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US Politics Bernie Sanders I’m running for president so that, when we are in the White House, the movement we build together can achieve economic, racial, social and environmental justice for all.
Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess
I’m running for president so that, when we are in the White House, the movement we build together can achieve economic, racial, social and environmental justice for all. Health Care for All College for All Fight for Working Families Jobs for All Expand Social Security Combat Climate Change and Pass a Green New Deal Meet Our Commitment To Our Veterans Enact A Responsible, Comprehensive Foreign Policy Fight for Women’s Rights Fight for Disability Rights Fight for LGBTQ Equality Empower the People of Puerto Rico Demand that the Wealthy, Large Corporations and Wall Street Pay their Fair Share in Taxes Gun Safety Criminal Justice Reform Racial Justice Immigration Reform Empower Tribal Nations Real Wall Street Reform Invest In Rural America Fight For Fair Trade and Workers Reinvest in Public Education and Teachers Get Big Money Out of Politics and Restore Democracy Fair Banking for All Revitalizing Rural America Health Care for All We say to the private health insurance companies: whether you like it or not, the United States will join every other major country on earth and guarantee healthcare to all people as a right. All Americans are entitled to go to the doctor when they’re sick and not go bankrupt after staying in the hospital. Today, more than 30 million Americans still don’t have health insurance and even more are underinsured. Even for those with insurance, costs are so high that medical bills are the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States. Incredibly, we spend significantly more of our national GDP on this inadequate health care system—far more per person than any other major country. And despite doing so, Americans have worse health outcomes and a higher infant mortality rate than countries that spend much less on health care. Our people deserve better. We should be spending money on doctors, nurses, mental health specialists, dentists, and other professionals who provide services to people and improve their lives. We must invest in the development of new drugs and technologies that cure disease and alleviate pain—not wasting hundreds of billions of dollars a year on profiteering, huge executive compensation packages, and outrageous administrative costs. The giant pharmaceutical and health insurance lobbies have spent billions of dollars over the past decades to ensure that their profits come before the health of the American people. We must defeat them, together. That means: Joining every other major country on Earth and guaranteeing health care to all people as a right, not a privilege, through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program. And to lower the prices of prescription drugs now, we need to: Allow Medicare to negotiate with the big drug companies to lower prescription drug prices with the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act. Allow patients, pharmacists, and wholesalers to buy low-cost prescription drugs from Canada and other industrialized countries with the Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act. Cut prescription drug prices in half, with the Prescription Drug Price Relief Act, by pegging prices to the median drug price in five major countries: Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan. ------------------------------------------------------------ College for All Today, we say to our young people that we want you to get the best education that you can, regardless of the income of your family. Good jobs require a good education. That is why we are going to make public colleges and universities tuition free, and substantially lower the outrageous level of student debt that currently exists. We need to have the best-educated workforce in the world. It is counter-productive to the best interests of our country that hundreds of thousands of bright young people cannot afford to go to college, and that millions of others leave school with a mountain of debt that burdens them for decades—preventing them from buying homes and starting families. Every young person, regardless of their family income, should have the opportunity to attend college. It is unacceptable, for example, that 28% of African American students are forced to drop out of college after one year due to costs. The federal government shouldn’t make billions of dollars in profit off of student loans while students are drowning in debt. We should invest in young Americans—not leverage their futures. That’s why we must: Make public colleges, universities, and trade schools tuition-free. Fully fund Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Substantially lower student debt. Significantly lower interest rates on student loans. ------------------------------------------------------------ Fight for Working Families We will no longer accept 46 percent of all new income going to the top 1 percent, while millions of Americans are forced to work 2 or 3 jobs just to survive and over half of our people live paycheck to paycheck. We will no longer accept a situation in which, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, our younger generation will have a lower standard of living than their parents. We need leaders who will fight for the interests of workers, not just the 1%. In the richest country in the world, there is no state in which working 40 hours at the state minimum wage generates enough income to afford a one-bedroom apartment. It is unacceptable that workers rely on employers for life-saving health care. Working for a living should mean earning a living wage, and health care should be a human right—not a bargaining chip that keeps employees in coercive, exploitative environments. And families should have the security of knowing they can take care of sick loved ones and secure an education for their children. We must: Raise the minimum wage to a living wage of at least $15 an hour. Enact a universal childcare and pre-kindergarten program. Make sure women and men are paid the same wage for the same job through the Paycheck Fairness Act. Guarantee all workers paid family and medical leave, paid sick leave and paid vacation. Make it easier for workers to join unions through the Workplace Democracy Act. Make quality education a right. Implement a green jobs program. ------------------------------------------------------------ Jobs for All When we are in the White House, we will enact a federal jobs guarantee, to ensure that everyone is guaranteed a stable job. There is more than enough work to be done in this country. Let’s do it. In the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, everyone who can work in America should have the right to a decent-paying job. We can and should have a full-employment economy. In 1944, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt talked about the right of every American to have a job. That was true then. It is true today. A job guarantee will lower the crime rate, improve mental health, and create a stronger sense of community. It will create a much healthier and happier America. A full-employment economy is not a radical idea. That means: As part of the Green New Deal, we need millions of workers to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure—roads, bridges, drinking water systems, wastewater plants, rail, schools, affordable housing—and build our 100% sustainable energy system. This infrastructure is critical to a thriving, green economy. At a time when our early childhood education system is totally inadequate, we need hundreds of thousands of workers to provide quality care to the young children of our country. As the nation ages, we will need many more workers to provide supportive services for seniors to help them age in their homes and communities, which is where they want to be. ------------------------------------------------------------ Expand Social Security Today, we say to our senior citizens, that we understand that you cannot live in dignity when you are trying to survive on $13,000 or $14,000 a year in Social Security benefits. My Republican colleagues want to cut Social Security but we have some bad news for them. We’re not going to cut Social Security benefits. We’re going to expand them. Social Security is the most successful government program in our nation’s history. At a time when about half of Americans over the age of 55 have no retirement savings and 20 percent of seniors are trying to make it on less than $13,500 a year, our job is to expand Social Security to make sure that everyone in this country can retire with the dignity they have earned and everyone with a disability can live with the security they need. We will: Expand and extend Social Security for the next 52 years by making sure that all income over $250,000 a year is subject to the Social Security payroll tax, with the Social Security Expansion Act. ------------------------------------------------------------ Combat Climate Change and Pass a Green New Deal We say to Donald Trump and the fossil fuel industry that climate change is not a hoax but is an existential threat to our country and the entire planet – and we intend to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy and, in the process, create millions of good paying jobs. All of us have a moral responsibility to make certain that the planet we leave to our children and grandchildren is healthy and habitable. Climate change is the single greatest threat facing our planet. Yet the giant, multi-national fossil fuel corporations have spent hundreds of millions of dollars furthering their greed and protecting their profits at the expense of our climate and our future. The recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has made it clear that if we fail to substantially cut the amount of carbon in our atmosphere in under 11 years, the human, environmental, and economic costs will be severe and irreversible. Climate change is not a problem we will have to worry about 50 years from now. Overwhelming scientific consensus indicates that climate change is already exacerbating extreme weather events like heat waves, wildfires, droughts, floods, and