Andrew Yang in CNN "State of the Union" interviews during 2019
On Health Care:
Medicare-for-All but with private insurance
Q: What about Medicare-for-All?A: There is a way to provide Medicare-for-All that does not prohibit private insurance. The goal has to be to demonstrate to the American people that this Medicare plan is superior to your current insurance without
pulling the rug out from under you and saying that the insurance no longer exists. Medicare for all means that you have a Medicare program that everyone can be enrolled in.
Q: So you're adopting the label, but not the bill?
A: That's correct.
Source: CNN State of the Union on 2019 Democratic primary
Nov 3, 2019
On Corporations:
Set environmental standards for companies
One principle that we're going to have in our businesses here is that, if you are a very large business, you need to measure your carbon imprint and your effect on the environment. And then if we extend that to operations in other countries that are
either of U.S. companies or, over time, our trading partners, then we can have more sophisticated standards that include environmental impact, not just for American companies, but the companies and countries we do business with.
Source: Climate Crisis Town Hall (CNN 2019 Democratic primary)
Sep 4, 2019
On Energy & Oil:
Energy companies only operate on the bottom line
Q: Do you support a carbon tax and how much should it be? YANG: We need to have a carbon tax because we need to have polluters internalize the cost of their pollution. You start at $40 a ton and then you ramp up to $100 a ton to give them time to
adjust. But these companies only operate on the bottom line. You can't say do the right thing and then have all the executives get paid for making tons of money at the expense of the earth. We have to tie people's incentives to doing the r
then you'll actually see their behavior change very quickly.
Q: Would you ban all fossil fuel exports from the United States?
YANG: I think we have to stop subsidizing the industry, but I don't think that includes banning exports.
Because if our fossil fuel industry, which is going to be around for some period of time, is competitive and cost competitive enough to export to another country, I wouldn't stand in the way of that.
Source: Climate Crisis Town Hall (CNN 2019 Democratic primary)
Sep 4, 2019
On Energy & Oil:
Convert to all-electric cars, via "Clunker" buy-backs
Q: Are all Americans going to have to drive electric cars? YANG: We are all going to love driving our electric cars.
There will still be some legacy gas guzzlers on the road for quite some time, because this is not a country where you're going to, like, take someone's clunker away from them. But you are going to offer to buy the clunker back and help the
Source: Climate Crisis Town Hall (CNN 2019 Democratic primary)
Sep 4, 2019
On Energy & Oil:
Nuclear needs to be on table; new reactors use thorium
Nuclear energy needs to be on the table in a transition to a more renewable economy, because our society consumes a great deal of energy. We are working on these new generation nuclear reactors that use thorium, instead of uranium. Thorium is not
natively fissile or radioactive. It's much safer to dispose of. It produces much more energy. Trying to get rid of all the nuclear power plants that produce 20% of the nation's energy is not going to help us accomplish our goals.
Source: Climate Crisis Town Hall (CNN 2019 Democratic primary)
Sep 4, 2019
On Environment:
Constitutional amendment to safeguard environment
I would end all fossil fuel subsidies and I'll take it a step further. I proposed a constitutional amendment that makes it the responsibility of the United States government to safeguard and protect our environment for future generations.
We need to move towards sustainable energy. We need to start reverse the damage we're doing to our environment. It's not enough to do less of the bad, we have to do some of the good.
Source: Climate Crisis Town Hall (CNN 2019 Democratic primary)
Sep 4, 2019
On Environment:
Help farmers modernize in sustainable way
Q: What about farming communities vs. the environment?YANG: We need to help farmers modernize their land use in terms of the environmental impact. We have to try and help farmers modernize and rotate plant crops and try and actually measure
the impact they're having on the environment. If you are farming in a responsible and sustainable way, that we can actually make family businesses possible by supporting a food ecosystem that includes more farm-to-table dining.
Source: Climate Crisis Town Hall (CNN 2019 Democratic primary)
Sep 4, 2019
On Foreign Policy:
US should lead the way on climate change
The U.S. is vital to building an international consensus on climate change. We need to act first because, by forming the table and saying who's with us on this, we can galvanize dozens of our allies and partners in the Western world.
The U.S. has always been a global leader. We are still the focal point of the world's economy. And if we lead on this, then we can move people in the right direction very quickly.
Source: Climate Crisis Town Hall (CNN 2019 Democratic primary)
Sep 4, 2019
On Free Trade:
Would not stand in way of fossil fuel exports from US
Q: Would you ban all fossil fuel exports from the United States? YANG: I think we have to stop subsidizing the industry, but I don't think that includes banning exports.
Because if our fossil fuel industry, which is going to be around for some period of time, is competitive and cost competitive enough to export to another country, I wouldn't stand in the way of that.
Source: Climate Crisis Town Hall (CNN 2019 Democratic primary)
Sep 4, 2019
On Government Reform:
Democracy Dollars will wash out lobbyist cash
My plan is to give every American citizen 100 democracy dollars that you can give to any campaign or candidate that you like in any given year. This would wash out the lobbyist cash by a factor of 8-1, it would make it so that I'm a candidate and you
like me and I get 10,000 Americans to like me in a congressional race, that's $1 million. Then when the fossil fuel company come and says I've got a check for $50,000, you can say I don't need your $50,000 check, I have the people.
Source: Climate Crisis Town Hall (CNN 2019 Democratic primary)
Sep 4, 2019
Page last updated: Jan 12, 2020