Andrew Yang in Interviews during 2017-2019
On Social Security:
Fund Freedom Dividend payments with 10% VAT
Lifelong assured income would not be funded by payroll taxes; given that its purpose is to supplement labor income, it can't be financed by further taxing it. One potential revenue source is a national value-added tax (VAT). Yang has proposed funding a
$1,000-a-month Freedom Dividend with a 10 percent VAT. Like any consumption tax, a VAT is regressive if it stands by itself but becomes progressive if all its revenue is recycled equally.
Source: The Nation magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
On Drugs:
Decriminalize opiates & marijuana, but not cocaine
Q: What about legalizing pot?A: If we just catch you with a quantity that suggests that you're just using it personally, then instead of referring you to a jail cell, we refer you to treatment. We need to decriminalize opiates for personal use. I'm
also for the legalization of cannabis. We need to remove that from the federal controlled substance.
Q: What about cocaine?
A: Cocaine would not be on the list of substances I would engage in this, because the addiction has very different features.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 14, 2019
On Education:
Pay teachers enough to attract and retain the best
I think it's policy number 14 on my website, Yang2020.com, is pay teachers more. This is an investment in ourselves. The data shows that a good teacher is worth his or her weight in gold, in terms of the increased education outcomes for all of the
children in their classrooms. And when you look at the data, teachers are the most important variable consistently. We need to attract and retain the best teachers we can find, and we will all be better off for it.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 14, 2019
On Government Reform:
Supports statehood for DC & Puerto Rico
I'm 100 percent for D.C. statehood. You should have been a state a long time ago. And I am also for Puerto Rican statehood, which is also long overdue.
It's like a statement I make is that if Puerto Ricans looked like Swedes, they would have been Americans a long time ago.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 14, 2019
On Gun Control:
Treat guns the way we treat motor vehicles
I think that we should treat guns in a very similar way to the way we treat motor vehicles, where you have to get licensed and tested because vehicles can kill people, and firearms do the same thing. And we should be having
federal background checks around mental illness and criminal records and domestic violence. In parallel, I would invest in a massive mental health initiative, to address some of these incidents of gun violence before they happen.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 14, 2019
On Health Care:
Public option would cost less than present system
I'm in the Medicare for all public option camp. Right now, we're spending twice as much on our health care to worse effects than other countries. We're spending 18 percent of GDP. And one of the things that is confusing about this is people are like,
where are you going to get the money? Which is completely incorrect. We're spending twice as much than other countries. If we channel our existing resources and negotiate lower drug prices, lower rates, we can get the access up and the prices down.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 14, 2019
On Immigration:
Immigrants make US stronger and more dynamic
We have well over 12 million undocumented immigrants. The most logical and humane path forward is to create a pathway to citizenship for people who are here and undocumented, particularly for the Dreamers who've really known no other home but the US.
I'm the son of immigrants. I believe that immigrants make our country stronger and more dynamic. There are many, many people who are here and undocumented that we should integrate into our formal economy and to society, if we can.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 14, 2019
On Immigration:
Need more case workers & judges at southern border
We have a migrant crisis on the southern border. And it's in part because the composition of the people who are showing up at the border is changing, where now it's people who are applying for asylum, and unfortunately we don't have the resources to
process them in any kind of effective punctual or effective way, and so the waiting period is literally over a year in some cases. We need to put more resources to work on our southern border. We need more facilities, case workers, asylum judges.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 14, 2019
On Jobs:
Monthly stipend would help us through technological changes
We've automated away 4 million manufacturing jobs in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa. We need to think about how we're going to help Americans transition through this time. My flagship proposal is a freedom
dividend of $1,000 per month for every American adult. It would help tens of millions of Americans transition through what is the greatest economic and technological transformation in our country's history, which we're going through right now.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 14, 2019
On Jobs:
I'm a huge union fan
I'm a huge union fan. When I sit with union leaders and I say, you know what's going to help your union membership is if you have a dividend of $1,000 a month
[as in my flagship proposal] because it ends up making it possible for unions to negotiate much harder, since then they have something they can fall back on? So this is a very pro-union plan. I'm fan of the right to organize.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 14, 2019
On Tax Reform:
Fund programs from tech companies now paying no tax
Q: How do you pay for your programs?A: Who are going to be the biggest winners from new technologies of self-driving cars and trucks? It's going to be the biggest tech companies in our country. How much did Amazon pay in federal taxes last year?
AUDIENCE: Zero!