hurricanes. Climate change is already negatively impacting real estate values due to sea level rise and global agriculture and food security through changing water availability, flooding, and drought. These trends will only continue as global temperatures and sea levels continue to rise. We need a president—Bernie Sanders—who understands that climate change is real and an existential threat to our country and the entire planet. When we are in the White House, we will: Pass a Green New Deal to save American families money and generate millions of jobs by transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels to 100% energy efficiency and sustainable energy. A Green New Deal will protect workers and the communities in which they live to ensure a transition to family-sustaining wage, union jobs. Invest in infrastructure and programs to protect the frontline communities most vulnerable to extreme climate impacts like wildfires, sea level rise, drought, floods, and extreme weather like hurricanes. Reduce carbon pollution emissions from our transportation system by building out high-speed passenger rail, electric vehicles, and public transit. Ban fracking and new fossil fuel infrastructure and keep oil, gas, and coal in the ground by banning fossil fuel leases on public lands. End exports of coal, natural gas, and crude oil. ------------------------------------------------------------ Meet Our Commitment To Our Veterans If you can’t afford to take care of your veterans, then don’t go to war. These people are bearing the brunt of what war is about. We have a moral obligation to support them. While serious people can disagree in good faith about when our country should go to war, there should never be a debate over whether we fulfill the promises made to the men and women who have served this country in our military. As a nation, we have a moral obligation to provide the best quality care to those who have put their lives on the line to defend us. Just as planes and tanks and guns are a cost of war, so is taking care of the men and women who we sent off to fight the war. That includes caring for the spouses and children who have to rebuild their lives after the loss of a loved one. That includes caring for the hundreds of thousands of veterans with multiple amputations or loss of eyesight, post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. That includes veterans who are struggling to keep the jobs they rely on to pay their bills, and it includes the terrible tragedy of veterans committing suicide. We must: Fully fund and expand the VA so that every veteran gets the care that they have earned and deserve. Get veterans compensated faster by improving how compensation claims are processed. Expand the VA’s Caregivers Program. Expand mental health services for veterans. Make comprehensive dental care available to all veterans at the VA. ------------------------------------------------------------ Enact A Responsible, Comprehensive Foreign Policy Together, as the forces of militarism have kept us engaged in unending wars, we have stood arm-in-arm to fight back. We’re not going to invest in never-ending wars. The U.S. must lead the world in improving international cooperation in the fight against climate change, militarism, authoritarianism, and global inequality. When we are in the White House, we will: Implement a foreign policy which focuses on democracy, human rights, diplomacy and peace, and economic fairness. Allow Congress to reassert its Constitutional role in warmaking, so that no president can wage unauthorized and unconstitutional interventions overseas. Follow the American people, who do not want endless war. American troops have been in Afghanistan for nearly 18 years, the longest war in American history. Our troops have been in Iraq since 2003, and in Syria since 2015, and many other places. It is long past time for Congress to reassert its Constitutional authority over the use of force to responsibly end these interventions and bring our troops home. End U.S. support for the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, which has created the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe. Rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement and talk to Iran on a range of other issues. Work with pro-democracy forces around the world to build societies that work for and protect all people. In the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, democracy is under threat by forces of intolerance, corruption, and authoritarianism. ------------------------------------------------------------ Fight for Women’s Rights When we are in the White House, we are going to protect a woman’s right to control her own body. That is her decision, not the government’s. Despite major advances in civil and political rights, our country still has a long way to go in addressing the issues of gender inequality and reproductive freedom. Right now, extreme forces on the right are launching political attacks and passing draconian laws at both the state and national level with the goal of ending a woman’s right to choose. We must fight back together, and defend a woman’s right to control her own body and economic future. When we are in the White House, we will: Adopt Equal Pay for Equal Work through the Paycheck Fairness Act. Fully fund Planned Parenthood, Title X, and other initiatives that protect women’s health, access to contraception, and the availability of a safe and legal abortion. Expand the WIC program for pregnant mothers, infants, and children. Oppose all efforts to undermine or overturn Roe v. Wade, and appoint federal judges who will uphold women’s most fundamental rights. Immediately reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. Pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Fight to end sexual harassment in workplaces, the military, and other institutions. Protect women from harassment, discrimination, and violence in educational institutions by protecting and enforcing Title IX. ------------------------------------------------------------ Fight for Disability Rights We as a nation have a moral responsibility to ensure that all Americans have access to the programs and the support needed to contribute to society, live with dignity, and achieve a high quality of life. We need a president who will champion expanding the rights of people with disabilities. One in four adults in this country has a disability. Despite the progress that has been made over the past two decades, we unfortunately still live in a world where people with disabilities have fewer work opportunities and where the civil rights of people with disabilities are not always protected and respected. People with disabilities experience much higher poverty rates than people without disabilities. As a nation, we have a moral responsibility to ensure that all Americans have the support they need to live with dignity. We must: Protect and expand the Social Security Disability Insurance program. Increase educational opportunities for persons with disabilities, including fully funding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and expanding vocational education opportunities. Guarantee jobs that pay living wages to all persons with disabilities who want to work through a federal job guarantee program. In addition to the job guarantee, Bernie Sanders will end the sub-minimum wage for individuals with disabilities. Ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Enact a Medicare-for-all program that includes home-based and community-based care. Work to ensure no person with a disability experiences discrimination or barriers to living a full and productive life. ------------------------------------------------------------ Fight for LGBTQ Equality People have the right to love who they want to love and get married regardless of their sexual orientation. Incredibly, today in many states, it is still legal to fire someone for being gay. That is unacceptable and must change. The United States has made remarkable progress on gay rights in a relatively short amount of time. But there is still much work to be done. In many states, it is still legal to fire someone for being gay. Incredibly, it is still legal to deny someone housing or service in the military for being transgender. That is unacceptable and must change. We must end discrimination in all forms. We must: Pass the Equality Act, the Every Child Deserves a Family Act and other bills to prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ people. Ensure LGBTQ people have comprehensive health insurance without discrimination from providers. Protect the rights of LGBTQ people around the world. Advance policies to ensure students can attend school without fear of bullying, and work to substantially reduce suicides. Support police departments that adopt policies to ensure fairer interactions with transgender people, especially transgender women of color who are often targeted by police unfairly, and by instituting training programs to promote compliance with fair policies. Fight discrimination against LGBTQ people by creditors and banks so that people will not be unfairly denied mortgages, credit cards, or student loans. Strongly oppose any legislation that purports to “protect” religious liberty at the expense of others’ rights. ------------------------------------------------------------ Empower the People of Puerto Rico Now is the time to rebuild Puerto Rico. I want the people of Puerto Rico to know that they are not forgotten, that they are not alone, and that we will do everything we possibly can to rebuild the island. For too long, the people of Puerto Rico have faced inadequate assistance and colonial exploitation in the wake of natural disasters, a decade-long crippling economic crisis, and unjust human suffering. At a time of unprecedented challenges for Puerto Rico, the next president must work to empower Puerto Rican leaders, communities, and advocates. When we are in the White House, we will: Finally repair the damage from Hurricanes Irma and Maria and rebuild Puerto Rico. It is unconscionable that in the wealthiest nation in the world we have allowed our fellow citizens to suffer for so long. The full resources of the United States must be brought to bear on this crisis, for as long as necessary. Restore self-rule in Puerto