- Why should working people support you for president?
I believe that this election should be based on qualifications, on who has the best vision for this country, on who has the clearest positions, and on who has the record – not just the rhetoric.
I've been in the arena. I believe I'm the candidate with the most national security and foreign policy experience. I’m the candidate who has balanced state budgets, expanded access to health care, raised teacher salaries, and protected the environment.
I've been a Governor, and I can govern. I can bring people together, solve problems, and get things done.
In New Mexico, we’ve created 80,000 new jobs and led our efforts in making New Mexico 6th in job growth. And at the same time, I reinstated collective bargaining for public employees and secured the first public works labor agreement in New Mexico history.
I've made New Mexico the clean energy state by adopting environmental standards that exceed the international Kyoto standards and requiring utilities to produce energy from renewable sources.
I pushed for and signed legislation increasing New Mexico’s minimum wage to $7.50. We've cut taxes for every New Mexican and targeted cuts to lower and middle income people, single parents and eliminated the sales tax on groceries.
What this country needs is somebody that can work across party lines and end the war in Iraq. That can restore America's credibility internationally. That can restore the rights of and respect for the working people of this country. That can fight against the effects of global climate change. That can make America become energy independent with a “man on the moon” type of program that eliminates our dependence on foreign oil .
I believe I am the best candidate. I have the best vision and the best background to be President.
- How will you work to create good jobs and lift living standards in the United States and around the world?
Our next President must restore this country’s focus on the middle class. Families in this country are squeezed, and they need a fair shake. Over the past several years, middle class incomes have declined; although worker productivity has increased, the gains have gone into profits at the top, not toward wages and salaries for most Americans. Real earnings, pensions and health insurance benefits are dropping, while the costs of living are rising.
The next President needs to fight for higher salaries, stronger benefits, and lower costs for America’s families.
That’s got to start with job creation and economic growth: I would roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent and keep the tax cuts for the middle class. Instead of tax cuts for the wealthy, I would propose a tax credit for companies that create jobs here in America that pay above the prevailing wage. In New Mexico we only provided incentives for jobs that pay a good wage and provide health benefits. As a result, we became the state with the sixth highest job growh rate in the country. We grew the economy in New Mexico, and I’ll do the same as President.
We also need to help families with the cost side of the equation. Health care, child care, college – they all cost too much.
In New Mexico, we provided health care coverage to every child under five. We established early childhood programs for four-year-olds and we guaranteed kindergarten to every five-year-old. And we expanded our college scholarship program so more people could get the education and training they need. We did all of that, cut taxes and we also balanced the budget and increased our state’s rainy day funds by billions.
As President, I will focus on helping middle- and low-income families by creating a universal health care system, providing early childhood education, expanding the opportunity for every American to attend college, and eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax for the Middle Class.
The United States also should do its part to fight poverty throughout the world. As President, I will lead a multinational Marshall Plan for the 21st Century that coordinates aid, education, and health care to Africa and the Middle East. Such an effort benefits not only those living in abject poverty, but also our own nation by ensuring a more stable, more secure global community.
- What are your ideas for solving the U.S. health care crisis and guaranteeing affordable, quality health care to all?
American families are struggling under the current system. As a Governor, I deal with these issues every single day. And I’ve done it by controlling costs and balancing the budget. It’s time for the federal government to step up and get to work. A Democratic President will be inheriting a mess after 8 years of a Republican administration that has not invested in our nation’s health. I had the same problem in New Mexico and am proud of my record of expanding access, improving quality, and controlling costs.
Since 2000, health care premiums for American families have risen by over 80 percent. People can’t afford it. Each day, 4,000 more Americans lose coverage. All of us end up paying the price. The high costs are bad enough, but our healthcare system is also inefficient. About 31% of health care expenditures are for red tape instead of direct care. We have 50 different state Medicaid programs and a Medicare system administered by hundreds of different health plans. We need a responsible, common-sense approach. My plan consists of new ideas using proven methods. It will not create any new government bureaucracies.
Imagine everyone having access to the same quality of healthcare as members of Congress and the President. Americans deserve no less. My plan includes the following solutions to achieve universal health care:
-Working families and small businesses will be able to purchase coverage through the same plan that members of Congress and the President have.
