OnTheIssuesLogo

Jill Stein on Budget & Economy

Green Party presidential nominee; Former Challenger for MA Governor


We're again bailing out Wall Street with quantitative easing

OBAMA: Governor Romney's called for $5 trillion of tax cuts that he says he's going to pay for by closing deductions.

ROMNEY: When you came to office, just over $10 trillion in debt--now $16 trillion in debt. It hasn't worked.

STEIN: Let's look at where that money is going. We are spending trillions every year not only on the bloated military budget, but on the wars for oil as part of that, as well as the bailouts for Wall Street and tax breaks for the very wealthy. And unfortunately, we don't see either of these candidates really changing any of those really serious problems. Right now, the Federal Reserve is again bailing out Wall Street, effectively for the fourth time. This is the third quantitative easing on top of the TARP program, which was $700 billion. But that $700 billion under George Bush has become many, many trillions under Barack Obama. So these bailouts continue, and now we're doing a quantitative easing to the tune of $40 billion every month.

Source: Democracy Now! Expanded Third Obama-Romney 2012 debate , Oct 22, 2012

Still no end in sight to economic crisis: focus on jobs

ROMNEY: My plan has five basic parts [to create more than] 4 million jobs [without] trickle-down government.

STEIN: We still very much still have a crisis in our economy. One out of two Americans are in poverty or heading towards poverty. About 25 million people are either jobless or working in jobs that do not pay living wages. There are 8 million people who've lost their homes. There is no end in sight to the foreclosure crisis. And we have an entire generation of students who are effectively indentured servants, trapped in unforgiving loans and do not have the jobs to pay them back with unemployment and underemployment rate of about 50% among our young people. So, we very much need new solutions. What we hear from both Obama and Romney are essentially a rehash: more about deregulating business & Wall Street. We are calling for a Green New Deal modeled after the New Deal that actually got us out of the Great Depression. They created approximately 4 million jobs in as little as two months.

Source: Democracy Now! Expanded First Obama-Romney 2012 debate , Oct 4, 2012

Stimulus plan was not big enough

Q: Do you agree with President Obama's 2009 Stimulus Plan?

A: Yes, but it was not big enough.

Q: Should the federal government subsidize U.S. farmers?

A: Yes, but include small and organic farmers.

Q: Should Congress raise the debt ceiling?

A: No, raise taxes on the rich and cut spending to offset the debt.

Q: Should the U.S. have bailed out the major banks during the financial crisis of 2008?

A: Yes, but only on the condition that top management be fired without compensation.

Source: Presidential comparison website www.iSideWith.com , May 16, 2012

Top 1% are rolling in dough; the rest are in crisis

Q. Why are you running for president?

A. We are in crisis and people are losing their jobs and their homes and their health care and affordable higher education and civil liberties. You name it, they are losing it. We have got a 1 percent that's rolling in dough as much as ever and the political establishment is not fixing it. The establishment got us into this mess, in both parties. And that's clear as day.

Source: Michael Shear, New York Times, "5 Questions" , Feb 14, 2012

2011 debt ceiling debacle spurred candidacy

Q: What was your motive for running for president?

A: I've been fighting as a third party candidate for ten years. I stepped up to the plate for this election, basically, because it is a perfect storm for really organizing a political alternative, a politics of integrity that our lives depend on--and more and more people are seeing that. Specifically, it was the debt ceiling debacle last spring when President Obama put Social Security and Medicare on the table: it really felt like, "How could we not put an opposition voice up against this? This is outrageous! Between the Keystone XL Pipeline debacle, the ozone regulation roll-back; expanding war--multiple wars, drones and drone surrogate wars-- our "pull out of Iraq"; only to establish a new base in Kuwait, that we now have a new front in the war for oil in Central Africa; and the tripling of the troop presence in Afghanistan, it just felt like "How can we not have a voice of opposition here? This is nuts!"

Source: Interview with Steve Horn of Truthout.org , Jan 29, 2012

It's un-American that top 1% own 90% of wealth

Right now we are experiencing the worst economic inequality in our nation's history. The gap between the very rich and the many poor has never been so great. The wealthiest 1% in America now own as much wealth as 90% of all Americans. Those over 65 hold, on average, 47 times as much wealth as heads of households who are under 35. White families own, on average, twenty times as much as Black families. Such inequality is unacceptable, unconscionable, and un-American.
Source: Green Party 2012 People's State of the Union speech , Jan 25, 2012

Our economy is not working for our vast majority

As we speak tonight, our economy is not working for the vast majority of Americans. 146 million people--that's nearly one in every two Americans--is now living below or near the poverty level. The stress falls hardest on our most vulnerable and disadvantaged, with the majority of children, half of our elders, 3/4 of Latinos, and 2/3 of African Americans living in or near poverty.

