- Why should working people support you for president?
I am running for president to make sure all Americans have the same kinds of opportunities that I have had. No matter where you live, no matter how much money your family has, no matter what the color of your skin is, in America you should have the opportunity to work hard and get ahead.
I grew up in a small town in rural North Carolina, but I had incredible opportunities all my life. I was blessed to go to good public schools and be the first person in my family to go to college.
For my whole career, I have fought for ordinary working families against powerful special interests. As a lawyer, I stood with kids and families against big HMOs and big insurance companies. Since I entered public service, I have stood up for the working people whose labor made this country great.
Over the last few years, I have helped working families all around the country. I have helped 23 national unions organize thousands of workers into unions. I have participated in more than 170 labor events and organizing drives since 2004. Walking picket lines, calling and writing to employers, and meeting with workers behind closed doors, I have seen firsthand what unions go through every day trying to protect the right to organize, bargain collectively, get a decent wage and get health care.
I’m proud to serve on the board of Americans Rights at Work and to have been honored by the AFL-CIO with the Paul Wellstone Award in 2006. As a candidate for office now, I talk about the importance of unions and organizing everywhere I go.
As president, I will continue to fight for good jobs, stronger unions, universal health care, and the other building blocks of the middle class.
- How will you work to create good jobs and lift living standards in the United States and around the world?
Working families in America are struggling. Wages have fallen in recent years even as the economy has grown. At the same time, the costs of necessities like health care, child care, and education have grown. We’ve seen regressive tax cuts on investment income shift the tax burden onto low-income and middle-class workers.
Unions helped move manufacturing jobs into the foundation of our middle class, and they can do the same for our service economy. I will support strong unions and make it easier for workers to organize. In addition, I support banning the use of permanent replacements for striking workers.
I have proposed a specific plan to guarantee universal health care coverage to everyone in America and make premiums more affordable. Guaranteeing quality, affordable health care will help working families negotiate for better pay and stronger pensions at the bargaining table.
For low-income workers, I will raise the minimum wage to at least $7.50 an hour, triple the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for adults without children, and cut the EITC’s marriage penalty.
We must restore our values to the economy by rewarding those low-income and middle-class Americans who earn a paycheck every week. I will reform the tax code to help working families, make it fairer, and reverse the war on work by making sure families at the top pay their fair share.
Trade deals must include strong labor and environmental standards to lift up workers in all countries. We need to invest in education, science, technology, and innovation to create good jobs and to compete in the global economy. And we need to do much more for the workers and communities that are hurt by global competition.
The United States must also be a global leader in the fight against poverty. Solving global poverty is both a moral imperative and a security issue: poverty creates a safe harbor for instability, extremism, and terrorism. My strategy to fight global poverty will require every weapon in our national security arsenal. It will invest $5 billion a year to help people in three priority areas: primary education, preventive health, and greater economic and political opportunity.
- What are your ideas for solving the U.S. health care crisis and guaranteeing affordable, quality health care to all?
There absolutely is a health care crisis in this country. We must act now to make health care more affordable and guarantee universal health care coverage for everyone in America by 2012.
I am proud to be the first major presidential candidate to propose a specific plan to transform America's health care system and guarantee quality affordable health care for every man, woman and child in America.
Under my plan, businesses will either cover their employees or help pay their premiums. The government will make insurance affordable through new tax credits and by leading the way toward more cost-effective care. New “Health Care Markets” will give families and businesses purchasing power and a choice of quality plans, including one public plan based on Medicare. Finally, once these steps have been taken, all American residents will be required to take responsibility and get insurance. Under my plan, families without insurance will get coverage at an affordable price. Families that have insurance today will pay less and get more security and choices. Businesses and other employers will find it cheaper and easier to insure their workers.
In many important ways, my plan is similar to the AFL-CIO’s proposal. Both plans guarantee health care to every American. Both plans base financing on the principle of shared responsibility. Both plans let individuals keep a choice of doctors and providers. Both plans provide individuals with the option of a public program based upon Medicare. Finally, both plans preserve a role for responsible employers and unions.
- Do you believe corporate interests have too much power today and, if so, how will you work to restore workers’ rights, rebalance power between corporations and working families and ensure that our nation’s prosperity is shared?
I do believe that corporate interests have too much power. You can see it in our economy, where corporate profits are up and most workers’ wages are down. You can see it in Washington, where special interests and lobbyists drown out the voices of regular families.
We need strong unions to restore workers’ voices in the workplace. We need a president who will stand up for the working men and women in our labor movement who have to fight for decent working conditions and a living wage. I am proud to stand beside organized labor. I am proud of the fact that I have walked picket lines and helped organize thousands of workers.
