AN ALTERNATIVE VISION

from the office of

Representative Bernie Sanders, Fall 1995

Clearly, if we are going to make the changes desperately needed in this country we must build a strong, grass-roots movement which is organized around a progressive agenda committed to peace, economic justice, environmental sanity and equal rights for all. Let me describe some of the concepts that I am fighting for in Congress.

RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE. The current national minimum wage, which has lost 26% of its purchasing power over the last 20 years, must be raised. Workers cannot survive on $4.25 an hour. Every American worker who works 40 hours a week must earn enough to live above the poverty line. That is why I have introduced legislation which would raise the minimum wage to $5.50 an hour.

CREATE NEW JOBS BY REBUILDING AMERICA. lt is time to reverse the trend toward fewer jobs at lower and lower pay. Instead of increasing the defense budget | and spending $100 billion a year to defend Germany and Japan against a non-existent enemy, we should be rebuilding America.

Along with Major Owens, I have introduced legislation to put millions of unemployed and underemployed Americans back to work rebuilding our physical and human infrastructure. We can create meaningful, well-paying jobs rebuilding our mass transit system, bridges, water and sewage systems, schools. Libraries. housing stock and protecting our environment. We can also create a huge number of vitally important jobs in education, child care and disease prevention.

A FAIR TRADE POLICY. ln recent years most U.S.-based multinational corporations have turned their backs on the American workers who brought them prosperity. It is not fair trade to force American workers to compete in the new global economy where Chinese workers earn 20 cents an hour, or Mexican workers earn $1 an hour.

We must end our disastrous trade policy and establish "fair trade" not "free trade," as our trade position. Repeal NAFTA, GATT and MFN with China and demand that corporate America reinvest in this country. We cannot continue a trade policy which, this year, will run up a S160 billion dollar deficit, and cause the loss of 3 million decent paying jobs.

REFORM THE TAX SYSTEM TO MAKE IT FAIR. The United States cannot continue to have the most unfair distribution of wealth and income in the industrialized world. The richest 1% own more wealth than the bottom 90% and the gap between the rich and the poor is growing wider.

Between 1977 and 1989 Reagan and the Congress gave the highest-earning 10 percent of Americans a tax cut of $93 billion a year. In the 1970s, corporate income taxes paid for 17% of federal .spending. Today, they account for only 8%. It is time the rich and corporate America, those who own so much of our country, pay their fair share of taxes.

REFORM LABOR LAW. Twenty years ago. American workers were first in the world in terms of wages and benefits. Today we rank 13th among industrialized nations in terms of compensation. During the last twenty years, the real wages of American workers have declined by 16%.

One reason for this economic catastrophe is the decline in the trade union movement. Under current labor law, it is extremely difficult for American workers to organize and join unions. That is why I have introduced sweeping labor law reform which brings democracy to the workplace and would make it much easier for workers to form unions.

NATIONAL HEALTH CARE. The health care crisis is getting worse, not better. More and more Americans lack health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid are likely to be cut and millions of people are being forced into "managed care." Despite all that, the United States continues to have the most costly and wasteful health care system in the world.

We must continue our fight for a single-payer national health care system which guarantees health care for all Americans without out of pocket expense. This is the most humane and cost-effective approach to the current health care crisis.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE AND ELECTION REFORM. The wealthy and large corporations cannot be allowed to continue to buy political parties and candidates. Same-day registration will encourage low-income people to vote, and stop the United States from having the lowest voter turnout of any industrialized nation on earth. Independents and third party candidates must be allowed the same rights and ballot access as Democrats and Republicans.

Home Page