So-called free trade agreements such as NAFTA and CAFTA have resulted in the loss of millions of good jobs in manufacturing, agriculture and services. Indiana and the 9th District have especially been hard hit with job losses. This in turn, has led to massive home foreclosures, bankruptcies and the breakup of families and communities.
We need Congressional leaders to fight for what is in the best interests of our nation and the best interests of residents of the 9th District. I will be one of those leaders, and I will fight for the 9th District.
Like most people, I value fairness. I believe in equal pay for equal work, regardless of gender, race, creed or sexual orientation. I support a minimum wage, pegged to a living wage, so that all workers can share in the fruits of their labor.
We need to develop trade policies that protect the rights of workers, the needs of our communities, and our national interests. I oppose privatization schemes that plunder public resources for private gain. I would favor legislation to make it a crime to sell publicly financed highways, such as the Indiana Toll Road, to private interests.
We must bring about tax fairness to bridge the widening gap between rich and poor. I would end the tax cuts for the wealthy that were pushed through by the Bush Administration. While those tax cuts may have resulted in greater investment and the creation of jobs, those jobs are often located overseas in places like China and India. We need tax policies that encourage investment here at home.
We should be investing in our nation’s infrastructure. The recent bridge collapse in Minnesota underscores dramatically why this is needed. The New Orleans levees were known to be in need of repair, and the storm was known to be coming, long before the tragedy happened. In addition to maintaining existing highways, bridges, levees and dams, we should embark on developing innovative projects for the 21st Century, on a magnitude not seen since the New Deal policies of the 1930s. These projects could employ millions doing the much-needed work. At the end we would have people with the skills we need for a post-peak oil economy, and an infrastructure that works. Some of those projects could restore our forests and soil; some could insulate homes, offices and industry; some could build the alternative energy technologies we urgently need. We can create links between our cities and communities with high-speed rail, fiber optic cable, greenways and developing the efficient use of safe, clean and renewable sources of energy to break our dependence on oil.
For the chronically unemployed we should restore the Works Projects Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) to revitalize our cities and towns and upgrade our national parks.
To help pay for this, I propose major cuts in government spending by eliminating waste and fraud throughout the government. For example, we are building an embassy in Baghdad, that boasts to be the largest in the world, which will cost U.S. taxpayers $600,000,000. That is 600 MILLION dollars! This is money we should be spending in our own country, in our communities here at home. It is time to reset our priorities.