Lobbyists who have legislation in one hand and campaign contributions in the other compromise our government. I support banning contributions from Washington lobbyists to candidates running for federal office, and I have never accepted any contributions from them. I also support public financing for all campaigns for federal office.
- 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 make it law?
Organized labor has been the most important anti-poverty movement in American history, strengthening the middle class and providing good-paying jobs for millions of Americans. Unions have fought for and made better the lives of every working man and woman by giving them a voice. We need stronger unions in this country, and we need a national effort to get them.
I am a proud supporter of the Employee Free Choice Act. Illegal employer efforts to block union drives have unfortunately become commonplace. To level the playing field, we need to make it easier for workers to organize themselves into unions. If a Republican can join the Republican Party by signing their name to a card, any worker in America ought to be able to join a union by doing exactly the same thing. Making the Employee Free Choice Act the law of the land will be a top priority when I am president.
- 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?
The American people are hungry to be inspired and tackle the hard challenges we face. There is no better opportunity than the challenge of poverty. I have challenged America to set an ambitious goal that could fundamentally change our country: eliminate poverty within 30 years. To get there, I have proposed major new initiatives to reward work, break up high-poverty neighborhoods, help families save, and encourage families to act responsibly.
First, as president, I will increase the reward to working by raising the minimum wage to at least $7.50 an hour, tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for adults without children and cutting the EITC marriage penalty. In 2001, a $1 increase in the minimum wage alone would have lifted an estimated 900,000 people out of poverty.
Every American should have the chance to work their way out of poverty, but some willing workers cannot find jobs because of where they live, a lack of experience or skills, or other obstacles like a criminal record. I will create a million short-term jobs to help individuals move into permanent work. To make more jobs good jobs, I will also support the right of workers to choose to join a union and work to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
Second, our current housing policies concentrate low-income families together, isolating willing workers from entry-level jobs and children from good schools. I will create a million vouchers over five years to help low-income families move to better neighborhoods. At the same time, I will phase out housing projects that tie families to certain locations and are often lower quality and more expensive than private sector alternatives. To invest in struggling neighborhoods, rather than abandoning them, I will replace dilapidated housing in areas of concentrated poverty.
Third, we should help working families save. I have proposed new Work Bonds to help low-income, working Americans save for the future. Affordable bank accounts for the 56 million Americans without them and new regulations against payday loans will help struggling families get ahead.
Fourth, our system of public education should be our sturdiest ladder of opportunity. I have proposed expanding access to preschool programs, investing more in teacher pay and training to attract good teachers where we need them most, and strengthening high schools with a more challenging curriculum. As many as one-third of all students drop out of school, and the rates are even worse for poor and minority students. I will create second-chance schools to help former dropouts get back on track.
I will create a national initiative called College for Everyone to pay one year of public-college tuition, fees, and books for more than 2 million students. In return, students will be required to work part-time in college, take a college-prep curriculum in high school, and stay out of trouble.
Finally, we must encourage strong and responsible families. Welfare reform required mothers to work and helps them find jobs, but it failed to do the same for fathers. I will help fathers find work, require them to help support their children, and increase child support collections by more than $8 billion over the next decade and use those payments to benefit children. We also need to address the American teen pregnancy rate, which is one of the highest in the industrialized world.
- What solutions do you propose to help workers handle their work and family responsibilities?
It’s never been harder to be a working parent. Families are working 10 more hours a week than they did a generation ago. I will expand the Family and Medical Leave Act to let workers take time off when they need it to care for themselves or family members, and I support legislation guaranteeing paid sick days. I support more resources for childcare and after-school programs to give children a safe place to learn while their parents are at work.
We also need to help families care for aging relatives. There are 9 million senior citizens who need long-term care. My health care plan will also strengthen Medicaid’s support for long-term care and emphasize home- and community-based care to allow caregivers to keep their parents nearby.
- 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?
American manufacturers are struggling with misguided trade policies, high health care costs, and indifference to their problems from the White House. This storm has been gathering for years, and we need aggressive action on a number of fronts.
First, high health care costs have crippled many manufacturing companies and priced millions of families out of care. As president, I will make health care coverage more affordable. The first step is universal coverage: the cost of caring for the uninsured adds $922 to the cost of an average family policy. I have also proposed ambitious steps to make health care more cost-effective through preventative and chronic care, information technology, and rigorous testing of drugs and devices.
