Take A Stand Against Corporate Domination
It's no surprise that Congress voted to bail out the banks while working class people are losing their homes and their jobs. The corporations win and the people lose on every issue.
Health Care
We need a system which covers all of us. Socialized medicine, like the British system, or single payer, as in Canada or variations in France, Australia, and Germany provide effective health care for everyone in those countries. The cost is lower and outcomes better than the insurance and pharmaceutical company controlled situation here.
The only member of the U.S. Senate to support single payer health care was an independent, Bernie Sanders, of Vermont. Our Congress gave us a costly plan which requires everyone to buy private insurance.
The Environment
The current Senate "climate" bill should be called the "dangerous venture subsidy act." It provides loan guarantees for nuclear energy development and free allowances to pollute for coal powered plants. It promotes the same kind of "cap and trade" system which has already failed in Europe. Renewable energy development will be voluntary and unsubsidized, while offshore oil drilling is advocated. Our California Senators oppose that practice in our state. How about the rest of the bill?
We need to promote the production and use of clean renewable energy. But most of all, we need to implement infill housing, public transportation, and other social policies which reduce our use of energy, whatever the source, and protect and restore ecosystems.
Immigration
People who come to this country to work or to escape persecution should not be called criminals. Yet all recent Senate immigration legislation has been for increased enforcement only. Barbara Boxer voted for the three failed amendments by McCain, Kyl, and Cornyn to add more funds for border guards and prosecutions to an appropriations bill.
Multinational corporations push legislation like NAFTA and other policies which have decimated jobs in the United States and Latin America. We should not buy the lie that the undocumented are the enemy. They are our fellow workers, and allies in our fight against big business.
War Funding
The U.S. Occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are a colossal waste of lives and resources, both ours and theirs. If we want to end those operations we need to cut off appropriations for them.
But that is not enough We need to stop subsidizing the companies that develop the weapons and the contractors that create the war infrastructure. Altogether, the military, weapons production and contracting consume almost fifty percent of our Federal budget.
Our political system is dominated by two parties that support the corporations. Whether the Democrats or the Republicans are in control, we get a lower standard of living and further environmental degradation. We need to build a political party that supports us, our future generations and our earth.
Statement on attack by the Israeli government
I am outraged by yet another attack by the Israeli government on pro-Palestinian and peace activists. A flotilla bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza was invaded by Israeli armed forces on May 31, 2010 while it was in international waters. At least ten people were killed and many wounded. I hold the United States government equally to blame because it backs Israel militarily and politically. I challenge President Obama, Senator Barbara Boxer and the rest of the U.S. Congress to prove me wrong by joining growing international condemnation of this terrorist act, including signing on to any proposed sanctions against Israel. I call for the withdrawal of all U.S. aid to Israel until it withdraws to its pre-1967 borders.
Preserve and Expand Abortion Rights
Current policy restricts a woman's right to choose an abortion instead of bearing an unwanted child. The recently passed health care bill removes abortion services from any health insurance policy that receives public funding. The Hyde amendments does not allow abortion under Medicaid or military health plans. I would take action to end these restrictions.
Abortion should always be legal. It should be the decision of the pregnant woman. It should be included in a free national health care system.
Education
We need an education system which allows every person to achieve his or her full potential and become part of a cooperative society that is mindful of the needs of all and the health of the planet. Toward this end I support:
An end to the high stakes testing movement that punishes low-income communities and individuals with different learning styles. Replace Race to the Top, No Child Left Behind, and other slogans with high quality facilities, arts programs, science labs, and well compensated teachers and other education workers who understand human development.
Remove religion from the schools, including anti-evolution drivel, abstinence-only sex education, and meaningless pledges to flags and deities.
Ban corporations from any influence over schools and curriculum. Abolish corporate charter schools. Don't allow corporations to control university programs, like British Petroleum at U.C. Berkeley.
Free day care for the children of all workers. Free education from pre-school through graduate school and lifelong learning.
Control of local schools by elected boards, parents, teachers, and students. Allow non-citizens to vote in school board and other local elections.
Jobs and the Economy
We need a stimulus bill which puts people to work building housing, fixing schools and hospitals, and creating, expanding, and improving public transportation systems. We need to clean up toxic sites, restore habitats, and install rooftop solar energy systems. We can fund this by taxing rich people and corporate profits.
The rich and their corporations have too much power. The marginal tax rate on very high incomes was over 90% under Eisenhower. It has been going down steadily ever since. Capital gains taxes have been reduced since the Clinton administration. Now jobs are disappearing. Yet we are told that taxing the rich will hurt us. What a scam!
The truth is that the wealthy do not invest in production of things that we need . They just seek to accumulate more wealth by investing in paper stocks and in manipulating market conditions. The result has been variety of bursting bubbles, most recently the mortgage crisis.
If the rich who control the wealth and resources of the country and the world cannot sustain the economy, it is time for the rest of us, who do the work and pay the consequences, to take charge.