Mike Gravel in Survey of 2020 Presidential campaign websites
On Civil Rights:
$30 billion per year for National Reparations Trust Fund
Over its history, the American government has participated in systematic disenfranchisement of and discrimination against significant groups of people, whose descendants still suffer today. The examples are endless: from slavery to Jim Crow to
Native American treaty violations.The US should create a National Commission on Reparations, to assess claims from descendants of those affected by discriminatory government policies. [Then], establish a National Reparations Trust Fund (NRTF),
funded by an infusion of $30 billion per year from government coffers. Each year, 20 percent of the fund would be paid out; 25 percent of this money would go toward programs to benefit historically black colleges and universities, Native American
communities, and education in low-income communities hurt by policies like redlining. The other 75 percent would be paid out directly to those on the list of disadvantaged groups.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Civil Rights:
Include sexual orientation & gender identity as civil rights
America has a woeful legacy surrounding its treatment of LGBTQIA+ people. And yet they have shown remarkable perseverance, fighting back relentlessly. It is time for full equality for all of America's LGBTQIA+ people, with a special focus on transgender
rights.The United States should amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination due to sexual orientation and/or gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, public education, federal funding, and credit.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Corporations:
Use antitrust authority to break up large businesses
The American economy of 2019 is plagued by a problem that some thought was a relic of the 1910s--monopolies. Industry after industry has become highly centralized and controlled by a handful of private bureaucratic entities. Horizontal corporate
agglomeration and vertical integration have produced economic behemoths that control vast swathes of the market, are unresponsive to consumer demands, and enjoy undue influence over politics and economy at both national and sub-national levels.
It is time for the US to return to the grand tradition of trust-busting and break apart market-controlling businesses.The US should use the government's antitrust authority to break up large businesses. Regulators should take a much harder
line on mergers and acquisitions.
The US should hold the executive heads of companies directly and legally liable in the event that their businesses are found to be defrauding consumers, or producing goods and services that result in injury and death.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Corporations:
Re-establish public banking services within post offices
There is an informal poverty tax in America: the poorer you are, the more fees, expenses, and costs pile up. Public banking is a fix to some of these problems, by offering beneficial alternatives to predatory payday loans, banking deserts, and overdraft
fees.The US should re-establish banking services within post offices as Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has put forth, using our pre-existing nationwide infrastructure to benefit people in even more ways. Include no-cost checking and savings accounts.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Crime:
Decriminalize all commercial sex work
Despite cultural changes, the U.S. government has maintained a puritanical approach to commercial sex work. Many Americans have come to see this work without the blinkered moralistic view of yesteryear; and they have come to recognize commercial
sex workers as one of society's most vulnerable communities. Women of color, of migrant backgrounds, and transgender women often rely on sex work for money. It is time to take a more rational approach.The United States should: -
Repeal the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) and the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), which targeted sites like Backpage.com that sex workers used to screen clients and ensure safety.
-
Encourage states and municipalities to decriminalize all commercial sex work.
- Focus on illegal and coercive sex trafficking, not consenting sex work.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Crime:
Ban cash bail: it only benefits the rich
Prisons should be a place for rehabilitation, where the convicted enter, learn, build themselves, understand their mistakes, and leave the system as better people. We no longer even pretend this is the case. The United States should: -
Abolish private prisons, as they drive up incarceration rates and sentences while treating their prisoners like nothing more than a commodity to profit off of.
- Abolish prison for low-level offenses; courts should decide whom to set free and whom to
keep in jail. Other methods of punishment like fines, community service, etc. should be emphasized for these crimes, especially nonviolent ones.
- Ban cash bail: true flight risks and dangers to society should be held without bail, and the rest
should not be relegated to only being free if they happen to be rich.
