More Insight

Saturday, December 13, 2008

10 Policies We Can All* Agree On

YES we can


ECONOMY

  • Repair and rebuild neglected bridges, railroads, schools, and other infrastructure, designing for climate change & a post-petroleum world.
  • Extend unemployment insurance benefits.
  • Provide tax relief to middle- and low-income families, and reinstate fair taxes on high-wealth individuals and corporate profits.
  • Adopt the Employee Free Choice Act to increase opportunities to unionize.

*
67% Favor public works projects to create jobs.

55% Favor expanding unemployment benefits.

73% Say corporations don’t pay a fair share of taxes.

76% Support tax cuts for lower- and middle-income people.

71% Say unions help their members;

53% Say unions help the economy in general.


[sources]


FAMILIES



  • Make the minimum wage a “living wage” adequate to keep working families out of poverty.
  • Provide everyone vacation and family leave.
  • Provide gay and lesbian couples with the legal protections afforded to straight couples.
  • Make bankruptcy and foreclosure laws protect families first, not predatory lenders.
*
80% Support increasing the federal minimum wage.

59% Favor guaranteeing two weeks or more of paid vacation.

75% Want to limit rate increases on adjustable-rate mortgages.

64% Are not confident that life for our children’s generation will be better than it has been for us.

65% Believe same-sex couples should be allowed to marry or form civil unions.


[sources]


CONSTITUTION

  • Fully restore habeas corpus for all people in U.S. custody.
  • Protect our right to privacy and freedom from warrantless search and seizure.
  • Keep the internet free of corporate and government censorship and obstruction. Protect “net neutrality.”
  • Restore the balance of power between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government.

*
70% Support restoring habeas corpus rights for detainees at Guantanamo.

58% Believe a court warrant should be required to listen to the telephone calls of people in the U.S.

59% Would like the next president to do more to protect civil liberties.

68% Believe the president should not act alone to fight terrorism without the checks and balances of the courts or Congress.



[sources]



ENERGY & CLIMATE


*
79% Favor mandatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions.

76% Believe that oil is running out and a major effort is needed to replace it.

90% Favor higher auto fuel efficiency standards.

75% Favor clean electricity, even with higher rates.

72% Support more funding for mass transit.



[sources]



HEALTH CARE



  • Offer all Americans the option of joining a single-payer national health insurance program, paid for with tax dollars.
  • Break the drug companies’ monopoly and lower drug prices by allowing Americans to buy prescription drugs abroad.

*
73% Believe our health care system is in crisis or has “major problems.”

64% Believe the government should provide national health insurance coverage for all Americans, even if it would raise taxes.

55% Favor one health insurance program covering all Americans, administered by the government, and paid for by taxpayers.

69% Believe the government should make it easier to buy prescription drugs from other countries.



[sources]


FOREIGN RELATIONS

  • Lead a global effort to abolish nuclear weapons.
  • Rule out unilateral attacks, deploying weapons in space, and torture.
  • Phase out U.S. role as global police, and instead work through the U.N. and other international agencies to develop and enforce international law.
  • Work with other countries to improve global health and environment.


81% Oppose torture and support following the Geneva Conventions.

76% Say the U.S. should not play the role of global police.

79% Say the U.N. should be strengthened.

73% Favor abolishing nuclear weapons, with verification. 80% favor banning weapons in space.

85% Say that the U.S. should not initiate military action without support from allies.



[sources]



IRAQ & IRAN


*
63% Want U.S. forces home from Iraq within a year.

47% Favor using diplomacy with Iran. 7% favor military action.

57% Say going to war in Iraq was the wrong decision.

67% Believe we should use diplomatic and economic means to fight terrorism, rather than the military.



[sources]


ELECTIONS

  • Provide public financing for elections campaigns.
  • Bring back the Fairness Doctrine and get broadcasters to open the people’s airwaves to free campaign information.
  • Require voter-verified paper ballots that are audited and can be recounted.
  • End partisan districting and voter-roll purges.
  • Fully implement the Voting Rights Act and enforce existing laws against vote suppression.
  • Restore voting rights to ex-felons who have served their sentences.

*
86% Say big companies have too much power.

74% Favor voluntary public financing of campaigns.

66% Believe intentional acts are likely to cause significant voting machines errors.

80% Say ex-felons should have their voting rights restored.



[sources]



CRIMINAL JUSTICE


*
65% Believe attacking social problems is a better cure for crime than more law enforcement.

87% Support rehabilitation rather than a “punishment-only” system.

81% Say job training is “very important” for reintegrating people leaving prison. 79% say drug treatment is very important.



[sources]



IMMIGRATION


*
56% Believe NAFTA should be renegotiated.

64% Believe that on the whole, immigration is good for the country.

80% Favor allowing undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. to stay and apply for citizenship if they have a job and pay back taxes.



[sources]

1 comment:

Becky said...

Thanks for this post. I loved reading it, and the statistics gave me hope in Americans!