Environment:
We are responsible for doing all in our power to protect our planet for the generations to follow. Carbon pricing, or Cap and Trade, holds polluters responsible. The average American must pay a fee to disposal companies to remove their waste. Why not businesses? Why are businesses exempt from contributing to the care of the planet when they are responsible for helping to pollute it? Droughts, floods, and other extreme weather; loss of agricultural livelihoods; and a lack of fresh drinking water sources are all part of the outcome of putting financial interests ahead of the health and safety of our planet, and ultimately ahead of our citizens.
America should be leading the fight against climate change. Richard Nixon, a Republican, founded the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, and it paved the way for other countries to pass crucial environmental protection laws. We should take similar measures to fight climate change. 97% of climate scientists and our own military leaders agree that climate change is happening right now. This must be dealt with by establishing real programs that protect the environment, by increasing clean energy production, and by guaranteeing we are leaving the planet better than we found it for future generations and their right to drink clean water and to breathe clean air. There are currently almost half a million jobs in the related clean energy sector with half of those jobs in Southern California. Clean energy provides long term, environmentally-friendly solutions to our environmental challenges. We must renew our commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement and take the United States off the list of international climate deniers that includes no other countries in the world.
Healthcare:
Healthcare should be treated as a right, not a privilege, because you shouldn’t have to be wealthy to stay healthy.
According to the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, the Inland Empire’s leading job growth sector has been health care. Between 2010-2016, the population grew by 262,547. The industry also saw incredible growth under the ACA, when the number of uninsured decreased from 712,217 in 2013 to 365,374 in 2015, a decrease of 48.7%. Our region cannot afford to lose job growth because of incompetent and inhumane government actions.
I commit to passing legislation that provides Medicare for All. The University of Massachusetts-Amherst conducted a study on SB 562, also known as Healthy California. Under this plan, Americans get a raise, businesses make profits, and all of us see get the coverage we deserve. If the California, the 5th largest economy in the world, can find the will to establish Medicare for All, then so can the country. Corporations have no business making money off the sick and dying. They have no business reaping unparalleled profits while average Americans have to choose between paying their bills and seeing the doctor. We are the only industrialized nation to allow our citizens to go bankrupt over the cost of healthcare.
Immigration:
We are a nation of immigrants who make communities stronger. I wholeheartedly refute the assertion by the current administration and Republicans in Congress that they bring more crime. I believe in a comprehensive path to citizenship, which will increase economic development across the country and allow money normally spent on detention and deportation to be used in other areas like the environment, education, and health care. I also believe a clean DREAM Act includes making our hardworking and contributing young people clear and unequivocal citizens of our country.
Education:
K-12 education should not be for-profit. Children in all communities, especially low-income, must be given equitable opportunity to learn and to succeed whether their parents can afford to provide them an education or not. Betsy DeVos is unqualified to lead the Department of Education and everything must be done to prevent her from destroying our public schools. Her plans do not protect low-income students who do not have access to private schools; do not guarantee the rights of special education and special needs students under IDEA 2004; do not hold for-profit and charter schools accountable to standards in education or in teacher preparation; do not safeguard low-income communities from the drain on education when charter schools are allowed to take much needed state funding away from community public schools; do not guarantee a lack of discrimination in enrollment or in hiring.
Common Sense Gun Reform:
When will protecting our children and families from gun violence be as important as protecting people’s 2nd Amendment Rights. And when will we realize that we can fairly do both? Universal background checks; universal gun registry; gun insurance that includes physical and mental health screenings and mandatory safety trainings; a ban on bump stocks; a ban on assault rifles; mandatory waiting periods; an end to gun show loopholes; no gun ownership for domestic abusers or those on the no-fly list; an end to conceal carry reciprocity. This is not a political issue; this is a human issue.
Unions and Right to Work:
Since the 1960s, union membership in industries across America has declined. Right along with this decline is a correlated decline in wages and an increase in economic disparity. The haves have more; the have-nots have less. Unions protect workers from unscrupulous bosses and supervisors. Unions work to ensure safety in the workplace. Unions provide better healthcare through bargaining with the insurance industry. Unions negotiate living wages for their members, which contributes positively to the American economy. Unions make America stronger. I will sign the Employee Free Choice Act and protect the Davis Bacon Act for all potential and current union workers.Community
Policing:
When law enforcement agencies and their officers know the members of the communities they serve, neighborhoods are safer for everyone. Community policing works all across our country and should be of the highest priority in combating crime in our cities. Constituents want safe places to raise their children. When we work together with law enforcement and community leaders, we can and will find solutions to crime in America.
Our law enforcement officers are hired to protect and to serve. They face life-threatening challenges on a daily basis. They should have the best training available to them, including training on how to deal with suspects who suffer from mental health challenges. Included in this training needs to be the understanding that no one is above the law. Just as those who commit crime should be held accountable for their actions in a reasonable, fitting way, officers must also be held accountable for their actions. Proper training will go a long way toward ensuring the safety of everyone involved in law and order in America.
Women’s Health:
Women should have access to quality reproductive healthcare. Organizations like Planned Parenthood provide services to women far beyond the issue of abortion: Pap smears to help detect cancer before it becomes deadly; birth control so women can avoid pregnancy and not be faced with the horrible decision of whether or not to keep an unborn child; mammograms to help detect and to prevent the devastating effects of breast cancer. These are only a tiny glimpse into what Planned Parenthood does, and they are not allowed to use federal funding to perform abortions in any case that isn’t life threatening to the mother or her unborn child. Whatever the services needed, it is a woman and her doctor who should be the only ones involved in choices about her health care issues.
Marriage Equality:
The Supreme Court ruled that marriage equality means all marriages. Granting the LGBTQ+ community equal protection under the law ensures the fair treatment of all of our community members. We cannot go backward on Civil Rights for any member of our society.
Trade:
Trade is a powerful word in America. However, it doesn’t have to be the enemy of Americans or the American economy. Trade provides the opportunity for American goods to be sold overseas, making our country stronger and our industries more profitable. We cannot shut off trade across the world, but we can provide more incentives to American corporations to help encourage them to keep Made in the USA a strong, workable model, for companies and for American workers. Yes, trade has hurt manufacturing, but only around 13% of American jobs have been lost to trade. The rest have been slowly dwindling since the late 1950s thanks to automation and technology. In order to change this, I believe we need to educate workers in modern ways, including through Career and Technical Education paths in public schools, and vocational training at no-cost post graduation or when jobs are lost due to automation or technological advancement.
Muslim Ban:
When you ban refugees and immigrants from specific Muslim-majority countries although not one incident of death or violence against Americans in America have occurred from any refugees from any of those specific countries, and you insist that Christians will be given priority when issuing visas and green cards, you ARE creating a Muslim ban. Our country is a nation of immigrants. We cannot afford this premise of America First if we deny any group the opportunity to achieve the American Dream.
Religious Discrimination:
Discrimination disguised as religious freedom is intolerable. Allowing businesses and individuals to discriminate against people who do not share their faith, or to allow corporations to avoid providing insurance coverage for specific items, such as birth control, that goes against their own religious beliefs, is discrimination. With this argument, it would be acceptable for non-Christian doctors, teachers, lawyers, and other business professionals to refuse to treat, educate, represent or otherwise do business with Christians. Either way, it comes down to protecting and accepting a preferred religion for the United States, which is against the law, unconstitutional, and a violation of the First Amendment rights of freedom of religion.
