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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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ENERGY & CLIMATE
- Take a leadership role in reducing our own greenhouse gas emissions.
- Maximize the conservation and efficient use of existing energy supplies.
- Launch and fund ambitious research & development programs, offer tax credits, invest in public works projects, and focus government procurement to jump- start renewable energy deployment.
- Invest in public transit and intercity rail.
- Tax carbon; use revenues for renewables and to help ratepayers.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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IRAQ & IRAN
- Develop a timetable for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
- Build no long-term military bases in Iraq. Leave control of Iraq’s oil in the hands of Iraqis.
- Fund an international effort to help restore the economy and infrastructure of Iraq.
- Abolish future uses of private mercenaries.
- Enter into negotiations with Iran about nuclear issues and regional stability. End threats of attack and attempts to destabilize the Iranian government.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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CRIMINAL JUSTICE
- Drop punitive sentences for drug possession and other nonviolent offenses in favor of substance-abuse treatment, fines, community service, and restitution.
- Offer training and counseling to prepare inmates for a crime-free life after release.
- Channel youth into schools and jobs, not jail.
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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.
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IMMIGRATION
- Implement trade policies that strengthen, not undermine, rural economies south of the border, reducing the poverty and displacement that spur migration. Start by ditching NAFTA.
- Increase minimum wage and worker protection for all, documented and undocumented.
- Provide a pathway to legal status and citizenship for immigrants already here.
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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.
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