A: So when people ask how are we going to fund this, we have to go where the money is. We have to implement a new mechanism to get that money back from Amazon and bring it back to the American people to build a trickle-up economy.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 14, 2019
On War & Peace:
Limited foreign intervention; restore Congress's role in war
On declarations of war: First, I would push back the ability to declare war back to Congress where it belongs. And second, I would be very judicious and restrained about intervening in other country's affairs,
where if we go in significantly, there are going to be vital national interests at stake that we can achieve in a defined timeframe.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 14, 2019
On Welfare & Poverty:
Increase affordable housing; get localities to change zoning
I would invest in trying to increase the supply of affordable housing, because right now, there's a lot of NIMBYism, where a lot of cities are like, hey, I love the idea of affordable housing, but if you try and build it around my rich people, then
they'll get very upset, so I don't want to do it. What we have to do is we have to lift some of the zoning restrictions on construction of affordable housing. And that would be a priority of mine as president.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 14, 2019
On Energy & Oil:
Mixed score on "350 Action's 2020 Climate Test"
The environmental group 350 Action released a candidate scorecard known as the 2020 Climate Test to assess presidential hopefuls on three major metrics: support for a Green New Deal, opposition to new fossil fuel development and refusal to accept money
from energy companies. [Candidates supporting all three issues]: - Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY)
- Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT)
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA)
Four candidates have supported two of 350 Action's three benchmarks.-
Sen. Cory Booker (NJ)
- Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (HI)
- Gov. Jay Inslee (WA)
- Andrew Yang (CA)
Three candidates have failed all three of 350 Action's tests, attacking the Green New Deal or making no firm pledges to work against fossil fuel companies.
- Donald Trump (NY)
- Former Rep. John Delaney (Md.)--Does not support the Green New Deal.
- Former Gov. John Hickenlooper (Colo.)--Does not support the Green New Deal.
Source: Mother Jones, "On Climate," on 2020 Presidential Hopefuls
Mar 27, 2019
On Homeland Security:
Too much military spending focuses in decades-old threats
Yang promises to "bring our military spending under control," to "make it harder for the U.S. to get involved in foreign engagements with no clear goal," and to "reinvest in diplomacy."
He believes that much of the military budget "is focused on defending against threats from decades ago as opposed to the threats of 2020."
Source: Truthout.org, "War and Peace," on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Mar 27, 2019
On Budget & Economy:
Measure standard of living instead of GDP
Yang supports changing how the U.S. measures economic success, by moving away from traditional benchmarks like GDP growth and the stock market and focusing instead on the country's standard of living, life expectancy and other metrics.
He would also develop a new U.S. currency called a "Digital Social Credit" that could be exchanged for real dollars.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Mar 19, 2019
On Civil Rights:
Supports LGBTQ rights
- Social issues: Pro-choice and supports LGBTQ rights.
- Yang says he supports a woman's right to choose, and would nominate judges who share the same opinion.
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Yang would support legislation protecting people from discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
- He also would nominate LGBTQ individuals to serve in high-level jobs in his administration.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Mar 19, 2019
On Health Care:
ObamaCare is only a good first step
- Yang has called the Affordable Care Act a good first step but believes the law didn't do enough to reform the nation's health care system.
- He would shift the country toward a single-payer system, with a focus on salaried physicians and
holistic medicine.
- The entrepreneur's health care platform also focuses on mental health.
- He has proposed funding artificial intelligence efforts that could improve mental health services and would create a "White House psychologist corps."
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Mar 19, 2019
On Immigration:
Boost funding for U.S. ports of entry
- Immigration: A pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
- Yang would create a new "tier of long-term permanent residency" that would allow immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally to attain citizenship in 18 years.
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If they register for the new tier, undocumented immigrants who have lived illegally in the country for "a substantial amount of time" would be able to work and live in U.S., while they wait to become citizens,
so long as they pay taxes and do not receive any felony convictions.
- As part of his immigration plan, Yang would also boost funding for U.S. ports of entry, improve technology to secure the southern border and strengthen environmental protections
along the Rio Grande.
- Yang also supports the DREAM Act, a proposal aimed at protecting young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Mar 19, 2019
On War & Peace:
Repeal post-9/11 Authorization for Use of Military Force
- Foreign policy and defense: Supports NATO, would create a secretary of cybersecurity.
- Yang believes in NATO and other international alliances, and would institute regular Pentagon audits.
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He would repeal the "Authorization for Use of Military Force" enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and hand the power to declare war back to Congress.
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As part of his focus on reducing military spending, Yang would redirect 10 percent of the annual military budget to a domestic infrastructure initiative called the "Legion of Builders and Destroyers."
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He would also create a secretary of cybersecurity position.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Mar 19, 2019
On Welfare & Poverty:
Freedom Dividend: create a universal basic income
Yang's campaign is centered on "The Freedom Dividend," his plan to pay every American--starting at age 18, & regardless of employment--$1,000 per month. He argues the dividend is needed to boost workers losing jobs to automation and other technological
change. Yang has said he would pay for this form of universal basic income "by consolidating some welfare programs," and imposing a 10 percent value-added tax on goods and services, which he estimates would generate up to $800 billion in revenue.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Mar 19, 2019
Page last updated: Nov 01, 2021