- Ban solitary confinement, as it has been proven to be a tool of torture that ruins minds, causes hallucinations, and scars people for life.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Crime:
No one deserves to be put to death by the state
The death penalty is a relic of an earlier, more brutish time in American history. No one, no matter how terrible their crimes, deserves to be put to death by the state; just as two wrongs do not make a right, an additional death does not ease the awful
burden of a victim's family members. Nor does it heal the community in any way. Moreover, the death penalty has repeatedly been shown to be extremely costly, to not infrequently kill innocent people, and to be racially biased in who is executed.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Drugs:
Legalize & regulate all drugs, including opioids
According to the top Nixon aide John Ehrlichman, The War On Drugs started as a way to criminalize African-Americans and the anti-war left: and it worked. By bringing this war to an end, we will be able to remove the roadblocks that prevent addicts from
getting help and end the pattern of selectively-enforced felony drug convictions that oppress the poor and marginalized. By criminalizing users and dealers at every step, we offer no alternative but the needle.The United States should: -
Remove marijuana from the list of drugs on the Controlled Substance Act and add an amendment to the Constitution to ensure that it is fully legal nationwide.
- Increase funding for drug treatment programs dramatically.
- Free all nonviolent drug
offenders and expunge their records.
- Decriminalize, legalize, regulate, and tax all drugs, including opioids. No amount of criminalization actually stops drug use, and so we need to provide safe alternatives to shady dealers and laced products.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Education:
Delink property taxes to equalize education funding
The inequities pervasive in American education are symptomatic of the broader national sickness of gross inequality and a refusal to care for the least well-off among us. Many lower-income people don't have access to high-quality preschool, giving
their children a disadvantage at the start of kindergarten; this disadvantage is often compounded during years spent in badly-funded school districts. The United States should: -
Provide free, high-quality preschool education for all with direct funding to states.
- Delink property taxes and education funding, moving to a federal model for school funding in which all students receive an equal amount of funding.
-
Promote the inclusion of climate science, sustainable development and universal human rights into school curricula.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Education:
Student Debt Jubilee: one-time government debt forgiveness
The oft-prohibitive cost of attending a university (let alone attending a graduate program) means that many forego the possibility or attend cheaper options for post-secondary education. Many lower-income people who do decide to
pursue post-secondary education also take on a precipitous amount of student debt, debilitating their financial prospects for years.The United States should: -
Make all public universities and graduate schools absolutely tuition free by providing funding directly to states.
- Announce a one-time "Student Debt Jubilee," with all student debt held by the U.S. government being forgiven.
-
Provide debt forgiveness, paid for by the government, of the first $25,000 of private student loan debt.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Energy & Oil:
Support carbon tax and Green New Deal
The Green New Deal is an ambitious and absolutely necessary plan proposed in the House by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Her resolution is an overview of the goals we desperately need to accomplish to ensure not only that our Earth survives as
a livable and comfortable planet, but also that we live purposeful, satisfied, and healthy lives. The United States should: - Institute a carbon tax and dividend scheme, as proposed by Matthew Bruenig, with an initial price of $230 per ton of
CO2 (The amount would be indexed to inflation and might be raised in the future). All funds from this tax would be redistributed to households, with poorer households receiving a larger proportion of the tax.
- Cooperate internationally to
establishment of a single, harmonized international carbon trading market to replace the current regime of approximately 50 regional and national platforms that cover just 20 percent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Environment:
Eliminate all single-use plastics
The United States should eliminate all single-use plastics to keep our oceans and landfills from choking up, and our fossil fuels in the ground. Combine this with a push to reduce single-use items altogether to ensure we waste less and
conserve more, along with a general plastics recycling program to ensure that as little of our current material goes to waste as possible.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Foreign Policy:
No "America alone": re-engage with multilateral institutions
Over the past few years, the United States has systematically left the multilateral institutions of the world. This country cannot afford to commit itself to re-isolation and the "America alone" vision of the world.
The only way to sustainable peace and prosperity around the globe is a commitment to engaging in mutual aid with other countries. The United States should: - Rejoin the Paris Agreement and be a full party to its decisions.
