Issue Position: Economic Development/Jobs

Issue Position

Supporting America's Small Businesses

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I believe and support small businesses. By supporting small business and entrepreneurship, we can grow jobs faster in America. We can cut the red tape that holds back small businesses and entrepreneurs. We can open up access to credit because we know that small businesses are some of the best job creators in our country. I support providing tax relief and tax simplification to small business owners. I support targeted funding and support for entrepreneurship and small business growth in underserved communities.

Creating Jobs for America's Young People

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I support investments to spur the creation of millions of jobs for our young people. Roughly 1 in 10 Americans between the ages of 16 and 24 are unemployed, more than twice the national average. The unemployment rates for African American, Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), and American Indian teenagers and youth with disabilities are far too high. That is why I fight to provide direct federal funding for a range of local programs to put young people to work and create new career opportunities.

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I believe that today's extreme income gap and wealth inequality are harmful for our people, bad for our businesses, and bad for our economy. Our country depends on a thriving middle class to drive economic growth, but the middle class is shrinking. Meanwhile, the top one-tenth of one percent of Americans now own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent combined. These trends create problems beyond insulting our sense of fundamental fairness. Social mobility is far lower than most believe it to be. Children born to families in the lowest fifth of earnings are more than ten times more likely to remain there as adults than they are to earn as much as those in the top fifth. Unless we invest in building a level playing field, we all lose.

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21st Century Infrastructure

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If we are serious about reversing the decline of the middle class, we need significant federal investments to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and put millions of Americans back to work in good-paying jobs in both the public and private sectors. The climate emergency and the need to expand the middle-class demand that we make the most ambitious investment in American infrastructure since President Eisenhower created the interstate highway system. I believe we can put Americans to work updating and expanding our roads, bridges, public transit, airports, and passenger and freight rail lines. We can build 21st-century energy and water systems, modernize our schools, and continue to support the expansion of high-speed broadband networks. We can protect communities from the impact of climate change and help them to mitigate their effects by investing in green and resilient infrastructure.

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