Last year, one million Americans lost their health insurance, raising the numbers of the uninsured to almost 50 million of our people. Over 6 million Americans have lost their homes to foreclosure.

Overall, nearly 25 million Americans are unemployed or unable to find full time work. And even those who have jobs are struggling, because wages have been declining for American workers, and are now lower on average than in 1996. Household income has fallen faster since the official end of the recession than during the recession itself, because the so-called "recovery" is made up of mostly low paying jobs.

Source: Green Party 2012 People's State of the Union speech , Jan 25, 2012

Austerity policies: harsh on YOU but easy for establishment

The political establishment in the White House, Congress, and state governments are making matters far worse, doing the opposite of what we need, by inflicting needless, harsh austerity policies on the country.

This is bad for people, bad for the economy, and completely unnecessary. When they say there's not enough money, they mean there's not enough money for YOU. Instead of austerity, we can end the Wall Street bailouts, cut the bloated military and tax the bloated rich.

These austerity cuts mean that Americans are losing jobs. The result of these austerity cuts is layoffs for teachers, nurses, child and eldercare workers, firefighters, janitors, bus drivers and all the people who keep our communities educated, healthy, and moving forward. Worse, these austerity cuts are hurting the people who receive those services. Students, the disabled, the elderly, the ill, the unemployed, the hungry--these are the Americans who are suffering.

Source: Green Party 2012 People's State of the Union speech , Jan 25, 2012

90% tax on bonuses for bailed out bankers

The watered down Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform did not fix the massive problems with the deregulated financial status quo. Wall Street and the big banking interests continue to steer the economy just as they did before the Great Financial Crash of 2008. It's time to really reform Wall Street so that working America has a chance. Here is what the financial reforms of the Green New Deal will do.
Source: Green Party 2012 People's State of the Union speech , Jan 25, 2012

End the Bush-Obama recession; ask wealthy to pay share

Q: Can the budget deficit be reduced by your proposed spending cuts alone?

A: Our real solution to the deficit is to end the Bush-Obama recession. Reductions in spending provide enormous savings, which may very well overwhelm the need for adjustments in the tax code. Those adjustments do need to be made, including asking the wealthiest to contribute their share, and giving breaks to the middle class and the poor, who are paying way too much. We defend social programs--we cut boondoggles (like healthcare waste) and dangerous military spending, Will the cuts exceed the need to increase taxes? The back of the envelope says that they should.

Source: 2011 AmericansElect interview questionnaire with Jill Stein , Dec 21, 2011

Reduce spending via military cuts & preventive health

Q: Is the solution to the US budget deficit cutting spending, raising taxes, or a mix of both?

A: We advocate both, obviously. But the reductions in spending should be focused properly--not on cutting social programs--but instead on downsizing the military, bringing the troops home, and moving to a prevention-based health care system. Those provide enormous savings and reductions, which may very well overwhelm the need for adjustments in the tax code. We defend social programs.

Source: 2011 AmericansElect interview questionnaire with Jill Stein , Dec 21, 2011

Other candidates on Budget & Economy: Jill Stein on other issues:
Incumbents:
Pres.Barack Obama
V.P.Joe Biden
GOP Candidates:
Gov.Mitt Romney(MA)
Rep.Paul Ryan(WI)
Third Party Candidates:
Mayor Rocky Anderson(J)
Roseanne Barr(PF)
Rep.Virgil Goode(C)
Gov.Gary Johnson(L)
Jill Stein(G)
Andre Barnett(Ref.)

GOP Withdrawals:
Rep.Michele Bachmann(MN)
Herman Cain(GA)
Rep.Newt Gingrich(GA)
Gov.Sarah Palin(AK)
Rep.Ron Paul(TX)
Gov.Tim Pawlenty(MN)
Gov.Rick Perry(TX)
Gov.Buddy Roemer(LA)
Sen.Rick Santorum(PA)
Abortion
Budget/Economy
Civil Rights
Corporations
Crime
Drugs
Education
Energy/Oil
Environment
Families/Children
Foreign Policy
Free Trade
Govt. Reform
Gun Control
Health Care
Homeland Security
Immigration
Infrastructure/Technology
Jobs
Principles/Values
Social Security
Tax Reform
War/Iraq/Mideast
Welfare/Poverty





Page last updated: Oct 27, 2012