-Americans 55 to 64 will be able to purchase coverage through Medicare.
-Veterans will get access to the high-quality care they deserve, when they need it, without bureaucratic hassles. Under my plan, every veteran returning from active duty would receive a Heroes Health Card that provides them with a choice of providers wherever they live. No one who has served in our military should have to drive 100 miles to the nearest VA facility just to get care. It’s high time we treat our military personnel and veterans with the respect they deserve. I’ve done it as Governor of New Mexico, and I’ll do it as your next President.
My plan also keeps costs under control through a partnership between businesses, employees, and government – state & federal.
-Everyone who needs help in affording coverage will get an advance refundable tax credit based on income.
-We will clamp down on credit card companies that charge outrageous interest rates for medical care charges. Lenders need to do their fair share.
-Like auto insurance, all Americans will to have to have health coverage and employers will pay their fair share of employee health care costs.
-We will invest in prevention, streamline administration, and support healthier lifestyle choices. As Governor I’ve done a lot of work in this area. We took junk food out of schools and added Physical Education back in. And just last week, I signed a bill that bans smoking in all public buildings.
My plan is the reasonable and safe path to giving everyone in America access to quality healthcare. With my plan, no new government bureaucracies are created, and families who like their current plans can keep them. We don’t need to raise taxes to get things done. We do need to reprioritize how we spend though. We’ve spent more than $400 billion dollars on Iraq. Think of what we could do if we were to spend some of that money right in our own country, on healthcare for Americans.
It’s time to make this happen. Americans want secure, affordable health care. My common-sense approach will help all Americans get to that day when they no longer have to worry about how they will afford health care.
- Do you believe corporate interests have too much power today and, if so, how will you work to restore workers’ rights, re-balance power between corporations and working families and ensure that our nation’s prosperity is shared?
Yes, I believe that too many corporate interests wield too much power over the interests of working families. Our nation must ensure that prosperity is within reach for everyone willing to work hard and play by the rules.
Under President Bush, however, workers’ rights have been weakened. In 2006, for example, the National Labor Relations Board expanded the definition of the ‘supervisor’ classification, which eliminated the right of eight million workers to bargain collectively.
I am proud of my record in fighting for workers as Governor of New Mexico. One of my first actions as Governor was to reinstate collective bargaining for public employees, including Fair Share. We also secured the first public works labor agreement in New Mexico history. And we made our prevailing wage a union wage.
As President, I will continue these efforts on a national level by:
-Protecting the right to unionize and collective bargaining by supporting the Employee Free Choice Act.
-Indexing the minimum wage to inflation.
-Protecting existing private and public sector pensions, and creating a universal pension that provides portability for all Americans. It would resemble traditional IRAs, but funds would be transferred directly to a new account when a worker changes jobs. These universal pensions would also be excluded from means testing for federal support programs and student loans/grants.
-Closing corporate tax loopholes that just amount to corporate welfare. I would crack down on corporate welfare with a National Commission that works just like the base realignment and closing commission. Congress would have to vote up or down - no amendments.
Our next President must work tirelessly on behalf of working families so that everyone has a chance at the American Dream. This means we must restore workers’ rights and return to an equitable balance between working families and corporate interests. As your next President, I will be committed to making this a reality.
- What role do you believe unions play in our economy and society, and what will you do to restore the freedom of all working people to join together in unions to bargain for a better life? Do you support the Employee Free Choice Act that passed the U.S. House of Representatives on March 1 and is being considered in the U.S. Senate, and will you work to make it law?
Unions have played and will continue to play a critical role in our economy. Organized labor helped create the middle class, and its contributions should not go unnoticed. The next President must work very hard to reverse the damage done to workers by the Bush Administration: record debt, stagnant wages, shrinking benefits, rising costs, and the lowest job creation numbers since the Hoover Administration.
The next President must strengthen the right to collective bargaining. We must institute card check recognition – just like I did as Governor in New Mexico. If an employer then fails to bargain in good faith, there should be mediation and arbitration for their contract. I did that too. And there should be stronger penalties for employer violations while workers are attempting to form a union.