Rico by ending the reign of greedy Wall Street vulture funds that have a stranglehold on Puerto Rico’s future, return control of the island to the people of Puerto Rico, and give the territory the debt relief it so desperately needs to rebuild with dignity. Ensure a strong social safety net for the people of Puerto Rico by ensuring access to health care, nutrition assistance, veterans benefits, and quality public schools. ------------------------------------------------------------ Demand that the Wealthy, Large Corporations and Wall Street Pay their Fair Share in Taxes The wealthy and multinational corporations in this country will start paying their fair share of taxes. We are going to end austerity for working families, and provide some austerity for large, multinational corporations. At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, we need a progressive tax system in this country that is based on the ability to pay. It is unacceptable that major corporations have paid nothing in federal income taxes, and that corporate CEOs in this country often enjoy an effective tax rate that is lower than their secretaries. If we are serious about reforming the tax code and rebuilding the middle class, we have got to demand that the wealthiest Americans, large corporations, and Wall Street pay their fair share in taxes. When we are in the White House, we will: Pass the For the 99.8 Percent Act to establish a progressive estate tax on multi-millionaire and billionaire inheritances. Eliminate offshore tax scams through the Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act. Tax Wall Street speculators through the Inclusive Prosperity Act. Scrap the income cap on Social Security payroll taxes through the Social Security Expansion Act so that millionaires and billionaires pay more into the system. End special tax breaks on capital gains and dividends for the top 1%. Substantially increase the top marginal tax rate on income above $10 million. Close tax loopholes that benefit the wealthy and large corporations. ------------------------------------------------------------ Gun Safety When we are in the White House, we will move aggressively to end the epidemic of gun violence in this country and pass the common sense gun safety legislation that the overwhelming majority of Americans want. We face an epidemic of gun violence in this country. A significant majority of Americans want commonsense gun reform. But the NRA, now a full-fledged, right-wing political organization, spends millions on TV and internet ads attacking candidates who dare to stand up for what voters want. We must: Take on the NRA and its corrupting effect on Washington. The NRA has become a partisan lobbying public-relations entity for gun manufacturers, and its influence must be stopped. Expand background checks. End the gun show loophole. All gun purchases should be subject to the same background check standards. Ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons. Assault weapons are designed and sold as tools of war. There is absolutely no reason why these firearms should be sold to civilians. Prohibit high-capacity ammunition magazines. Crack down on “straw purchases” where people buy guns for criminals. ------------------------------------------------------------ Criminal Justice Reform Today, we say to the prison-industrial-complex that we are going to bring about real criminal justice reform. We are going to end the international embarrassment of having more people in jail than any other country on earth. Instead of spending $80 billion a year on jails and incarceration, we are going to invest in jobs and education for our young people. No more private prisons and detention centers. No more profiteering from locking people up. No more “war on drugs.” No more keeping people in jail because they’re too poor to afford cash bail. We are spending $80 billion a year to lock up 2.2 million people, hundreds of thousands of whom have not been convicted of a crime and are solely in jail because they can’t afford their bail. We are criminalizing poverty. And because of the historical legacy of racism in this country, we are disproportionately criminalizing African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. With increased detention of immigrants under the Trump administration, private prisons are becoming more widespread and more profitable. We need real, comprehensive criminal justice reform now. We must: End, once and for all, the destructive “war on drugs,” including legalizing marijuana. Eliminate private prisons and detention centers. End cash bail. Abolish the death penalty. End all mandatory minimums and reinstate the federal system of parole. Seriously reform civil asset forfeitures. Bring about major police department reform. Prevent employers from discriminating against applicants based on criminal history by “banning the box.” ------------------------------------------------------------ Racial Justice When we are in the White House, we are going to address not only the disparities of wealth and income that exist overall in our nation, but we will address the racial disparities of wealth and income. We are going to root out institutional racism wherever it exists. “Equal justice for all” can’t just be an aspirational ideal. Those words were written in our Constitution 242 years ago. And our nation’s founding promise is 242 years overdue. It’s time to treat structural racism with the exigency it deserves. In order to transform this country into a nation that affirms the value of its people of color, we must address the five central types of violence waged against black, brown and indigenous Americans: physical, political, legal, economic and environmental. Whether it is a broken criminal justice system, or massive disparities in the availability of financial services, or health disparities, or environmental disparities, or educational disparities, our job is to—and we will—create a nation in which all people are treated equally. That is what we must do, and that is what we will do. Voting Rights and Enfranchisement In the last decade, more than 30 states have considered voter suppression laws whose clear intent is to disenfranchise people of color. How pathetic and how cowardly is that. Together we will end voter suppression in this country and move to automatic voter registration. We are going to make voting easier, not harder. To protect our democracy, we must: Restore the Voting Rights Act. Re-enfranchise the right to vote to the 1 in 13 African-Americans who have had their vote taken away by a felony conviction, paid their debt to society, and deserve to have their rights restored. Secure automatic voter registration for every American over 18. End voter suppression and gerrymandering. Abolish burdensome voter ID laws. Make Election Day a national holiday. Criminal Justice Over the last number of years, we have seen a terrible level of police violence against unarmed people in the minority community: Laquan McDonald, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Rekia Boyd, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Jessica Hernandez, Tamir Rice, Jonathan Ferrell, Oscar Grant, Antonio Zambrano-Montes and others. People of color, killed by the police, who should be alive today. We know that African-Americans are twice as likely to be arrested, and almost four times as likely to experience physical force in an encounter with the police. Today, black men are sentenced to 19% more jail time for committing the exact same crime as white men, and African Americans are jailed at more than five times the rate of whites. All of this and more is why we are finally going to bring about real criminal justice reform in this country. We are going to end the international embarrassment of having more people in jail than any other country on earth. Instead of spending $80 billion a year on jails and incarceration, we are going to invest in jobs and education for our young people. No more private prisons and detention centers. No more profiteering from locking people up. No more “war on drugs.” No more keeping people in jail because they’re too poor to afford cash bail. Real police department reform. When we are in the White House, we will: End, once and for all, the destructive “war on drugs,” including legalizing marijuana. Eliminate private prisons and detention centers. End cash bail. Abolish the death penalty. End all mandatory minimums and reinstate the federal system of parole. Seriously reform civil asset forfeitures. Bring about major police department reform. Environmental Justice The ills of pollution and climate change touch everyone, but tragically, they touch those in poverty more than others. Trump’s own EPA has shown that people living in poverty are exposed to more harmful particulate matter in the air, and that people of color are more likely to live near pollution and be exposed to pollutants. According to the EPA report, “results at national, state, and county scales all indicate that non-Whites tend to be burdened disproportionately to Whites.” This, too, is unacceptable. Today, Flint, Michigan, is still without new pipes for clean water, and there are 3,000 other Flint, Michigans, across the country—neighborhoods with lead rates that were double those of Flint during the height of its crisis. Together, we must: Enact a Green New Deal not just to save the planet, but to protect our most vulnerable communities. We must end the scourge of environmental racism, and at the same time create green jobs to support and rebuild the local economies of affected communities. Protect low-income and minority communities, who are hit first and worst by the causes and impacts of climate change, while also protecting existing energy-sector workers as they transition into clean energy and other jobs. Address the inadequate environmental cleanup efforts of Superfund hazardous waste sites in communities of color. Stop the exposure of people of color to harmful chemicals, pesticides and other toxins in homes, schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces and challenge faulty assumptions in calculating, assessing, and managing risks, discriminatory zoning and land-use practices and exclusionary policies. Enact a Green New Deal to mitigate climate change and focus on building resilience in low-income and minority