and will be a leading proponent of in Congress moves to an integrated, universal, single-payer system that includes all Americans and leaves no one out in the cold. This plan, which emphasizes preventative care and creating a healthier culture overall, will cost over $6 trillion *less* than the current health care system over the next ten years, and will result in savings of over $5,000 a year for the average family and nearly $10,000 a year in healthcare care costs for the average employee. The plan is fully funded by a couple of simple measures, including a 6.2% income-based healthcare premium paid by employers, a 2.2% income-based premium paid by households, and (most importantly) progressive income tax rates that require wealthier individuals to pick up a fairer proportion of the national tax burden, freeing up working-class families to invest in education, health care and other basic needs. Additionally, taxing capital gains the same as income from work will raise $92 billion in annual revenue, maintaining the Estate Tax as a responsible and fair measure for all people will raise over $21 billion a year, and limiting tax deductions for the rich will raise over $15 billion a year. Furthermore, the savings from health care expenditures in the current for-profit system will raise a total of $310 billion annually. This is more than enough to create a Medicare for All system in which top-quality health care is a right for all Americans.

I support a just and comprehensive immigration plan that honors immigrant rights, keeps families together, and creates a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants living in the United States, while continuing to maintain a secure country for all. This is a complex issue, and solutions abound. Over 85% of the nation’s undocumented immigrants have resided in the US for over five years. I support the protection of DREAMers and the expansion of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans), as well as Temporary Protected Status for refugees and asylum-seekers. I support legislation that protects immigrant workers who are exercising their rights in the workplace. I support permanent immigration relief to immigrant families, including “parole-in-place” procedures and paths to permanent residency and citizenship. I support a separation between law enforcement and immigration enforcement, to ensure that no residents have reason to fear police officers. I support properly funding our nation’s immigration courts and expanding access to legal counsel for immigrants, closing loopholes that allow racial profiling by federal authorities, and ending for-profit detention of immigrants (especially the cruel and unjust practice of detaining families and children). 

 

With a just and comprehensive immigration plan, we can gradually and securely welcome over 11 million new Americans with a reasonable fair wait for citizenship that keeps families together and provides a road-map for nonviolent individuals to become citizens. I support a demilitarized border, and a broad accountability review of Border Patrol checkpoints to ensure that our border agents are treating immigrants and asylum-seekers with respect and dignity. We can create a future America that we can be proud of by remembering that this country was built by immigrants and that everyone here (except for Native Americans) is descended from immigrants. We must strengthen our support for refugees, end economic exploitation of immigrant workers, keep families together create a just system that honors the worth of every human. 

 

 

All of our national immigration issues are also intimately related to our foreign policy, including economic and trade policy — so a holistic approach to addressing immigration reform must include an assessment of these policies as well. We must support and uphold the sovereignty and self-determination of all people and end the practice of regime change in foreign nations, including in Latin American countries where brutal dictatorships have emerged as a result of US meddling. We must work in the international community to create a just world for all, in which other countries are not exploited for natural resources or cheap labor, and in which all countries are encouraged to grow and flourish. This means we must embrace fair trade policies and reverse unjust neoliberal “free trade” policies like NAFTA, which have devastated local economies and forced countless millions to migrate. Simply put, there will be fewer refugees and immigrants from poverty-stricken and war-torn nations when we aren’t exporting war and poverty. We must model for the world a true example of leadership, with liberty, justice, and respect for all.

Water is life. More and more, we are recognizing this fact, and coming to understand our place in a delicate web of life that relies at every intersection on our relationship with this precious resource that makes up over 70% of the earth’s surface and over 60% of the human body. We are water, we need water — and particularly in California, we’re engaged in the process of learning to manage our relationship to water. 

 

I support investing strongly in water infrastructure and sustainable programs to protect and expand our water supply and ensure fair end equitable access to this precious resource. I support legislation investing in technological solutions to drought, including desalination (since oceans hold over 96% of all water), fog-catchers and atmospheric water generation (which requires research to become more cost-effective). It also must be made clear that California does not have a water shortage; we have a water *storage* shortage. We must be prepared for rain when it comes, and crate systems to harvest rainwater (including rooftop catchment, laundry-to-landscape grey-water systems, and other low-tech strategies that harness natural abundance and keep water accessible). We also need to invest in cutting-edge wastewater recycling, since the billion gallons of recycled wastewater California currently sends out to the Pacific Ocean each year could instead be treated and used for irrigation and groundwater replenishment. 

 

 

At core, our relationship with water highlights the larger ways in which we are out of integrity with nature itself. To truly address the water crisis will require us to reexamine what we eat, what we grow, and where we choose to focus our energy. Almonds account for roughly 10% of the water used in California, and it requires an estimated 1.1 gallons of water to grow a single almond. It doesn’t take an economy genius to see that this practice is unsustainable. In contrast, drinking water accounts for less that one-tenth of 1% of consumption. We need to engage in a thoughtful conversation about our priorities, and truly honor water for the vital resource that it is. We must protect our watersheds from being exploited for profit by big corporations like Nestle, which are sucking the land dry. We must protect water from contamination by toxic industrial and agricultural runoff by transparently assessing the chemicals emitted by these corporations, and we must address our the broader context of the global climate crisis to address the root cause of warming temperatures and drought. It is an epic task, and no one person has all the answers. But we cannot shirk this duty. Future generations will thank us for having the courage to do the right thing at this turning point in our history. Hopefully we will have the courage and foresight to make the necessary changes and elect representatives who stand with our people and planet, not big polluters and water-guzzling corporations posing this threat to future generations. We deserve so much better. 

We live in a culture that is, unfortunately, rooted in expressions of violence and various forms of exploitation, oppression and incivility. As most of us are aware, this country has long suffered from the legacy of genocide of indigenous people, black slavery, white supremacy, patriarchy, foreign wars of empire, and the mistreatment of minority communities, including immigrants, Muslims and religious communities, LGBTQ people, and those deemed by mainstream culture to be “other.” The great task before is to realize that there is no “other,” the we are all part of the same human family, the same community of life — and that if we want to thrive, we need to share this planet and treat each other with respect and dignity. As Dr. King observed repeatedly, “It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated.”

 

We citizens take our cues, in many ways, from the government that we elect and the laws that govern our nation. And if we desire our *people* to behave with a greater sense of love, respect and civility, we as a *country* need to embody these values in our domestic policy, our foreign policy, our economic policy, our laws and law-enforcement practices. America must step up and become a true nonviolent leader on the world stage, which means no longer pursuing an agenda of economic imperialism. We must treat all people, including foreign nations and immigrants, with respect. We must heal the wounds of indigenous genocide by honoring treaties with Native Americans and listening to the wise counsel of native elders in considering the challenges we face today, learning to protect the water, share the land, and live harmoniously. We must heal the wounds of slavery and end white supremacy by addressing the crisis of police brutality, abolishing private and for-profit prisons, and creating true social and economic justice for all. We must ensure gender equality by passing the Equal Rights Amendment that has yet to be enacted. We must uphold the rights of the LGBTQ community. We must respect all ethnicities, all languages, and all faiths. And we must end the cruel and unjust death penalty, which sets a tone of violence and punishment that resonates in all public spheres.

 

 

It is only by creating a system of civility and nonviolence that we can ever expect our culture to reflect those values of civility and nonviolence. We must be the change we wish to see in this world.