One of the first actions I took as Governor was to reinstate collective bargaining for public employees. Then we dramatically expanded health benefits for state employees and produced one of the most generous labor contracts in the country. We also secured the first public works labor agreement in New Mexico history. And we made our prevailing wage a union wage.
Our next President must focus on raising wages, increasing the number of high-quality jobs, expanding workforce training, and supporting unions – just like I did as Governor in New Mexico. The United States must restore its commitment to its labor force, and so our next President must also embrace the Employee Free Choice Act.
Since my administration began, we’ve helped over 84,000 additional New Mexicans find jobs. We did this by creating a specific tax credit for creating good-paying jobs. We made our rural jobs tax credit permanent and passed a three-year tax holiday for high-tech startups. We invested state money in local companies that showed promise. And importantly, rather than use tax cuts to reward the wealthy, I will continue to use them to reward putting people to work.
And I’ll replace the Bush tax cuts – which were unfair, fiscally irresponsible, and didn’t even work in creating economic growth – with tax cuts tied specifically to job creation.
For too long, working Americans have been underappreciated and misunderstood by the current Administration. As President, I will join the efforts of working families and together we will reinstate the rightful place that labor has at the negotiating table. Only then can everyone in our country have a chance at living the American Dream.
- How will you approach helping low-income individuals and families secure living wage jobs, health care, housing and other basic needs to escape the trap of poverty?
New Mexico has high poverty – particularly amongst children – and we're doing all we can to reduce it. Nothing has been a greater priority to me in my four and a half years as Governor. First, we provided free health insurance for all children five and under who otherwise couldn’t afford it. This makes a difference with a lot of low income working families.
We raised the state’s minimum wage to $7.50 an hour.
We now have full day kindergarten in New Mexico and we're in the process of making pre-K available in every school district.
We provided direct assistance to poor families with a state earned income tax credit, a working families tax credit, and we eliminated the tax on groceries. Since much of our low-income families live in rural parts of my state, we're promoting economic development in these areas with our Mainstreet Jobs program and by making our rural tax credit permanent.
Now we need help at the national level -- we need universal health insurance, and I think I have the best plan. Everybody must have insurance and every employer must help pay. Anyone can buy into the Federal Employee Health Care Program, or into Medicare if you're between 55 and 65.
We must also invest in economic development by establishing specific tax credits for creating good-paying jobs. Instead of using use tax cuts to reward the wealthy, I will use them to reward putting people to work.
- What solutions do you propose to help workers handle their work and family responsibilities?
Since 1969, the amount of family time available to an American working couple has declined by 22 hours a week, which means that, on average, children growing up today will see their parents a total of 2 years less throughout their entire childhoods.
Since 1985, the average workload has increased by two additional 40-hour workweeks, and the number of family dinners has declined by one-third.
Clearly Americans are having to work harder just to make ends meet, and finding quality time with our children is becoming more and more difficult. And yet, few things are as critical to a child’s development as quality time with his or her parents. To help families increase their time with each other, our next President must adopt policies that promote higher wages, assistance with child care, and more flexible work options.
My state has been a national leader in piloting an At-Home Infant Care program. This program assists lower-income working parents with partial replacement of wages so parents can spend more time at home with infants.
As President, I will strive to help families increase the amount of family time by:
-Offering tax credits to those businesses that establish “family friendly” flex schedules, telecommuting options, and on-site daycare facilities. Such measures not only help increase family time, but also reduce carbon gas emissions that harm our environment.
-Promoting smart growth policies that benefit families. With smart growth planning that reduces commute times in our cities and towns, we can dramatically reduce the commutes of working parents and increase the time they can spend with their families.
- What will you do to revitalize our manufacturing sector, stop the export of our best jobs and reform our trade policy so it supports good jobs at home and contributes to a healthy environment and equitable development here and abroad?
I believe in free trade, but it must also be fair trade. As president I will not support any trade deals that do not include strong labor and environmental protections. We cannot allow free trade to become a world-wide search for the lowest wages or as a catalyst for more pollution.
