Climate Justice
Climate is my top priority: for almost a decade, I have taken on corporate polluters with people-powered activism — and won. My commitment to people-powered change at a community level makes me a strong candidate on the environment — I will use the emergency powers of the presidency to take action on climate on day one.
Justice Centered Climate Plan:
My Justice Centered Climate Plan dedicates $2 trillion in federal funding over ten years, mobilizing trillions more inprivate capital, to long-overdue investments in America’s infrastructure, including investments in clean transportation, water, operational systems, the energy grid, farms and rural development, building retrofits, maintenance, affordable housing, universal broadband, and more.
We will lift up local voices and build a Civilian Climate Corps — a combined service, training, and job creation effort — to implement tailored solutions specific to the needs of individual communities. I will protect residents’ rights to self-determination as investments are made in their communities, ensuring that people living in areas heavily burdened by pollution and climate
impacts are not displaced by development. And I will protect the right of individuals to return to their communities if they have been displaced by climate-related disasters by creating a federal rent replacement insurance fund for victims of climate-related disasters. I will support increasing support for affordable housing, transit-oriented development, home ownership, and protections against displacement.
My work on climate began in local communities impacted by the climate crisis in Northern California. I understand that communities of color are more often adversely affected by the impacts and causes of climate change, and I will work to address this by creating an Environmental Justice Division in the Department of Justice. This division’s roles will include clearly defining criteria for acts of environmental racism, ensuring equal protection against environmental harms, and prosecuting environmental civil rights violations in actions under every agency’s jurisdiction.
Economic Justice
I founded my small investment firm and grew it into a $36 billion international company. Over that time he became intimately familiar with our economy. Read more about my Economic Plan.
I’m a progressive and a capitalist, but unchecked capitalism produces market failures and economic inequities. Our economic system provides Americans freedom of choice, fosters innovation and competition, rewards ingenuity and hard work, and is the most efficient way to generate sustained economic growth and productivity. Unchecked capitalism hijacks our democracy for the benefit of big corporations, writes rules that ultimately limit competition to maximize corporate profits, squeezes the middle and working classes, exacerbates racial and gender income and wealth disparities, starves the government of resources, and undermines the foundations of fair markets.
The people m ust be in charge of our economy — but socialism isn’t the answer. Putting the people in charge requires an economic framework built on the three core principles I call the People Over Profits Economic Agenda: breaking the corporate stranglehold on government, investing in the American people, and harnessing innovation and competition.
Working Families Tax Cut: Tax breaks for the wealthiest people in our country aren’t working, and aren’t fair. If we are going to solve the widespread issue of economic inequality in America, we need to stop cutting taxes for the rich. We Need A Wealth Tax. No deductions, no exemptions, no loopholes. It’s time the wealthy pay up. Families making less than $250,000 and individuals making less than $200,000 will receive a 10% tax cut, impacting 95% of American families. The nation is better served by putting more money into the hands of ordinary Americans than the rich and corporations.
Structural Reform
I want to fix our broken government: I propose a term limit of 12 total years that would allow our elected officials to focus less on getting re-elected and more on doing what’s right. He will fight to:
Repeal Citizens United
Corporations aren’t people, and they shouldn’t be controlling our politics. The Supreme Court decision in Citizens United must be overturned and the public financing of campaigns becomes the law of the land.
Restructure the Federal Election Commission (FEC)
The FEC is an independent agency that oversees our elections — but it has been plagued by internal dysfunction. We will reform the broken FEC by making necessary changes to its budget, commissioner composition, independence from other branches of government, and penalty enforcement.
Limit Congressional Terms
There’s a widespread perception that the longer an elected official serves in Congress, the less connected they are to their constituents — and the more beholden they become to corporate interests and lobbyists. We propose a term limit of 12 total years that would allow our elected officials in both the House and Senate to focus less on getting re-elected and more on doing what’s right.
Increase Voter Participation with a National Referendum
Voters should feel that their voices count, and should be more directly involved in deciding important issues that affect their lives. We plan to have bills introduced in both the House and Senate to establish a national referendum process, establish an office to implement and oversee this process, and develop criteria to place no more than two key issues annually before the national electorate to vote on. This process would increase voter participation, thwart congressional gridlock, and give the American people more power over their democracy.
Initiate a Vote-At-Home System
A Vote At Home system would make voting more convenient by providing voters with postage-paid absentee ballots, and would allow voters more time to participate in our democracy, as well as increase overall election security.
Support Important Election Reform Legislation
The For the People Act (HR 1), the Voting Rights Advancement Act, and the Native American Voting Rights Act need to be signed into law immediately.
Establish Independent Redistricting Commissions
When partisan elected officials draw district lines, the electoral maps they draw rig the system in their favor and attempt to suppress and dilute the votes in communities of color. We need independent, non-partisan redistricting commissions to draw these boundaries, and eliminate racial gerrymandering.