communities. Address Healthcare Disparities Today, the infant mortality rate in black communities is more than double the rate for white communities, and the death rates from cancer and almost every other disease is far higher for blacks. Black women are three and a half times more likely to die from pregnancy than white women. We must: End the racial disparities in our health care system—31% of African Americans and 32% of Hispanics struggle paying medical bills compared to 24% of white Americans. We must guarantee health care to all people of color as a right, not a privilege, through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program and end this inequity. Economic Justice Black Americans currently have ten cents for every dollar white Americans have. Latinx Americans currently have thirteen cents for every dollar white Americans have. This is unacceptable: It’s time for America to treat the lives of people of color like they’re worth more than change on the dollar. More than 22% of black Americans and more than 21% of Hispanic Americans are living in poverty compared to 12% of white Americans. Today redlining prevents businesses owned by people of color from getting loans, and predatory lending results in higher interest rates in low-income communities of color. More than 47% of African Americans are unbanked or underbanked and some 43% of Hispanic families are unbanked or underbanked, whereas 18% of whites are unbanked or underbanked. The massive disparities and discrimination in the availability of financial services must end. Our campaign is fundamentally dedicated to ending the disparity of wealth, income and power in this country. It’s time to bring a systemic approach to systemic racism. Structural problems require structural solutions, and together we can meet that challenge. Systemic inequities have created innumerable disparities across racial groups from health outcomes, to health insurance rates, education outcomes, college debt rates, and police violence. Bernie is running for president because he believes we’re obligated to do more than just acknowledge the problem. He believes in implementing policies that aim to achieve substantive equality now—while the generations alive today can benefit. In a country that is genuinely free, neither one’s zip code nor the color of their skin would determine a child’s life outcome. Bernie believes our country is morally bound to close the racial wealth divide. In order to do that, we must ensure that people: Start treating the racial wealth divide like the crisis it is. We must end the especially pernicious racial wealth divide that exists today in America within the gap between millionaires and the poor, working, and middle classes of all races. Guarantee a job to every American. A job guarantee will create good-paying jobs and will create work building much needed infrastructure and providing critical services to communities across the country. End redlining practices and other forms of housing discrimination that still exist. Make sure every kid, regardless of race or class, receives a quality education. End the affordable housing crisis and create a path to wealth building through homeownership. Make sure resources are focused on the Americans who need it most — often as a result of structural disadvantage. Bernie supports the 10-20-30 approach to federal investments which focuses substantial federal resources on distressed communities that have high levels of poverty. Support public colleges and HBCUs. It is unacceptable that 28% of African American students are forced to drop out of college after one year due to costs, and 40% of all students fail to graduate in four years largely due to inability to pay tuition. We must make public colleges, universities and trade schools, tuition-free—including for the 76% of HBCU students who attend public colleges—and increase public funding for all HBCUs. Raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Black and Latinx workers disproportionately work minimum wage jobs. Raising the minimum wage will increase the wages of 38% of African-American workers and 33% of Latinx workers. End the discriminatory practices in our financial services. We must allow every post office to offer basic and affordable banking services and end lending discrimination once and for all. ------------------------------------------------------------ Immigration Reform Today, we say to the American people that instead of demonizing the undocumented immigrants in this country, we’re going to pass comprehensive immigration reform and provide a path toward citizenship. We’re going to provide legal status to the 1.8 million young people eligible for the DACA program, and develop a humane border policy for those who seek asylum. No more snatching babies from the arms of their mothers. We are a nation of immigrants. Bernie is proud to be the son of an immigrant. His father came to this country from Poland without a nickel in his pocket. Their story, his story, and our story is a story of America: hard-working families coming to the United States to create a brighter future for their children. We need to: Enact comprehensive immigration reform, including a path towards citizenship. Expand DACA and DAPA, including providing immediate legal status for young people eligible for the DACA program and developing a humane policy for those seeking asylum. Completely reshape and reform our immigration enforcement system, including fundamentally restructuring ICE, an agency Senator Sanders voted against creating. End the barbaric practice of family separation and detention of children in cages. Dismantle cruel and inhumane deportation programs and detention centers. Establish standards for independent oversight of relevant agencies within DHS. Donald Trump has made himself the biggest platform of hate in the country, and he’s used the demonization of immigrants as his own personal political strategy. That must end, now. ------------------------------------------------------------ Empower Tribal Nations Time and time again, our Native American brothers and sisters have seen the federal government break solemn promises, and huge corporations put profits ahead of the sovereign rights of Native communities. I will stand with Native Americans in the struggle to protect their treaty and sovereign rights, advance traditional ways of life, and improve the quality of life for Native communities. Native Americans are the first Americans, yet they have for far too long been treated as third class citizens. It is unconscionable that today, in 2019, Native Americans still do not always have the right to decide on important issues that affect their communities. We must: Stand with Native Americans in the struggle to protect their treaty and sovereign rights, advance traditional ways of life, and improve the quality of life for Native Americans by upholding the trust responsibility. Honor Native American tribal treaty rights and sovereignty, moving away from a relationship of paternalism and control toward one of deference and support. Reauthorize and expand the Violence Against Women Act to provide critical resources to women in Indian country and allow all tribes to prosecute non-Native criminals. More than 4 in 5 American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence, and more than 1 in 2 have experienced sexual violence. They deserve justice now. Implement the 10-20-30 legislation introduced in Congress to prioritize federal funding for Indian country and ensure that significant percentages of federal funds are invested in Native communities that lack access to quality schools, health care, and job opportunities. Enact a Green New Deal which includes a federal job guarantee to rebuild Native communities. The Green New Deal will undo environmental damage in Indian country, as well as provide jobs and rebuild the local economies of those communities. ------------------------------------------------------------ Real Wall Street Reform I want to welcome you to a campaign which tells the powerful special interests who control so much of our economic and political life that we will no longer tolerate the greed of Wall Street, corporate America and the billionaire class – greed which has resulted in this country having more income and wealth inequality than any other major country on earth. The six largest banks in America have more than $10 trillion in assets, more than 50 percent of our nation’s GDP. Today the four largest financial institutions— JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup—are on average 77% bigger than they were before we bailed them out. No single financial institution should be so large that its failure would cause catastrophic risk to millions of Americans or to our nation’s economic well-being. Further, we should not just be concerned about the danger these institutions pose to taxpayers. The enormous concentration of ownership within the financial sector is hurting the middle class and damaging the economy by limiting choices and raising prices for consumers and small businesses. We must: Break up too-big-to-fail banks. End the too-big-to-jail doctrine. Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act. Cap credit card interest rates. Allow every post office to offer basic and affordable banking services. Cap ATM fees. Audit the Federal Reserve and make it a more democratic institution so that it becomes responsive to the needs of ordinary Americans, not just the billionaires on Wall Street. Restrict rapid-fire financial speculation with a financial transactions tax. Reform credit rating agencies. ------------------------------------------------------------ Invest In Rural America The crisis in America’s small towns and rural communities is the result of deliberate policy choices by a political class that neglects rural America, rather than investing in it. The time is long overdue for the U.S. government to stand with rural America, and that is exactly what I will do. For too long, Washington has ignored the many crises facing rural America, and the work we must do to unlock its potential. We have seen more and more young people leave the small towns they grew up in and love, not because they don’t want to stay, but because there are fewer and fewer jobs that pay a living wage. We have seen big agribusinesses consolidate, offering lower and lower prices to farmers until smaller farms are forced to close. As family farms disappear, so do the jobs and communities they support. We have seen schools, churches and community centers shut down, and once vibrant Main Streets become boarded up and deserted. As populations decline, essential services like hospitals and nursing homes shutter their doors, forcing rural Americans to drive for sometimes hours to receive adequate health care. In addition to raising the minimum wage, making public college tuition-free, investing in infrastructure, and guaranteeing health care, we must do the following to protect and support our rural communities: Strengthen and expand enforcement of antitrust laws against agribusiness monopolies, so that food producers have a fairer share of market power to negotiate better prices and pay for their hard work. Reform agricultural subsidies so that more federal support goes to smaller- and mid-sized family farms, rather than that support going disproportionately to a handful of the largest producers. Increase funding for the National Health Service Corps and expand Community Health Centers, which provide health care services in medically underserved areas. Invest in rural broadband buildout and reinstate net neutrality rules, which have protected rural small businesses and internet users from predatory practices by telecommunications giants. Address the opioid crisis facing rural America. Fight for comprehensive immigration reform to create a fair and humane immigration system for the immigrants who contribute so much to rural America. ------------------------------------------------------------ Fight For Fair Trade and Workers We need a trade policy that benefits American workers and creates living-wage jobs, not unfair trade agreements written by multi-national corporations. We need a new trade policy that creates decent-paying jobs in America and ends the race to the bottom. Corporate America cannot continue to throw American workers out on the street while they outsource our jobs and enjoy record-breaking profits. Despite the president’s tough rhetoric and haphazard tariffs, under Trump, we now have a record-breaking $890 billion annual trade deficit in goods. And since Trump was elected, multinational corporations have shipped 185,000 American jobs overseas. That is unacceptable. As part of a new trade policy, we must: Eliminate the incentives baked into our current trade and tax agreements that make it easier for multinational corporations to ship jobs overseas. Corporations should not be able to get a tax deduction for the expenses involved in moving their factories abroad and throwing American workers out on the street. Instead of providing federal tax breaks, contracts, grants, and loans to corporations that outsource jobs, we need to support the small businesses that are creating good jobs in America. We must also expand “Buy American,” “Buy Local,” and other government policies that will increase jobs in the U.S. We need to make sure that strong and binding labor, environmental, and human rights standards are written into the core text of all trade agreements. We must also add to the core text of every U.S. trade agreement, enforceable rules against currency cheating, which allows countries to unfairly dump their products in this country and makes our exports more expensive abroad. Our trade policies must support communities of color that have been impacted the worst by our unfair trade deals. Undo the harm that trade agreements have done to family farmers. We must eliminate rules in our trade deals that increase the cost of medicines. Trade is a good thing, but it has to be fair. ------------------------------------------------------------ Reinvest in Public Education and Teachers Today, we say to our young people that we want you to get the best education that you can, regardless of the income of your family. Together, as billionaires and large corporations have attacked unions and destroyed pensions, we have supported teachers who successfully stood up for their kids in strike after strike after strike. Today, more than 60 years after the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision ending legal segregation in our public schools, and 50 years after President Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act into law, poor and minority students are still not afforded the same education as their wealthier, and often whiter counterparts. This is not only unjust and immoral, it endangers our democracy. I’m running for president to restore the promise that every child, regardless of his or her background, has a right to a high-quality public education. Growing inequality is both the cause and the effect of our nation’s desperately underfunded public school system. Many public schools are severely racially segregated—in some parts of the country, worse than before the Brown decision. With funding for public schools in steep decline, students in low-income areas are forced to learn in decrepit buildings and endure high rates of teacher turnover. Public school teachers are severely underpaid and lack critical resources, and their professional experience is being undermined by high stakes testing requirements that drain resources and destroy the joy of learning. Meanwhile, resource-rich private schools spend tens of thousands of dollars more per child than public schools do. They are predominantly white or intentionally diversified, and enjoy the best that money can buy—from state of the art facilities to well-paid, highly skilled teachers. With the vast challenges facing our education system, billionaire philanthropists, Wall Street bankers and hedge fund managers are attempting to privatize our education system under the banner of “school choice.” We must act to transform our education system into a high-quality public good. We must make sure that charter schools are accountable, transparent and truly serve the needs of disadvantaged children, not Wall Street, billionaire investors, and other private interests. We must ensure that a handful of billionaires don’t determine education policy for our nation’s children. We will oppose the DeVos-style privatization of our nation’s schools and will not allow public resources to be drained from public schools. We must guarantee childcare and universal pre-Kindergarten for every child in America to help level the playing field, create new and good jobs, and enable parents more easily balance the demands of work and home. We must increase pay for public school teachers so that their salary is commensurate with their importance to society. And we must invest in high-quality, ongoing professional development, and cancel teachers’ student debt. We must protect the tenure system for public school teachers and combat attacks on collective bargaining by corporate profiteers. We must put an end to high-stakes testing and “teaching to the test” so that our students have a more fulfilling educational life and our teachers are afforded professional respect. We must guarantee children with disabilities an equal right to high-quality education, and increase funding for programs that combat racial segregation and unfair disciplinary practices that disproportionately affect students of color. Read Bernie’s Thurgood Marshall Plan For Public Education and Educators ------------------------------------------------------------ Get Big Money Out of Politics and Restore Democracy Together, we are going to create a political system which is based on the democratic principles of one person – one vote – and end a corrupt system which allows billionaires to buy elections. Yes. We are going to overturn Citizens United, move to public funding of elections. We have seen what happens when corporations and billionaires control our system of government to protect their own profit and greed. The era of Wall Street billionaires controlling our government and elections must come to an end, and we must take back our democracy for the American people. Every American, regardless of income and race, must have the freedom to exercise their constitutional right to vote. To make sure every voter counts, we must: Restore the Voting Rights Act. Secure automatic voter registration for every American over 18. Overturn Citizens United. End racist voter suppression and partisan gerrymandering. Abolish burdensome voter ID laws. Re-enfranchise the more than 6 million Americans who have had their right to vote taken away by a felony conviction, paid their debt to society, and deserve to have their rights restored. Make Election Day a national holiday. Abolish super PACs. Replace corporate funding and donations from millionaires and billionaires with public funding of elections that amplifies small-dollar donations. ------------------------------------------------------------ Fair Banking for All Last year alone, Americans paid $113 billion in interest on credit cards. That’s 50 percent more than just five years ago. With a total of more than $1 trillion in outstanding revolving credit card debt and an average balance of more than $6,000, millions of Americans are feeling the squeeze of higher interest rates and excessive fees. Meanwhile, the banks that needed taxpayer bailouts after tanking the global economy during the financial crisis are reaping the profits. Banks made a record $236.7 billion in profits last year, boosted by nearly $30 billion in giveaways from the Trump tax cuts. The median APR on a credit card stands at a record 21.36 percent. Department stores and retail companies charge consumers upwards of 27 percent on their store-branded credit card offerings. For some stores, credit card fees make up more than one-third of their total revenue. And for those who don’t have access to traditional lines of credit, unscrupulous lenders are waiting to take advantage. Cap Interest Rates at 15 Percent In Texas, the average annual interest rate on a payday loan is 661 percent. But in Vermont, the payday loan industry doesn’t exist. That’s because interest rates on small dollar loans are capped at 18 percent. State laws prohibiting usury and excessive interest rates are as old as the founding of the country. In many states, reasonable limits on interest rates are still on the books. But a 1978 Supreme Court case, Marquette National