And we have to create good paying jobs here in the United States. As Governor of New Mexico I’ve helped create over 84,000 jobs, many of which were high-wage. We did that by passing a tax credit for companies that create jobs above the prevailing wage, instead of rewarding companies that move jobs overseas. I’ll do the same thing as President.
- What are your ideas to develop a reasonable immigration system that protects the rights of all workers and provides a path toward citizenship for hard-working, tax-paying immigrants who come to our nation seeking a better life?
I am committed to enforcing our borders and pushing for immigration reform. We need tough, effective border control and building a fence will not increase security; only more border patrol manpower will. I believe in realistic immigration reform that requires undocumented workers to earn their legal status. If they are to remain in our country, they must pay fines for illegally crossing the border, learn English, pay taxes, and obey our laws.
In New Mexico, in 2005, I declared a State of Emergency along the border with Mexico. Violent crime, drugs, and lawlessness were out of control, and no one in Washington D.C. was addressing the issue. The declaration made $1.75 million available to local law enforcement along the border. As a result, law enforcement increased the number of drug arrests and caught more undocumented immigrants. The New Mexico border town of Village of Columbus, for example, saw an 80 percent reduction in crime.
As President, I will secure the border by hiring and training enough patrol guards to cover the entire border. We need to more than double the number of guards at the border and provide them with the best surveillance technology available.
We must establish a realistic path to legalization for those who are already here. This is not amnesty, but an effort that draws out those already here by offering legal status in exchange for good behavior, learning English, payment of back taxes, and fines for illegal entry. Applicants would also pay an application fee and undergo a medical examination and background check. Those who break the law they will be immediately and permanently deported. The number of guest workers allowed at any one time must be based upon the needs of the US economy. The goal must be to meet demand for jobs that go unfilled by American citizens, and no more.
We also must crack down on immigration fraud and illegal workers by:
-Offering “informant visas” and cash rewards for aliens who provide law enforcement with credible information on human traffickers and document forgers.
-Establishing a “fraudulent documents task force” to constantly update law enforcement and boarder officials on the latest fraudulent documents being marketed for entry into the United States.
-Improving identification documentation of immigrant workers. We need a national system to reliably and instantaneously verify the legal status of every job applicant and worker. We cannot stop illegal immigration if we continue to look the other way on illegal employment.
-Stepping up enforcement and increase fines and/or jail time for employers who hire undocumented immigrants. After establishing an ID system, employers will have no excuses: those who knowingly hire undocumented workers must face serious and certain penalties.
I also believe we must work in partnership with the Mexican government and other nations. We must develop border infrastructure to move goods through the free-trade zones along the border, revitalizing communities on both sides of the border and creating much-needed jobs. We will also work with the Secretary of the Organization of American States on Latin American initiatives that focus on economic development and immigration. We need to demonstrate to OAS member states that they have an equal responsibility to solve the immigration problem.
- What will you do to make America a leader again in respecting human rights and civil rights at home and around the world?
I would make it a priority to repair our image abroad. It is such a stark contrast – the day after 9-11, the world was proclaiming, “We are all Americans”. Nearly six years later, America’s reputation as a beacon of democracy and liberty has been tarnished.
It shouldn’t be this way – America is a nation with strong ideals, and I will work hard to restore our image abroad.
We must restore our alliances and lead by example. We must abide by the Geneva Conventions and join the International Criminal Court. We must lead the world in preventing climate change. We must reward countries that respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – and we must negotiate with those who do not. We must lead the fight against global poverty – which is the reason for so much violence.
We must use war as a last option – only after all diplomatic means have been completely exhausted.
I know from my negotiations with some of the world’s worst despots, that diplomacy without power is weak but power without diplomacy is blind. When I am President, we will reclaim our status in the world by taking these strong and democratic leadership positions.
- What is your position on the U.S. involvement in Iraq?
My plan calls for Congress to take immediate action and de-authorize the Iraq War. Congress authorized the invasion of Iraq under the War Powers Act or under Article 1 of the Constitution and they can now de-authorize it and bring the troops home.
As I said in my February speech to the Democratic National Committee and have repeated many times since, this is the best course of action. De-authorization can’t be vetoed.
