Interviews during 2017-2019: on Welfare & Poverty
Gloria La Riva:
Increase housing subsides; allow rent control
We call for a vast increase in Section 8 housing subsidies as one element of major public investment in the construction of low cost, scattered site, community-based, high quality housing.
We call for rent control for all rental units, and the right of tenants to organize. We call for an end to home foreclosures.
Source: Socialist PSL Platform adopted by 2020 presidential hopeful
Aug 3, 2020
Don Blankenship:
Welfare provisions misdirected & morally destructive
The message of Christian charity is fundamentally at odds with the concept of welfare maintenance as a right. In many cases, welfare provisions by the Federal government are not only misdirected, but morally destructive.
It is the intended purpose of civil government to safeguard life, liberty and property--not to redistribute wealth. Such redistribution is contrary to the Biblical command against theft.
Source: Constitution Platform adopted by 2020 presidential hopeful
May 2, 2020
Deval Patrick:
Supports reparations to living descendants of slaves
Patrick announced support for developing a reparations program as part of his "Equity Agenda for Black Americans." "The American Dream remains further out of reach of Black Americans than other Americans, and because of that, America has not fulfilled
her promise," the former governor said. He supports a plan in which the federal government would provide reparations to living descendants of enslaved African Americans, but added that "reparations without reconciliation are incomplete."
Source: The Hill e-zine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jan 20, 2020
Howie Hawkins:
Reparations and Green New Deal to close racial income gap
The income gap between the rich and everyone else has been growing markedly.
The Green New Deal can close racial income and wealth gaps by empowering racially-oppressed communities through community control of
Green New Deal programs so these communities are no longer subject to discrimination and exploitation by outside employers, landlords, real estate agents, and other gatekeepers. In addition, HR 40 for a Commission to Study and Develop Reparation
Proposals for African-Americans should be enacted to find the best way to create individual and collective wealth to compensate for hundreds of years of unpaid and underpaid labor.
Source: Truthout, "Popular Resistance" on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 19, 2019
Andrew Yang:
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
Andrew Yang:
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
Bill Weld:
Have private sector take over social services
There's a huge opportunity to cut federal spending by contracting out the provision of social services to the private sector, particularly the vast network of non-profit organizations.
Based on our experience in Massachusetts, this will save a great deal of taxpayers' money and improve the quality of the services and the degree of compassion and dignity afforded to the people receiving the services.
The reason is that monopoly services are always less efficient than competitively priced services.
So the key distinction is not public versus private: it's monopoly versus competition.
Source: Speech in New Hampshire by 2020 presidential hopefuls
Feb 15, 2019
Cory Booker:
HOME Act: $134 billion a year via EITC for people in poverty
Cory Booker's HOME (Housing, Opportunity, Mobility, and Equity) Act is a massive expansion of the EITC, which provides supplemental cash to low-income people who work. The HOME Act (estimated cost $134 billion a year) would provide a refundable credit
to people paying more than 30% of their income in rent. The credit would be worth the difference between their year's rent (capped at the area fair-market rent) and 30% of their income.
The fair market rent requirement prevents the credit from going to luxury renters.[A similar bill by presidential rival Kamala Harris], the Middle Class Act and Rent Relief Act, would cost $93 billion a year and provide
$42 billion to people in poverty. Booker's HOME Act, which costs significantly more per year than Harris's rental bill, accordingly provides $51.9 billion to households in poverty.
Source: Vox.com,"5 anti-poverty plans" by 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jan 30, 2019
Oprah Winfrey:
Used lessons learned growing up in poverty to propel herself
She was born to a single teenage mother on welfare in rural Mississippi. She lived in poverty and suffered abuse for years. Oprah's father made education a high priority for Oprah. "My father turned my life around by insisting that I be more than
I was," Oprah said in an˙interview. "I am so grateful for my years literally living in poverty," she replied, "because it makes the experience of creating success and building success that much more rewarding."
Source: Learning Liftoff speculation on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Jan 7, 2015
Page last updated: Nov 01, 2021