Issue Position: Restore Economic Opportunity for Working Americans

Issue Position

1. Implement the "Buffet Rule" by raising the Capital Gains tax rate to 25%, still substantially less than the maximum marginal income tax rate. Stop exploiting the poor by raising the personal exemption and child-raising deductions to levels approximating the cost of living.

2. Remove the "Millionaire's Cap" on social security taxes, by subjecting all wages, salaries and bonuses to the FICA and Medicare taxes, and then lower the FICA rate while guaranteeing the long-term stability of Social Security.

3. Stimulate high-impact, fast-growth businesses by raising the effective income tax rate on the wealthiest 10% of Americans. Use the additional income raised to cut marginal tax rates for the middle-income that creates the most important innovations. Set a goal of reducing economic inequality so that the wealthiest 10% of Americans receive only 30% of the nation's income, rather than nearly 40%, as they do today. This change would bring America's economic inequality down from the level of Rwanda and Tanzania, to approximately that of Canada, Great Britain, and Germany.

4. Stimulate investment by restoring the Accelerated Cost Reduction (ACR) method of calculating Depreciation for tax purposes.

5. Implement the Affordable Care Act, including reducing the cost of medicine and other expensive medical care items. Plan for the expansion of Medicare to serve all Americans.

6. Increase the federal minimum wage to at lleast $10 per hour, and strengthen housing programs to prevent the working poor from losing their higher wages to rising housing prices.

7. Stop federal government profiteering on student loans by reducing interest rates to at or near the Federal Reserve prime rate.

8. Treat private student loans like other consumer debt, and end the special treatment of private student loans when former students enter bankruptcy.

9. Place costs of attending abusive and fraudulent educational programs on investors, not on victimized students.

10. Increase SNAP benefits to guarantee that all Americans can purchase a reasonable quantity of healthy food.

11. Establish a new index for measuring poverty that accounts for the cost of housing, transportation, childcare, healthcare, healthy food choices, and other costs ignored by the current outmoded standard.

12. Rebalance the American political system by introducing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to repeal "Citizens United" and allow fair regulation of campaign donations and spending.

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