Senators Byrd and Clinton recently introduced a bill that begins to address this issue, but it does not go nearly far enough. De-authorization and immediately beginning to withdraw is the only answer.
The original Iraq war resolution was based on fictional WMDs, it did not authorize American troops to serve as targets in the middle of a Civil War.
I was in Congress for 14 years, I know how it works, and I know what they can do. They should de-authorize the war immediately, authorize funding that includes the safe demobilization and redeployment of our troops, and include a provision on withdrawing all troops in 6-9 months. General Batiste, who commanded troops in Iraq, said we could withdraw within 9 months. If the President refuses—take him to the Supreme Court.
I urge Congress to embrace this plan of action and show the President that his defiance of the will of the American people and a vote of Congress will not stand.
The Iraq War is costing Americans $8 billion each month. By implementing my plan to de-authorize the war and withdraw ALL troops by the end of the year, we can start redirecting these funds toward what matters most for Americans: improving education, expanding access to quality health care, and addressing the REAL security threats like the Taliban, nuclear proliferation, and global warming.
My seven-point ‘New Realism Plan for Iraq’ describes in detail what is required:
1. Congressional De-Authorization of War: President Bush has demonstrated neither competence nor honesty nor a sense of reality in his conduct of this war. I support the Feingold-Reid bill to force the President to end the war. Congress must continue to use the power of the purse without cutting funds for troops on the ground, but we should also go one step further. Congress should assert its constitutional authority and pass a resolution de-authorizing the war under the War Powers Act. Congress can then set a military pull-out date and appropriate funds accordingly for the re-deployment of troops.
2. Troops Out Within 6 Months of De-Authorization: We should get our troops out of Iraq. Our continued presence there only enables the Iraqi factions to delay making the hard political choices they need to make to end the civil war.
3. No Residual Forces Left Behind: We must remove ALL of our troops. There should be no residual US forces left in Iraq. Most Iraqis, and most others in the region, believe that we are there for their oil, and this perception is exploited by both Al Qaeda, other insurgents, and anti-American Shia groups. By announcing that we intend to remove all troops, we would deprive them of this propaganda tool.
4. Promote Iraqi Reconciliation: We should promote an Iraqi Reconciliation Conference to bring the factions together to seek compromises and to begin confidence-building measures, including the end of militia violence. Our redeployment will give us more leverage than we have now, caught in the crossfire, to get the Iraqis to reconcile.
5. Work With All Neighbors and Allies: We should convene a regional conference to secure the cooperation of all of Iraq's neighbors -- including Syria and Iran -- in promoting peace and stability. Among the key objectives of such a conference should be guarantees of non-interference, as well as the creation of a multilateral force of UN peacekeepers, should the Iraqis request one. The US should support such a force, but it should be composed of non-US, primarily Muslim troops.
6. Global Cooperation in Reconstruction: We should convene a donor conference to fund Iraq's reconstruction. The United States needs to show the world that we intend to return to our tradition of being a trusted leader, not a unilateralist loner. The process of disengagement is an opportunity for us to show that we have turned the corner, and that we intend to rebuild our alliances, respect international law, and work with the international community.
7. Redeploy to Address Real Threats: We must redeploy some of our troops to stop the resurgence of the Taliban and to fight the real terrorists who attacked this country on 9-11. While all American troops in Iraq must be removed, we need to maintain a military presence in the region, including in Kuwait and in the Persian Gulf. We must have the regional capacity to use air power, special forces and other means to strike Al Qaeda anywhere. We do not need American troops in Iraq to perform this essential task.
We also must bring our National Guard home where they are needed for homeland security, and we must focus our energy and resources on real threats, such as nuclear proliferation, Al Qaeda, public health, and global warming. If Congress does not get this President to disengage, I will do so on my first day in office and pursue the plan I outlined above.
- Will you change our nation’s tax and budget priorities? If so, how?