Bank of Minneapolis v. First of Omaha Service Corp, ruled that national banks chartered in other states didn’t have to abide by these laws. Banks can charter in Delaware or South Dakota, where rate caps don’t exist, and charge whatever they want on credit cards to the rest of the country. Congress limited interest rates that credit unions can charge to 15 percent in 1980. When we are in the White House, interest rates on consumer loans and credit cards will be capped at 15 percent across all financial institutions. And states will be empowered to cap rates even lower than 15 percent. We will send a clear message to the modern day loan sharks that we will not allow them to make billions off of keeping working Americans in a state of perpetual debt. We must stop the exploitative lending practices suppressing economically distressed communities. We must ensure every American has the opportunity to grow financially. Large financial institutions leave millions behind 63 million adults in this country are unbanked or underbanked, meaning they lack access to basic financial services like checking and savings accounts. Nearly half of African-American households were unbanked or underbanked in 2017, along with more than 40 percent of Latino households. On top of this, people of color often face discrimination in lending— everything from mortgages to credit cards to auto loans. In 2012, Wells Fargo settled with the Justice Department for over $175 million for mortgage lending discrimination against people of color. That same year, the CEO took home $19.3 million in compensation. In 2017, JPMorgan Chase paid more than $55 million in penalties for discriminatory lending practices, while the bank’s CEO made $29.5 million. Without access to basic banking services or traditional credit options, nearly 12 million people turn to payday loans to make ends meet. Payday loans are short-term, high-interest, high-fee, small dollar loans. The typical payday loan term is two weeks, and the annual percentage rates on them average nearly 400 percent and can reach into the thousands. Most borrowers resort to payday loans to bridge a gap in income. They use the loans to pay off bills or emergency expenses. But payday lenders don’t make their money off of borrowers who pay their loans back on time. Payday and auto title lenders collect their nearly $8 billion in annual fees by trapping consumers in a vicious cycle of debt. African-Americans are twice as likely to take out a payday loan than other racial and ethnic groups. In 2017, Latinos were four times as likely to use a check casher to access funds than whites. According to the FDIC, “36.0 percent of black households and 31.5 percent of Hispanic households had no mainstream credit, compared with 14.4 percent of white households.” The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau under President Obama found that 75 percent of the industry’s revenue came from borrowers who took out ten loans per year. More than 60 percent of payday loans result in borrowers paying more than interest and fees than the initial amount that they borrowed. And 80 percent of payday loans end with the borrower unable to pay or needing to take out another loan to pay off the first, kicking off a spiral of debt. That’s why the CFPB issued rules in 2017 to protect consumers from exploitative practices. But President Trump’s CFPB rolled these rules back. And President Trump is awfully close with the payday loan industry. Payday lenders contributed more than $1 million to his inaugural committee, which is now under criminal investigation. His former acting CFPB Administrator dropped lawsuits against a payday lender who had donated to his Congressional campaign. And the largest payday lending lobbying group moved their annual meeting to a Trump golf club. When we are in the White House, we aren’t going to invite payday lenders to a country club, we are going to end their predatory lending. Allow every post office to offer basic and affordable banking services and end lending discrimination We must ensure all Americans have access to basic financial services and end the exploitative practices of these modern day loan sharks. We will utilize the 31,000 post offices across the country to provide basic banking services. This isn’t radical, or even unusual. More than 1.5 billion people across the world have access to some form of banking at their local post offices. In fact, we used to do it here. From 1911 to 1967, you could bank at your local post office in the United States. In the middle of the 20th century, our postal banks serviced 4 million customers. The Postal Board of Governors and Postmaster General must work with the postal unions to provide banking services. Together, we can create a fair banking system for all. Post offices would offer basic checking and savings accounts, debit cards, direct deposit, online banking services, and low-interest, small dollar loans. It would end the racial disparities in access to banking and access to credit, while also stopping financial institutions from reaping massive fees off the poor and underserved. USPS must act now to use existing authority to implement pilot postal banks. The post office guarantees to deliver your mail in snow and rain, in heat and in gloom of night. It delivers your mail whether you live in a city skyscraper or down a long country road. It can do the same for banking. ------------------------------------------------------------ Revitalizing Rural America https://berniesanders.com/issues/revitalizing-rural-america/ Fundamental change in America’s agricultural and rural policies is no longer just an option; it’s an absolute necessity. With the right support and policies, we can have rural communities that are thriving economically and ecologically. Agriculture today is not working for the majority of Americans. It is not working economically for farmers, it is not working for rural communities, and it is not working for the environment. But it is working for big agribusiness corporations that are extracting our rural resources for profit. For far too long, government farm policies have incentivized a “get big or get out” approach to agriculture. This approach has consolidated the entire food system, reducing farm net income, and driving farmers off the land in droves. As farms disappear, so do the businesses, jobs, and communities they support. Moreover, one in six American children still live in food-insecure homes, industrial agriculture has taken a toll on the environment, and our rural communities have been left in a chronic state of economic decline and decay. Our mid-size and small towns have been decimated. Local businesses were replaced with national chains, many schools and hospitals shut down, and good jobs left at an alarming rate. The next generation of rural Americans is finding better opportunities outside of the small towns where they grew up in. Fundamental change in America’s agricultural and rural policies is no longer just an option; it’s an absolute necessity. Farmers, foresters, and ranchers steward rural landscapes, which benefit all Americans. They provide us with essential resources such as food, fiber, building materials, renewable energy, clean water, and habitat for biodiversity. They also have an enormous potential to address climate change. With the right support and policies, we can have rural communities that are thriving economically and ecologically. The following policies will drive a transition in our agricultural system away from a consolidated, profit-driven industrial model to one that rebuilds and restores rural communities. 1) Policies Leveling the Playing Field for Farmers and Farmworkers 2) Policies to Empower Farmers, Foresters & Ranchers to Address Climate Change and Protect Ecosystems 3) Policies to Foster Investment to Revitalize Rural Communities Policies Leveling the Playing Field for Farmers and Farmworkers Corporate control over agriculture: We need to address corporate consolidation and control of our food and agriculture system — all the way up the food chain from seed companies; fruit, vegetable, and grain growers; food processors; food distributors; and grocery chains. When markets become too concentrated, they begin to act more like monopolies than free markets. Enact and enforce Roosevelt-style trust-busting laws to stop monopolization of markets and break-up existing massive agribusinesses; Place a moratorium on future mergers of large agribusiness corporations and break-up existing massive agribusinesses. According to Food & Water Watch, “consolidation in the pork packing industry has contributed to the 82% decline in the number of hog farms in Iowa between 1982 and 2007.” In our country, just four companies slaughter 85% of beef cattle. USDA reports that between 2000 and 2015 “soybean sales from the largest four sellers rose from 51 to 76%.” Additionally, after the Bayer-Monsanto merger, the two largest conglomerates now control 78% of the corn seed market. If Teddy Roosevelt were alive today, you know what he would say to these behemoth agribusiness companies: He would say, break them up. And, working together, that is exactly what we are going to do. Place a moratorium on vertical integration of large agribusiness corporations. As Food & Water Watch details “Pork packers often secure livestock through contract marketing arrangements with farmers. Farmers agree to deliver a certain number of hogs at a future date. These contracts give farmers a guaranteed market for their hogs, but large contract buyers can extract lower prices and distort and conceal prices.” According to the 2017 USDA Census of Agriculture, 42% of hogs and 96% of chickens in the US were grown under production contracts where the farmer never owns the animal. We must impose an immediate moratorium on agribusiness mergers. Reestablish and strengthen the Grain Inspectors, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA), the agency that oversees antitrust in the packing industry. Lobbyists and the Trump administration have gutted GIPSA and blocked rules helping farmers. As the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition details, “The 2008 Farm Bill required USDA to write regulations to empower GIPSA to provide basic protections for farmers who do business with these companies. But when USDA tried