-
Reverse its withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council.
- Rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, popularly known as the Iran nuclear deal.
- Commit to providing full humanitarian assistance
in accordance with multilateral commitments.
- Work with other nations to reform the United Nations Security Council, expanding the P5 to reflect a more global distribution of power.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Foreign Policy:
Referendum on Puerto Rico statehood
Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States. Although its inhabitants are citizens and have the freedom of movement throughout the rest of the country, they do not have a vote in Congress, and no say in presidential politics.
This is a denial of political rights. Puerto Rico should be allowed to host a legitimate, formal, binding referendum on statehood, and be eligible to participate in presidential and congressional elections.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Government Reform:
Replace Electoral College with direct election of President
The Electoral College has been responsible for two Presidents within the last three winning an election without winning a majority of the votes. This system of selecting presidents was a tool originally created to suppress democracy; historically, it
has empowered slavers and segregationists. The injustice it has perpetuated continue today. The democratic option is direct election of the president. The US should abolish the Electoral College, moving to a system of direct election of the president.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Government Reform:
Ranked choice voting replaces "lesser of two evils"
Our current first past the post system of democratic elections does not ask for a majority in order for a candidate to declare victory. Often times, voters will be asked to vote against their conscience and choose the "lesser of two evils."
Ranked choice voting, or instant run-off voting, allows voters to rank candidates, giving their first vote to their preferred candidate. A candidate can only assume victory with a majority of first-round and run-off votes, making every vote count.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Health Care:
VA4A: Veterans Administration healthcare for all
The United States should offer a fully socialized, National Health Service-style single-payer healthcare system for all Americans, covering everything that could conceivably be covered by a private insurer, including dental, vision,
and hearing services. This would involve the abolition of private insurance companies. This plan might be called "Veterans Administration healthcare for all," or "VA4A" for short.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Homeland Security:
America will be safer without nukes: end "nuclear deterrent"
The United States' policy of stockpiling nuclear weapons is a disaster in waiting. The United States must not only seek a world without nuclear weapons, but work actively to make that a reality.
America will be a safer not with a powerful "nuclear deterrent," but instead with a world free from this grievous threat. Rapid denuclearization is the only path forward. The United States should:-
Fully accede to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
- Sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
-
Officially declare that the United States would not be the first to use nuclear weapons.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Homeland Security:
Bring 138,000 US troops home from 800 bases abroad
The US has about 800 military bases spread across the world. There are bases in 80 countries, with about 138,000 troops total deployed across the world. Only 11 other countries have military bases in other nations; the country with the second-most bases
has at most 40. The environmental and social impacts of these bases are acute, and resentment surrounding these bases gives rise to anti-Americanism across the globe, as seen in Okinawa, Japan.The United States should: -
Close all military bases abroad, beginning with those based in Muslim-majority countries.
- Bring every American soldier stationed abroad back to the U.S.
- Determine a package of reparations for communities negatively impacted by
U.S. bases abroad.
- Establish a corresponding demobilization and reintegration programme for U.S. servicemen and women returning home to enable their full and healthy integration into social, economic, civic and political life.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Immigration:
Open borders except for criminals escaping the law
The Trump administration's monstrous approach to immigration policy is a humanitarian and moral catastrophe, one that must be mended immediately. But American immigration policy has been cruel for a long, long time, and we have to do more than simply
repeal what Trump has done.The United States should: - Institute a policy of open borders, with absolute freedom of movement into and out of the United States (with exceptions for criminals attempting to escape the law).
-
Observe its international commitments with respect to migrants and refugees (as set out in the 2016 New York Declaration).
- Abolish the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement.
-
Offer immediate legal status to all undocumented immigrants who have resided in the country for more than three years on a three-year pathway to citizenship.