I would roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent and keep the tax cuts for the middle class. Instead of tax cuts for the wealthy, I would propose a tax credit for companies that create jobs here in America that pay above the prevailing wage. In New Mexico we only provided incentives for jobs that pay a good wage and provide health benefits. As a result, we became the state with the sixth highest job growh rate in the country. We grew the economy in New Mexico, and I’ll do the same as President. I also favor eliminating the estate tax for everyone but the very wealthiest Americans. It is irresponsible to eliminate this tax when President Bush’s policies have placed our nation in serious debt, have entangled us in an expensive war in Iraq, and have left more than 30% of our country’s minority children in poverty. Complete repeal of the estate tax rich would give an average of $17 million to the 750 wealthiest estates. That’s $13 billion that should instead be used for the major problems facing our country.
I am a strong believer in cutting taxes as a way to help working people, encourage business growth and expand the economy. I eliminated the food tax and lowered taxes on medical services, and created tax credits for stimulating high-wage and rural job growth. My policies have worked; since I become Governor in 2003, we now have 84,000 more New Mexicans working.
As President I’ll continue to apply my philosophy by:
-Providing a payroll tax rebate for businesses that add high-wage jobs during the year. Employers would receive a rebate of the difference in increased employer-paid payroll tax for the first year that new employees are added. Additional rebates should be provided for businesses that hire disadvantaged children in high school and college.
-Providing tax credits to support new business in emerging technologies and/or in low-income areas.
-Directing the U.S. Dept of Education to help states expand workforce development programs, focusing on high school-job alignment and college preparation.
-Investing in a Clean Energy workforce development program. Tax credits and low-interest loans would be offered to American Clean Energy companies once they demonstrate job creation.
-Increasing private research investment by doubling the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit from 20% to 40% for high-return, high-job producing technologies.
On the budget side – we must return to fiscal sanity and we can start by ending the war in Iraq, eliminating earmarks, cutting corporate welfare and implementing pay as you go budgeting. My priorities would be to reinvest dollars into universal health care protecting Social Security, and expanding access to health care.
- What do you propose to do to strengthen Social Security and private pensions to ensure that America’s workers can retire with a secure income?
We need to provide long-term security for working families. We do this by balancing the budget and reordering our priorities. The next President needs to stop Washington, DC, from raiding the Social Security trust fund. We need to change the bankruptcy laws to require large corporations to honor pension obligations to their employees. And we need a Universal Pension plan that will make employer and employee contributions fully portable. As Governor, I shored up our teacher pension system; as President, I’ll shore up our nation’s pension system.
- What do you believe are the opportunities and challenges facing public education, and how would your administration deal with each? What policies would you support to help close the achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students, including making college more accessible and affordable?
The United States continues to lag other first-world countries in educational progress. The American school system – designed for the early 20th century – must be restructured to meet the demands of the 21st.
There are a number of challenges facing America’s education system today:
-Lack of Access to Early Education. Only 4 in 10 of the nation’s three-year-olds and only 7 in 10 of four-year-olds participate in any kind of preschool education.
-The Achievement Gap. Minority and low-income kids are much more likely to begin their education without the necessary preparation – such as familiarity with letters and counting numbers. Since they’re behind at the very start, they tend to fall further behind and by the fourth grade are reading about 3 years behind.
-Math and Science Literacy is Under Par. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, American fifteen-year-olds score lower in mathematics and science than students in most other developed countries.
-Low High School Graduation Rates. The high school graduation rate is about seventy percent, while the graduation rate of minorities is much lower: about 56% for African-American students and 52% for Hispanics.
-Current and Future Teacher Shortages. Over a million teachers will be retiring soon, and over the next ten years the United States will need more than two million new teachers. The shortage is most severe in urban and rural schools, and in subjects such as math, science, and special education.
-Inadequate Enrollment and Preparation for Colleges and Universities. Only 57% of students start college in the fall after graduating high school. Of those that do enroll in college, only 34% have college-ready skills. Exacerbating the problem is the fact that college costs have risen by nearly a third over the past decade.
-Serious problems with No Child Left Behind. The current implementation of NCLB serves more to punish the children and schools that need assistance, and deemphasizes the importance of the teacher-student relationship.