to write the regulations, the meat and poultry industries launched a full-scale attack to get GOP lawmakers to pass appropriations riders to block USDA from finalizing those farmer protections.” Working together, we will restore the agency that enforces antitrust laws in the meatpacking industry – an agency that Trump eliminated. Ensure farmers have the Right to Repair their own equipment. In rural America today, farmers can’t even repair their own tractors or other equipment because of the greed of companies like John Deere. As noted in Wired Magazine, “Farmers can’t change engine settings, can’t retrofit old equipment with new features, and can’t modify their tractors to meet new environmental standards on their own” without going through an authorized repair agent. When we are in the White House, we will pass a national right-to-repair law that gives every farmer in America full rights over the machinery they buy. Reform patent law to protect farmers from predatory patent lawsuits from seed corporations. We cannot continue to allow Monsanto to control 80% of U.S. corn and more than 90% of U.S. soybean seed patents – a situation that has only gotten worse after the Trump administration approved Monsanto’s disastrous merger with Bayer. We are going to reform our patent laws to protect farmers from predatory patent lawsuits from companies like Monsanto. Change regulations to improve markets for family farms — Strengthen organic standards so behemoth agribusinesses cannot circumvent rules and cut out small producers who make investments in their communities and environment. We must begin by reversing the erosion of standards in recent years. According to the Organic Trade Association, The organic food market is now a $50 billion market, and over the last five years, the organic-food business has grown 10% annually, and makes up about 6% of the total food sold in America. The Trump administration has been working to rescind organic rules that organic farmers want. Those certification rules strengthen the sales pitch of organic products to consumers. When we are in the White House, we will undo this damage. Allow meat slaughtered at a state-inspected facility to be sold across state lines. Foreign meat that has “equivalent” inspection standards as our federal standards can be sold across state lines freely in the United States, while state inspected beef cannot, even when those state standards meet or exceed federal standards. This puts domestic producers at a disadvantage. We must level the playing field. Fair trade deals: Our current trade policies encourage overproduction and push low-cost commodities on foreign countries, effectively undercutting and destroying local agricultural systems while enriching multinational corporations. Our agricultural trade policies should not threaten the domestic food security of the U.S. or any of our trading partners. Classify food supply security as a national security issue. We need trade policies that safeguard food security at home and around the globe. Over 800 million people worldwide are affected by undernourishment or food deprivation, including millions of small farmers threatened by climate change, volatile prices, and unfair trade practices. By 2050, food demand is expected to grow by 60% while at the same time the amount of arable land is estimated to shrink due to climate change, urbanization, and soil degradation. We’ve already seen how food insecurity and conflict are linked in ongoing famines in East Africa, South Sudan, and Yemen. When we are in the White House, food supply security will be the core of our national security. Develop fair trade partnerships that do not drive down the prices paid to food producers and that, instead, protect farmers here and abroad. Enforce country-of-origin-labeling so companies cannot import foreign meat for slaughter, passing it off as American grown to undercut domestic producers. Unfair trade policy has let foreign countries overturn our country-of-origin-labeling laws even though 90% of the American people support country-of-origin labeling. We must respect the will of the people and allow them to know where their food is coming from. Ensure a fair price for family farmers: Independent family farms have been decimated by past and current farm policies, in the pursuit of short-run economic efficiency. The food security of the nation still depends on farmers on family-scale farms who are committed to being good stewards of the land and good citizens of their communities and nation. Enact supply management programs to prevent shortages and surpluses to ensure farmers make a living wage and ensure consumers receive a high-quality, stable, and secure supply of agricultural goods. Re-establish a national grain and feed reserve to help alleviate the need for government subsidies and ensure we have a food supply in case of extreme weather events. As we saw with the most recent flooding in the Midwest, we can lose a huge amount of agricultural land and goods in a single weather event. Reform agricultural subsidies so that more federal support goes to small- and mid-sized family farms, rather than that support going disproportionately to a handful of the largest producers. Transition toward a parity system to guarantee farmers a living wage. That means setting price floors and matching supply with demand so farmers are guaranteed the cost of production and family living expenses. Pass comprehensive disaster coverage and allocate payments to independent family farming operations. Provide relief to help prevent independent family farm bankruptcies, which in areas like the Midwest are at their highest level in a decade. Help beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers get fair access to land and resources. When the average age of farmers is 58 and 95% of farmers are white, we need to help new farmers transition on to the land and ensure farming is a viable profession to support their families. Strengthen oversight of foreign acquisitions of American farmland in order to prevent that farmland from being controlled by foreign governments and foreign corporations. According to the New Food Economy, “the most recent figures from USDA show that roughly 25 million acres, about 2% of our national total of 930,000,000 acres, are in foreign hands. And the pace of investment seems to be picking up.” This is a national security issue and we must treat it like one. Invest in beginning farmers to purchase land and equipment for sustainable farming. Allocate government funding to purchase easements to ensure land stays in agriculture. Incentivize community ownership of farmland to allow more people to work the land and produce food for local consumers. Make government owned farmland available as incubator farms for beginning farmers. Incentivize programs — including 4H, extension programs, or others — to ensure diversity of age, race, gender, ability, and sexual orientation so we begin to eradicate systems and cultures that prevent fair access to agricultural land and opportunities. In 2017, 95% of all farmers accounted for were white, with black farmers reporting ownership declining at ten times the rate it did for white farmers. That’s on top of Black farmers losing 80% of their land between 1910 and 2007, in no small part due to systematic discrimination. Today only about 5% of black farmers reporting earning over $50,000, compared to 15% of white farmers.. 52% of American women farmers said they felt gender discrimination. When we are in the White House we will eradicate discrimination in agricultural land and opportunities. Rebuild regional agricultural infrastructure: Past and current policies that support large corporate infrastructure have destroyed small and medium scale agricultural and food processing infrastructure in rural communities. Fund development of local, independent processing, aggregation, and distribution facilities. Incentivize rural cooperative business models and utilities, such as rural electric cooperatives, food co-ops, and credit unions. In 2009, of the 2.2 million total farms in this country, 2,389 were farm co-operatives. What we know is that when employees have an ownership stake in their company they will be more productive and they will earn a better living. Policies to Empower Farmers, Foresters & Ranchers to Address Climate Change and Protect Ecosystems Combat climate change and invest in the working landscape: Our current food system accounts for 25% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Not only can we drastically reduce on-farm emissions, farmers have the potential to actually sequester 10% of ALL human-caused emissions in the soil. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing are the industries most vulnerable to climate change. We need to incentivize farming systems that help farmers both mitigate climate change and build resilience to its impacts. Pass comprehensive legislation to address climate change that includes a transition to regenerative, independent family farming practices. Help farms of all sizes transition to sustainable agricultural practices that rebuild rural communities, protect the climate, and strengthen the environment. Provide grants, technical assistance, and debt relief to farmers to support their transition to more sustainable farming practices. Support a transition to more sustainable management of livestock systems that are ecologically sound, improve soil health, and sequester carbon in soil. Create financial mechanisms that compensate farmers for improving ecosystems. Establish a program to permanently set aside ecologically fragile farm and ranch land. Protect the environment for all rural residents: We have strong federal laws in place, but the current administration lacks the will to enforce them, particularly on mega-farms. Regulations should be scale-appropriate, and focus attention on the operations with largest impact. Farm practices should not infringe on the ability of other farmers and neighbors to carry out the normal activities of farming and rural lifestyles. Enforce the Clean Air and Water Acts for large, factory farms, and ensure all farmers have access to tools and resources to help them address pollution. According to the EPA Inspector General, the EPA has spent over ten years and $15 million failing to develop a reliable