Issue Position: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Response

Issue Position

As I have written in The Journal News, the coronavirus pandemic has exposed many of the deficiencies within our existing safety net, and these deficiencies have made our public health crisis worse than it would otherwise be.

We need Medicare for All. The global pandemic we face demonstrates the need for everyone to have health care as a right, regardless of income or employment. Essential to stopping the spread of coronavirus is timely testing and treatment. But for the 87 million Americans who are either uninsured or underinsured, cost remains a barrier to necessary medical care, which increases the likelihood that the virus will spread. In March alone, 10 million people lost their jobs and now face life without health insurance in a healthcare system where insurance is tied to employment.
We need paid family sick leave in the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Because the FMLA does not require employers to provide paid sick leave, sick people are forced to go to work, subjecting everyone to heightened risk. Those who are diagnosed with coronavirus are told to self-quarantine for 14 days, but millions of American workers cannot afford to do so. Shamefully, the United States is one of only 13 countries worldwide without mandatory paid sick leave. (Compare that to the United Kingdom, which mandates paid sick leave of up to 28 weeks.) Add to the fact that the vast majority of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings, and you can see why many Americans feel they must work while they are sick.
We must end homelessness and poverty. One reason for the delay in closing down New York's public schools in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic is that hundreds of thousands of public school students are either homeless or food-insecure, including tens of thousands of students in Rockland and Westchester Counties. School is the only place where these students can seek shelter or a hot meal. The delay in school closures exacerbated our public health crisis in New York State.
We would all be better off if we learned lessons from this crisis to strengthen our safety net. As I wrote in Nyack News and Views, we must in the meantime deal with the crisis at hand and minimize the economic pain inflicted by the virus.

We must:

Send monthly checks to every American -- $2,000 per adult and $1,000 per child.
Implement a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures and evictions, and provide emergency rental assistance to ensure that those hit by the economic shock do not fall hopelessly behind on their rent during the moratorium.
Forgive at least $10,000 of student debt per person, and freeze interest accrual and payments for the duration of the crisis.
Require corporations who take public assistance to maintain payroll at a mandatory $15 minimum wage, refrain from engaging in share buybacks, cap executive compensation at 50 times that of the median employee, and allow a workers' representative on union boards.
Extend cash assistance to small businesses to cover expenses like rent, utilities, and payroll.
Work to rapidly decarcerate in jails and prisons to curb the spread of COVID-19, prioritizing people who are elderly, have underlying conditions, and who are incarcerated for non-dangerous offenses.

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