While the political jockeying gets more attention, candidates in the 2020 Democratic presidential race are advancing serious policy proposals. The Washington Times takes a weekly look at some of them that may have flown under the radar.
Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand released a plan Thursday to tackle climate change, saying she hopes to recruit $10 trillion in public and private funding over the next decade to try to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The New York Democrat also said she would seek to impose a price on carbon emissions, starting at $52 per metric ton. She said that would generate about $200 billion a year to go toward other renewable energy efforts. Her plan also includes an excise tax on fossil fuel production, which would generate an estimated $100 billion every year to go toward climate mitigation projects.
“The next president has to be willing to take bold leaps to lead this effort and stand up to the climate change deniers, polluters, and oil and gas special interests,” Ms. Gillibrand said in a Medium post. “I will, because we can’t afford not to.”
Climate change is an animating issue for Democratic activists, and particularly for young voters the party is hoping to entice to the polls next year.
Ms. Gillibrand’s proposal calls for the U.S. to reach zero-carbon electricity in a decade, en route to the broader net-zero emissions goal by the middle of the century.
Mirroring elements of other candidates’ climate change proposals, she would also end new fossil fuel leases and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on public lands.
O’Rourke on education
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke on Wednesday proposed a $500 billion fund to address what he called “structural inequity” in the country’s education system.
He said the federal money would close the funding gap between heavily minority school systems and those where most students are white.
“Sixty-five years after Brown v. Board of Education, and America’s schools still remain segregated,” Mr. O’Rourke said. “The effects of a system where students of color are disciplined at alarmingly higher rates than white students, where funding favors white school districts over nonwhite districts, or where white teachers far outnumber black teachers live on well beyond students leaving the classroom.”
The Texas Democrat would also put $500 million per year into a new program designed to create “teacher academies” at historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions.
His plan also bans corporal punishment in schools, includes money for schools to implement “restorative justice” programs, and requires teacher prep programs “to address racial bias and cultural competency.”
Mr. O’Rourke’s campaign said there is an annual $23 billion funding gap between “predominantly white and predominantly non-white” school districts.
De Blasio on workers
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday announced a “21st Century Workers’ Bill of Rights” that includes provisions intended to expand protections for workers and solidify the influence of labor unions in the country.
Mr. de Blasio wants to replace “at will” employment, which covers most American workers who can be fired by employers without needing a specific reason, and replace it with a “just cause” system where employers could only fire people for failing at their jobs, and only then after appropriate warnings and “due process.”
Mr. de Blasio said he was introducing the plan would return power to workers and “put money back into the right hands all across America.”
“The rules of the economy have become so skewed in favor of the rich that working people and their families haven’t shared in the prosperity of a supposed economic boom that they’ve created,” he said.
The plan would also guarantee employees at least two weeks of paid personal time off every year, and calls for paid leave for sick days or family reasons such as the birth of a child or caring for an ailing family member.
Mr. de Blasio would also work to guarantee minimum pay benefits for “gig” workers and overtime pay for people making less than $50,000 per year, raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, and strengthen workers’ collective bargaining rights.
Yang on veterans
Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang on Monday released a plan intended to make it easier for veterans to transition back into civilian life.
The plan calls for a “census-like team” to research and find homeless veterans to help enroll them in job and financial literacy programs, as well as a funding increase for crisis lines in an effort to cut down on veteran suicides.
“These heroes protect and serve us during their tenure, but they come home to a quick thank you and an economy that isn’t set up to help them succeed,” Mr. Yang said on his campaign website. “We owe them more than a handshake.”
His plan says veterans should automatically get in-state tuition from any public educational institution, regardless of how long they’ve lived in a state, and calls for federal assistance to veteran-run businesses. It also calls for waivers so veterans can be prescribed medical marijuana for pain management or post-traumatic stress disorder, even if they live in a state that doesn’t allow it.
Mr. Yang also called for a “reverse boot camp,” where veterans accustomed to a highly regimented schedule would get financial literacy training and advice on “grocery shopping and nutrition, cooking, and creating and sticking to a personal schedule.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.