Despite these challenges, I am optimistic about our country’s ability to improve our education system and prepare young Americans for a successful future. Giving our young children a good start in their education has been a key priority of mine as Governor, and I’m proud of my record in New Mexico:
-Implemented free full-day kindergarten, available to every five-year-old.
-I also signed a bill, which was inspired by the late AFT National President Sandra Feldman, called the “Kindergarten through 3rd Grade Project.” The program provides students in high-needs schools 20 days of additional instruction before the school year, and 20 days of additional instruction afterwards—and it’s working. AFT Vice President Toni Cortese has expressed interest in coming to visit some of these schools, and I want to reiterate that invitation. -
Pre-Kindergarten. Launched a statewide public-private pre-kindergarten program for four-year-olds.
-Increased funding for classrooms.
-Invested more than $600 million to modernize our schools and reduce class size, giving our teachers the resources necessary to provide high quality education.
-Brought 5,000 laptops to New Mexico’s 7th graders, bringing greater fluency and familiarity in technology.
-Earned National Recognition for Education Reform Efforts. New Mexico earned an “A” for assessments and school accountability in Education Week’s Quality Counts report. The report also showed New Mexico in the top 6 in the nation for efforts to improve teacher quality, moving the state from 30th to 17th. New Mexico also earned the 3rd highest grade for resource equity.
-Expanded efforts to keep kids healthy:
-Moved New Mexico’s ranking for fully immunized children from 49th in the nation to 30th.
-Removed junk food from New Mexico’s schools
-Increased physical education classes and doubled the number of school based health centers
-Implemented a medical and premium assistance program to ensure that every child five and under has access to health coverage.
-Doubled the number of school-based health centers in New Mexico from 34 to 68.
-Created a pilot program that allowed expecting mothers to request home visits from the state Children, Youth and Families Department. These visits helped to prepare mothers for the future, and to improve the health, both pre-natal and post-natal, of mother and child.
As President, I will work closely with teachers and parents to prepare our young children for a lifetime of learning. Specifically, I will: -
Fully fund Head Start—which I was a strong supporter of while in Congress.
-Establish a federal Pre-K program that helps every state offer voluntary pre-kindergarten for every 4-year-old child.
-Promote more parental involvement. Teachers can't educate students in a vacuum; education must be a collaborative effort between home and school, and so we must provide supplementary funding for schools to expand their parent-teacher interaction and help parents become more involved in their children’s education.
-Oppose private school tuition vouchers, especially when funds for vouchers compete with funds for overall improvements in America's public schools. -
Support and expand the number of public charter schools, but insist that they have the same standards of accountability and access as other public schools.
Of course, our children must be healthy in order to do well in school. With this in mind, I will also:
-Make guaranteed affordable health coverage available. This coverage should be used to keep us healthy as well as to pay for our illnesses. It should be affordable and portable, so Americans retain coverage even after moving or changing jobs.
-Expand SCHIP and improve outreach to ensure every American child.
-Increase obesity prevention and reduction efforts by promoting healthy lifestyles, expanding physical education in our schools, developing more stringent school nutrition guidelines, and strengthening private insurance coverage of obesity prevention and treatment for adults and children.
-Expand preventive care programs. Nationally, only 5% of our health care budget is spent on prevention. One way to reduce health care expenditures and costs is to prevent major health issues from arising in the first place.
- How do you propose to move our nation toward energy sufficiency, stop global warming and protect our environment?
Just last week I announced my energy independence plan in a speech titled, “Act Boldly, Act Now” laying out a five point framework breaks our oil addiction, creates competition and value for consumers, strengthens our national security, creates American jobs and will the lead the world toward effective climate protection. Below are the details of my plan:
Goal 1 – By 2020, dramatically reduce oil consumption by as much as 10 million through a series of bold measures:
-Get low and zero petroleum plug-in cars into the marketplace, while sharply reducing the carbon emissions from our electric sector. The pure-electric vehicle offers simplicity and performance for an average daily commute in our larger metro areas, while the plug-in electric car or truck provides more range and flexibility for people who drive longer distances, as it can extend gas mileage above 100 miles per gallon.