- Pass a law against deporting any veteran of the U.S. military.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Jobs:
Right to Own: employees can buy out companies that close
Job insecurity is a terrifying thing, and our economic system mandates that businesses shut down their stores, lay off their employees, and close their offices in a never-ending cycle of feast and famine. But while businesses come and go, people's
livelihoods don't have to. Based on the U.K. Labor Party's policy of the same name, the Right to Own would be a policy of employees being the first to be able to buy out a company when it's going under or being sold.
They have the right of first refusal: whether it's being bought by another company or going out of business, the employees will be able to buy out their workplace and ensure that they get to control their own business, income, life, and livelihood.
The United States should institute a policy of the Right to Own, ensuring that, when a company is being sold or is going out of business, the first group that has the chance to buy out the business's assets and IP are the workers themselves.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Tax Reform:
Automatic return-free tax system by online IRS filing option
The tax prep industry consistently fights for tax filing to be difficult, confusing, and overwhelming, and they've been profiting off of every instance of someone handing the reins over just to not have to deal with this mess of a system.
Through legislation like the one Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced in 2017, an automatic tax system could benefit almost all Americans. The United States should: - Have the IRS create a free online tax prep and filing program similar to
TurboTax or others, ensuring that almost no one has to pay to file their taxes.
- Ban the IRS from collaborating with tax filing companies as they do right now, abolishing the corporatized Free File program that less than 3% of the population uses.
- Establish a "return-free" filing option to allow millions of Americans with a straightforward tax situation to choose a pre-prepared, simple filing process that comes with their tax return already calculated and immediately redeemed.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Tax Reform:
Progressive tax: 60% at $1 million, and up from there
The American tax system should be reformed so as to be significantly more progressive; it is fundamentally unfair for working-class people to be paying a burdensome amount in taxes while wealthy people benefit from tax cuts.The United States should:
- Repatriate all wealth currently residing in off-shore tax havens and that are therefore avoiding taxation, with a one-time tax rate of 24 per cent.
- Institute a tax on all financial transactions--a
Tobin spot tax--on all speculative financial transactions, including but not limited to foreign exchange trading.
- Marginal tax of all income over $1 million at 60 percent, incomes over $5 million at 70 percent, incomes over $10 million at 80
percent, and incomes over $20 million at 95 percent.
- Raise the capital gains tax.
- Explore a progressive tax on initial public offerings, to increase as the size of the IPO increases.
- Eliminate tax expenditures that benefit the wealthy.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Technology:
Break up large tech companies; they threaten democracy
The gargantuan Amazon, which alongside providing cloud services to 17 federal intelligence agencies, promises to flex its monopsonistic power over vendors and workers; it may soon reach a concentration of power rivalling Standard Oil at its height.
It is time to return competition to the marketplace that allows innovation and entrepreneurship to thrive. Our democracy depends on it.The United States should break up large tech companies immediately. These companies pose a dire threat,
not just to American democracy, but to international peace and security; Facebook, Google, Amazon, and others pose dangers due to the power they wield over information and content. In 2018, a U.K. Parliament report described Facebook as
a "digital gangster." This description is entirely warranted, based on evidence that its business decisions were "directly linked" to ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, the Cambridge Analytica scandal, etc.).
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On War & Peace:
Split DoD into Department of War and Department of Peace
The Department of Defense has benefitted from its Orwellian moniker for too long: who could justify cutting "defense" spending? The Founders recognized that "Department of War," a name that accurately reflected the purpose and activities
of the body, was a more fitting name. But that's not enough to push back on the overwhelming power of the Department of Defense. A Department of Peace, as proposed in 1793 by Benjamin Rush, should exist to promote peacebuilding and conflict prevention
whenever necessary. The United States should: - Rename the Department of Defense the Department of War.
- Create a Department of Peace, under which USAID, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the Peace Corps would be organized. As a full member
of the Cabinet, the Secretary of Peace would serve to identify, promote and report on U.S. support to nonviolent solutions to global problems.