Second, I will change our trade policies. Trade deals need to make sense for American workers, not just corporations, and include strong labor and environmental standards. NAFTA is an example of exactly the wrong kind of trade deal. This spring, I have spoken out against the proposed South Korea Free Trade Agreement, which would be the largest trade deal since NAFTA.
We also need to do much more for the workers and communities that are hurt by global competition. I will vigorously enforce American workers’ rights in trade deals, standing up for trade on fair terms. I will also reform our international tax code to remove incentives for companies to move overseas.
Finally, we need to invest in growing industries and new markets. I will make the investments America needs to build the new energy economy and create more than 1 million jobs. I have proposed that we create a New Energy Economy Fund to invest in research in energy efficient and clean energy technology -- and to accelerate the marketing of the results. The New Energy Economy Fund will help our carmakers lead the world in the energy-efficient cars of the future.
- 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?
Our immigration system needs a fundamental overhaul. Our security is threatened by borders we cannot control. Our economy is harmed by an underground economy featuring a large and unprotected labor force. And our values are violated when 12 million people live in the shadows of our society, vulnerable to abuse and fearful of deportation.
The first step is to control our borders and stop illegal trafficking. We need to increase the number of border patrol agents and invest in surveillance technology to police the borders. We also need to crack down on employers that employ undocumented immigrants.
At the same time, it is unrealistic to think that we can deport more than 12 million people. We need to give the people here the opportunity to earn American citizenship after paying a fine in recognition that they came here illegally and learning to speak English.
I oppose proposed guestworker programs that fail to include a real path to citizenship. America is a land of equals, not a land of first-class citizens and second-class laborers. If we invite you to work in America, we invite you to become an American with all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
- What will you do to make America a leader again in respecting human rights and civil rights at home and around the world?
America must do whatever it takes to defeat terrorism, but lasting victory will take moral as well as military strength. We are not the nation of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.
As president, I will close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, which has become a symbol that galvanizes our enemies and alienates our allies. I will protect our troops and our values by upholding the Geneva Conventions anywhere American security forces -- military or civilian -- are engaged. I will end President Bush’s illegal program of warrantless domestic spying. And I will restore the right of habeas corpus and bring all accused detainees to justice.
We have so much more work to do in order to undo our nation’s shared legacy of discrimination and inequality. More than 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, our education system remains shockingly unequal. White Americans are still almost twice as likely as African Americans to have completed college. Women make 77 cents for every dollar a man makes, and the gap is even larger for African American and Latina women. It is wrong that people of color have higher cancer rates and higher cancer mortality rates, and make up more than three-quarters of people newly diagnosed with HIV. Deceptive practices and discrimination still deny many communities of color the meaningful right to vote.
I have outlined a comprehensive agenda to ensure that every American has an equal chance to succeed. We need to secure voting rights in communities of color by restoring the right to vote in all federal elections to ex-offenders who have served their sentences; requiring paper ballots in all voting machines while facilitating access for the disabled and speakers of minority languages; and allowing voters in federal elections to register on Election Day. I will also strengthen the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and choose judges who are committed to protecting civil rights. To open the door to a higher education for millions of young people, we must continue to support affirmative action and enact a College for Everyone initiative so that every young person who is willing to work hard has the chance to get an education and get ahead. And I support important pending civil rights legislation including the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the hate crimes bill.
- What is your position on the U.S. involvement in Iraq?
There is no military solution to the problem in Iraq; we need to have a political solution. All of the parties in Iraq need to take responsibility for the future of their country, and that will only happen when they realize that American troops are really leaving. My plan calls on Congress to use its funding power to stop the surge and force an immediate withdrawal of 40,000 to 50,000 combat troops from Iraq, followed by an orderly and complete withdrawal of all combat troops in about a year.
Once we are out of Iraq, the U.S. must retain sufficient forces in the region to prevent a genocide, deter a regional spillover of the civil war, and prevent an Al Qaeda safe haven. We will most likely need to retain Quick Reaction Forces in Kuwait and in the Persian Gulf. We will also need some presence in Baghdad, inside the Green Zone, to protect the American Embassy and other personnel. Finally, we will need a diplomatic offensive to engage the rest of the world in Iraq’s future—including Middle Eastern nations and our allies in Europe.
- Will you change our nation’s tax and budget priorities? If so, how?
Our country is facing large challenges, and there are large investments we need to make to meet those challenges. We need to provide universal health care, stop global warming and build the new energy economy, and invest in education.