method for measuring whether factory farms are complying with the Clean Air act and other regulations of dangerous air pollution. Industrial animal feeding operations, and the millions of pounds of untreated waste they create, are a major source of air pollution and driver of climate change. We will end this weak oversight of factory farms and ensure every farmer has the resources to address all forms of pollution. Ensure rural residents have the right to protect their families and properties from chemical and biological pollution, including pesticide and herbicide drift. Policies to Foster Investment to Revitalize Rural Communities Education: We must prepare the next generation to rebuild, rather than to abandon, rural America. We must guarantee a strong public education system from childcare up to college and jobs training programs for every child and young adult in America. Enact a universal childcare program for every child in America that provides rural Americans access to local daycares. It is unacceptable that more than half of all children in Iowa don’t have access to a childcare space, while tens of thousands of Iowans live in childcare deserts. Increase funding for rural public education including ESL programs, classes for students with disabilities, student transportation, college accredited classes, etc. According to the Center for Public Education, roughly one-fifth of students nationally are in rural schools. In some states, this statistic rises to over one in three students. Rural schools face different challenges than their urban counterparts. About 64% of rural counties report high rates of child poverty, compared to less than half of urban counties. Over the first decade of this century, rural schools saw a 150% increase in Latino students, who are more likely than any other group to require English as a second language programs. Rural schools also report substantially lower access to advanced mathematics and Advanced Placement courses than urban schools. Pay rural teachers a living wage, health benefits and strengthen rural union bargaining power. Research from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) found that “Rural teachers made an average starting salary of $33,200, compared with their suburban counterparts, who earned $40,500. The average salary that same year for a rural principal was $80,200, while suburban principals made $101,600.” NCSL also noted that, “A shortage of teachers and principals across the United States has intensified in recent years, disproportionately affecting rural communities. Rural schools face significant challenges filling vacancies for educators.” Stop consolidating rural schools and start building rural schools that can access and utilize distance learning opportunities. Thirty-five states have considered or passed laws that encourage smaller rural schools to close and consolidate. “In 1930, the country had more than 262,000 public schools. Today only about 95,000 public schools exist, even though the U.S. population has more than doubled since 1930. In many rural areas, schools are still closing.” Provide free higher education, job training, apprenticeship programs and other professional development programs that cover low-income and rural areas. Substantially end the burden of the outrageous levels of student debt in this country. Health care: We will guarantee health care to all people as a right, not a privilege, through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program. Rural people in particular have suffered the negative consequences that result from a lack of access to affordable, quality health care. Access to health care is a top issue for farmers and have some of the highest uninsured rate, in fact 41% of dairy farmers lack health insurance. With Medicare-for-All, small business owners, including farmers, will no longer have to worry about providing health care to their families or employees. Provide funding to rebuild and expand rural health care infrastructure, including hospitals, maternity wards, mental health clinics, dental clinics, dialysis centers, home care services, ambulance services, and emergency departments in rural areas. As part of the Affordable Care Act, Bernie helped create the Community Health Center Fund, which has directed over $20 billion to health centers nationwide in medically underserved areas. In 2017, community health centers served one in five people living in rural areas and almost one million agricultural workers. When we are in the White House, we will provide even more funding for health centers. We will also expand funding for the National Health Service Corps, which places health care providers in underserved areas and will bring more providers to rural America. Expand access to public addiction recovery services in rural areas. None of us is immune to the effects of the opioid epidemic. It doesn’t matter if you live in New York City or rural Vermont. According to the CDC, the drug overdose rates are higher in rural areas than urban areas. Furthermore, in one survey almost 75% farmers they had been directly impacted by opioid abuse. We must make sure people have access to treatment, so they can get help where and when they need it. Lower the cost of prescription drugs and make prescription drugs more accessible to people in rural areas. Promote local foods to encourage healthy lifestyle and wellness, including incentives for schools to source their meals from local farmers. Immigration: Immigrants play critical role in America’s agricultural sector and rural communities, but many undocumented workers live in constant fear of deportation and lack basic human rights. Enact policies that allow immigrant workers who already live here to stay in this country. That means long term visas and a pathway to citizenship. Protect farmworkers from Trump’s deportation machine. Enforce fair and just labor laws — including the right to organize and overtime protections — to end wage theft, harassment and discrimination and mass immigration raids. Ensure farmworkers regardless of immigration status can safely report workplace and human rights violations and abuses. Rural Economic Development: Our rural and economic development programs have destroyed employment opportunities, led to an abandonment of rural infrastructure, generally depressed local economies and caused massive population decline in rural America. Ensure access to high-speed broadband internet to every American. It is absurd that we do not have universal, high quality, affordable broadband access for every single American. According to the FCC, 39% of Americans living in rural areas lacked access to high-speed broadband internet and 30% don’t have access to mobile LTE broadband. We need strong broadband coverage across this country if business is going to thrive, create jobs and be competitive in the national and global economies. Quality broadband is essential for health care services, education and for the day-to-day needs of rural Americans. Raise the minimum wage to at least $15/hour. We have got to raise the minimum wage in this country to a living wage of at least $15 an hour. By 2024, the Economic Policy Institute projects that a single childless adult will need at least $31,200 (the annual pay of a $15 full-time worker) to afford a “modest but adequate standard of living” in areas across the United States. According to EPI, a single childless adult in rural Missouri will need to earn $35,706 (a full-time worker earning $17.17 per hour) to “cover typical rent, food, transportation, and other basic living costs.” Start investing in small businesses in rural areas and stop handing out tax breaks to big corporations. Remove Right to Work, pass fair labor laws, and make it easier to form a union, including agricultural and food system workers. When we are in the White House we will end, once and for all, disastrous right-to-work laws, and we are going to pass the Workplace Democracy Act. If we are serious about creating an economy that works for all of us, not just the top 1%, not only do we need to defeat Donald Trump and rollback his anti-union policies, we need to expand the trade union movement in America to roll back wage stagnation for rural and urban workers alike. According to the Open Markets Institute, the average slaughterhouse worker has seen their average wage increase only a few dollars over the last thirty years, while the Chairman and CEO of Smithfield Food’s holding company made $291 million in 2017 or the equivalent of 10,457 slaughterhouse workers. Enact a federal job guarantee that will create good-paying jobs and much needed rural infrastructure. Invest in affordable rural housing housing and end housing discrimination that segregates rural communities by race and income. One quarter of the country’s most rural counties have witnessed spikes in severely cost-burdened households, meaning those that spend over half their income on housing. Roughly one half of rural renters are cost-burdened, meaning they pay at least a third of their income in rent. We need to expand federal assistance for affordable housing in rural areas and reject the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to rural housing programs. Focus substantial federal resources on distressed rural communities that have high levels of poverty. When we are in White House, we will take Rep. Jim Clyburn’s 10-20-30 approach to federal investments. Under this plan, at least 10% of funding for any program would need to go to counties where at least 20% of the population has lived below the federal poverty level for at least 30 years. These nearly 500 counties span the rural and racial divide, including majority black counties in the deep South, predominantly Hispanic counties in the Southwest, Native American communities in the West, and largely white counties in Appalachia. As much as 80% of the counties targeted by the policy can be defined as rural. Provide support for rural community banks, CDFIs, and credit unions, not Wall Street. ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ Bernie 2020 PO Box 391 Burlington, VT 05402 PAID FOR BY BERNIE 2020 (not the billionaires) © Bernie 2020 \| Privacy Policy \| Jobs \| Podcast \| Taxes \| Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion \| Press

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