-Create a well-to-wheels low carbon fuel requirement that reduces carbon impact of our liquid fuels by 30% by 2020, including ethanol and biodiesel. Requiring conventionally powered cars and trucks, to be flex fuel capable and provide tax credits to the first 10% of gasoline retailers who install renewable fuel pumps.
-Push fuel economy standards to 50 miles per gallon by 2020. -Reduce oil consumption for other modes of transportation-ships, trains, trucks and planes through new technologies, such as fuel-switching to electricity and renewable fuels.
Goal 2—Create new efficiencies and energy sources in the electrical sector:
-Call for a national renewable portfolio standard of 30% by 2020, rising to 50% by 2040—thus mandating utilities to provide a certain amount of renewable energy in the electricity sold to every consumer.
-Push for a law requiring a 20% improvement in energy productivity by 2020. This 20 by 20 proposal has been studied by the Western Governors Association and will save western customers $21 billion a year by 2020.
Goal 3—Reduce greenhouse gas emissions at least 20% by 2020 and 80% by 2040.
-Start with a market-based cap and trade system. By 2020 utilities and industry will be allowed to emit 80% as much global warming pollution as they do today. Combined with transportation sector savings, these changes will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020.
-Move to carbon-clean coal using safe, long-term carbon disposal or sequestration, and deploy these carbon-clean coal technologies here and around the world.
Goal 4—Capitalize and invest in America’s strengths in science and technology
-Establish a national energy innovation trust fund with a one-time funding commitment to provide needed research and technology support, invest in our world-leading institutions and science and technology programs.
Goal 5—America must lead by example and become a beacon of the New Energy Future.
-Immediately return to the international negotiating table and support mandatory limits on global warming pollution and keep atmospheric carbon below 450 parts per million.
-Cooperate with the European Union, the World Bank, the Asian partnership, the UN and our allies around the world to finance the small incremental cost of “doing it right.”
-Work closely with fast-growing nations like China, Brazil, South Africa, and India so that they use new, low-carbon technologies to help meet their energy demands.
-Renew our relations with our largest oil supplies, Mexico and Canada, which supply about 20% of our oil and create a North American Energy Council to stabilize the oil and gas trade, build a continental electrical grid, help bring energy resources and productivity to market throughout the continent and develop a regional system for carbon trading.
- What would you do to curb the outsourcing of public-service jobs to the private sector, which can result in reducing the pay and benefits of workers who perform such services?
Public sector jobs need to be performed by those dedicated to public service. Too often in the past several years, key public tasks been outsourced to the private sector without proper oversight. As we’ve seen with government contracting in Iraq and in many other cases, the results have been abysmal. When I am President, this will change, and public sector jobs will go to public sector employees.
- What would you do to improve job safety and health protections for workers? What is your view on the appropriate balance between mandatory standards/enforcement vs. voluntary approaches? How would you address the issue of ergonomic hazards, which are responsible for one-third of all workplace injuries?
As Governor of New Mexico I have a strong track record of strengthening OSHA standards that will continue if I am elected President. In 2004, for example, the state of New Mexico adopted the strongest regulations in the nation to protect late night workers in convenience stores. This initiative was in response to data showing that late night workers were subject to many crimes and assaults. My regulations set the standard for protection of late night workers by requiring video cameras, limitations on the amount of cash in the stores, panic buttons, training, better lighting, and, perhaps most importantly, two workers in the store at night.
Indeed, our data showed that women working the graveyard shift at night were the most vulnerable, and I wanted them to be protected. The convenience store industry fought these regulations, but I did not waver. And these tough new controls are in place despite this opposition and a lawsuit filed against me by the industry. I intend to continue this tough stance to protect workers from on-the-job hazards as President.
Additionally, when I became Governor, the state mandated OSHA review commission, which reviews enforcement decisions of the state OSHA bureau, had been dormant for many years. The result was an OSHA enforcement program that didn't have any teeth. I changed all that by appointing an aggressive OSHA review commission. I ordered rigorous inspections of oil and gas industry (one of the most dangerous industries in the state) resulting in an unprecedented series of violations. Now, tough decisions by my OSHA bureau are backed up by the commission and violations and penalties have gone up. I will continue these efforts to improve job safety and health protection for workers when I am President.