We need to be honest about the costs of these proposals. As president, I will pay for new investments in these areas and still reduce the deficit by repealing the Bush tax cuts for families making more than $200,000 a year, collecting unpaid taxes, and cutting wasteful spending. However, I do believe that there are more important things for our economy and our country than balancing the budget.
Our tax code should be simpler and fairer, and should reward work. As president, I will cut taxes to help low-income workers and to help middle-class families afford health insurance. At the same time, I will repeal the Bush tax cuts for families making more than $200,000 a year and invest the revenue to provide health insurance to every American. I will also close abusive tax loopholes and crack down on tax evasion.
President Bush’s lower tax rates on investment income are part of a regressive tax scheme that has shifted the burden of taxation onto middle-class workers. It is economically dangerous and morally wrong when a millionaire sitting by his swimming pool pays lower taxes on his unearned income than a nurse pays for working overtime. These regressive tax policies have come at a time when we have the greatest income inequality since the Great Depression. As with the estate tax, I believe these resources are better spent giving health insurance to every American family.
- 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?
Social Security is one of the most successful government programs in history. It lifts 13 million senior citizens out of poverty every year. I am committed to protecting retirement benefits for working Americans. I strongly oppose President Bush’s efforts to privatize Social Security, which would cut guaranteed benefits and risk individuals’ Social Security funds in the stock market.
Ultimately, we cannot solve Social Security without a package of reforms that earns the support of both Democrats and Republicans. Like the Greenspan commission appointed in 1981 – when the trust fund had only two years left – any solution should be non-ideological, strongly bipartisan, and committed to the goals of ensuring every American can retire with dignity and extending the life of the Trust Fund.
For a century, defined benefit pension plans have allowed workers, particularly unionized workers, to retire with security and dignity. Too often, however, employers have not kept their promises to workers. I support steps to strengthen defined benefit pensions.
Employees who have worked hard all their lives should not be denied the pension benefits they have earned. While younger workers may like the mobility of cash-balance plans, these pensions penalize older workers. We cannot allow companies to switch out of defined-benefit plans, in order to deny long-term workers their pensions. We need to protect these workers and ensure they do not lose retirement benefits. I will also ensure the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation remains solvent and that executives do not walk away with millions while companies are going bankrupt.
- 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?
In America, every child should be able to go as far as his God-given talents and hard work will take him. As the first in my family to go to college, I know that our system of public education should be our sturdiest ladder of opportunity.
We all pay a price when young people who could someday find the cure for AIDS or make a fuel cell work are sitting on a stoop because they didn't get the education they need. Our education system needs fundamental change. More than 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, our education system remains shockingly unequal. There are nearly 1,000 high schools where more than half of the students won't graduate. Minority 12th-graders read at the same level as white 9th-graders.
Our education system’s emphasis on standardized test scores shortchanges the skills our children need for the future such as math and science, creativity and critical thinking. Every day you can read reports about how we're falling behind in math and science. Our 9th-graders are 18th in the world in science education.
There is no shortage of work to be done. We need to expand preschool for three- and four-year-olds. We need a serious, sustained effort to turn around struggling schools. We should invest in our teachers, the most important part of any school. We need to do more to recruit them, train them, and pay them, particularly in math and science and other places where there are teacher shortages.
We also need to address the dropout crisis. Many dropouts realize dropping out was a mistake. America is about second chances, so I don't see why we shouldn't have “second-chance schools” to lift up former dropouts, offering them one-on-one attention and a chance to earn a diploma at night or at a local community college.
I have released a plan to make college more affordable for millions of students. I will create a national initiative called College for Everyone to pay one year of public-college tuition, fees, and books for more than 2 million students. In return, students will be required to work part-time in college, take a college-prep curriculum in high school, and stay out of trouble. It is based upon a pilot program I helped start in Greene County, North Carolina, that will help more than 125 students enroll in college next fall. I will also simplify the process of applying for student aid and expand access to college counselors in high-poverty high schools.
- How do you propose to move our nation toward energy sufficiency, stop global warming and protect our environment?
Our generation must be the one that ends our nation's dependence on oil and ushers in a new energy economy. If we harness American ingenuity, we can emerge from the crisis of global warming with a new energy economy that stimulates innovation, brings the family farm back to life, and creates jobs in America's farms and industries.
I will set an economy-wide limit on the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, reducing emissions by 80 percent by 2050. At the same time, a cap-and-trade system will use market forces to reduce pollution in a cost-effective and flexible manner, with the sale of permits financing investment in a New Energy Economy Fund.
Second, I will create a new energy economy and 1 million new jobs by investing in clean, renewable energy. The New Energy Economy Fund would jumpstart clean, renewable, and efficient energy technologies, taking into account both energy and economic needs. These steps, similar to those championed by the Apollo Alliance initiative, will spark innovation, create a new era in American industry, and bring new life to our family farms.
We need to find a way to use coal without heating the planet. As president, I will require that all new coal-fired plants be built with the required technology to capture their carbon dioxide emissions, so plants built today will be able to permanently and safely store their carbon emissions tomorrow. I am committed to investing $1 billion a year in research and testing to jumpstart the means to store large amounts of carbon dioxide safely underground.
Finally, I will meet the demand for more electricity in the next decade through efficiency, instead of producing more power, while maintaining a diverse and reliable supply. It is often cheaper and cleaner to save energy rather than produce more of it.
- What would you do to curb outsourcing of public service jobs to the private sector, which can result in reducing the pay and benefits of workers who perform such services?
I believe we have to set real standards for firms that perform government contracts, so that we are not rewarding irresponsible contractors or subcontracting to sweatshop producers. Government procurement should create higher standards and better working conditions for American workers. Contractors who work for the federal government should meet a gold standard for labor relations with their own employees. Firms that violate the law ought to have their current and future contracts put in serious jeopardy.
We need to hold contractors to the same high standards as we do government workers. They must be held accountable for meeting federal laws and for the quality of the services they provide. As president, I would reinstate the contractor responsibility rules that were suspended by the Bush administration directing federal contracting officers to consider a company's record of compliance with labor, environmental, tax, antitrust and consumer protection laws before awarding government contracts.
I will halt President Bush's efforts to outsource federal jobs to private contractors without giving public employees a fair chance to compete for the work. Rather than conducting even-handed competitions, the Bush Administration has run an ideological effort to send as many jobs as possible to the private sector. Employees are not guaranteed the right to submit their own best bids, and contractors can gain an unfair advantage by providing inferior benefits. I co-sponsored the Truth, Responsibility and Accountability Act when I served in the Senate to address these issues.
And there is some work—work that involves inherently governmental functions—that simply should never be contracted out.
Finally, we must make sure Washington works for regular families, not special interests like big contractors that use their corporate assets to land lucrative contracts. First, I will bar federal contractors—including their senior executives, lobbyists and directors—from making donations to presidential candidates and political parties for one year before or after bidding on a major government contract. Second, I will stop the revolving door for contractors: In my administration, private sector executives seeking government contracts will not be able to take official contracting jobs for 12 months, and similarly, those with responsibility for contracting would not be able to go to firms seeking contracts for 12 months.
- 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?
I start with a basic belief: The simple act of doing your job should not cause you harm. However, from nursing homes to chemical plants, from meat processing to transportation, ergonomic risks have not been addressed in every sector of our economy. For example, nursing homes are some of the most dangerous workplaces in America. Nursing assistants in these facilities suffer injuries at twice the national average—more than 18 percent of them are hurt every year. George Bush's voluntary guidelines have left workers exposed.
I've been working on these issues for a long time and I have consistently stood up for workers. As a senator, I strongly opposed the Bush Administration's abandonment of ergonomics standards. As president I will implement new mandatory ergonomics standards that are centered around workers and their safety. As president, I will issue a broad, mandatory safety and health standard requiring employers to establish programs to systematically find and fix hazards.
No workers should fall through cracks in the law. That's why in the Senate, I co-sponsored the Protecting America's Workers Act to ensure that every American worker is protected by federally-approved safety and health standards in the workplace. As president, I will make it law.
To make sure change starts at the top, I will appoint a chief at OSHA who is a workers' advocate with personal experience in a workplace with safety problems. I will also empower workers by giving individuals and unions a voice in OSHA investigations. In the Senate I fought against the nomination of Eugene Scalia—one of the leading opponents of ergonomic safety rules—to be Solicitor of the Labor Department.
Unions have been leading advocates for workplace safety, but they should not be alone. Workers deserve support from the government to ensure that OSHA enforces the law. Prosecuting more cases is key—a law is only as strong as the enforcement behind it. I will reverse George Bush's budget cuts to OSHA, an already overtaxed agency, and give it the resources it needs to do its job.
To ensure the law is enforced, I will strengthen protections for workers who report injuries or unsafe conditions, including an expedited process for hearing complaints of retaliation. I will require companies to temporarily rehire a whistleblower while their case is heard. We also need stronger penalties for violations, because existing punishments are not strong enough to change the behavior of employers who repeatedly violate the law. Further, employers should be required to fix urgent safety issues while they are appealing fines.