- Commit to parity in budget allocations between the Department of War and the Department of Peace.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On War & Peace:
End military aid to Israel; recognize Palestinian statehood
For too long, America has given uncritical support to the Likud government of Israel, which has enacted racist apartheid-style policies designed to disenfranchise Palestinians. American leadership, both Democratic and Republican, has watched, both
approvingly and passively, as Israel illegally annexed Palestinian land, encouraging further encroachment through billions of dollars in military aid, the placement of the American embassy in Jerusalem, and the recognition of the Golan Heights as
Israeli territory. The United States should: - Establish a mature, non-partisan relationship with Israel and its neighbors.
- End military aid to Israel.
- Refuse to support laws aiming to stifle the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement
that cripple freedoms of speech and association.
- Recognize Palestinian statehood or call for a plural state in which Israelis and Palestinians all enjoy full and equal rights in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On War & Peace:
End military aid to Saudi Arabia; no support for Yemen war
The US' relationship to Saudi Arabia is extraordinarily corrupt. For decades, the Saudi royal family has used oil money to influence American policy; from the prominence of "Bandar Bush" to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman claiming to have Jared
Kushner "in his pocket," our leaders have been serving Saudi interests for far too long. Saudi Arabia is a repressive dictatorship which regularly engages in torture and murder, as seen most recently in the death of Jamal Khashoggi. Its curtailment of
women's rights has been appalling.The United States government serves as a salesman of death around the globe. The only way to clamp down on the military-industrial complex, the greatest enemy of the American people, is a hard line against selling
weapons abroad.
The United States should: - End all aid to Saudi Arabia.
- End all material and logistical support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.
- Prohibit American companies from selling arms abroad, including to non-state actors.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On War & Peace:
Withdraw all troops from South Korea; normalize with North
The primary responsibility for achieving a lasting peace on the Peninsula rests with the Korean people and their respective governments. This is--first and foremost--their dispute to settle. As the overwhelmingly more powerful party, the U.S. has a
responsibility to make every effort to de-escalate tensions to enable the two Koreas to reach an amicable outcome to current and future talks.The United States should: - Withdraw all troops from South Korea, in cooperation with the South Korean
government.
- Seek to pursue normal relations with North Korea.
- Formally declare an end to the Korean War, which was only paused in 1953 with the Armistice Agreement. Ending hostilities is necessary for the total denuclearization of the peninsula.
- Continue nuclear dialogue with North Korea through multilateral mechanisms, with the goal of complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
- Observe its own Treaty obligations towards denuclearisation.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On Welfare & Poverty:
Redistribute wealth nationally, like Alaska Permanent Fund
American wealth is overwhelmingly concentrated in the wealthiest five percent of households: the top one percent own about 40 percent of national wealth. Social wealth funds, the most famous example of which is Norway's, are designed to combat this
inequality. An American social wealth fund, a national version of the Alaska Permanent Fund, would put money in Americans' pockets and redistribute wealth.
The United States should establish an American National Fund (ANF), based on Matt Bruenig's proposal of an "American Solidarity Fund," with funds from the new financial transactions tax, as well as a tax
on initial public offerings and an increased estate tax. Each year, 5 percent of the fund would be used toward a universal dividend for all Americans 18 and older.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com
Apr 9, 2019
On War & Peace:
2020 debates desperately need an anti-war voice
We must fundamentally shift the dialogue of American politics, and force a tough conversation about the costs of endless wars of choice.The 2020 presidential debates will be in desperate need of an anti-war voice, and Mike Gravel is ready to take on
that challenge.
Debemos cambiar el di logo de la pol¡tica estadounidense y forzar la conversaci¢n dura de los costos de guerras infinitas de elecci¢n.
Los debates presidenciales de 2020 necesitar n desesperadamente una voz contra la guerra.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.org
Mar 29, 2019
Page last updated: Dec 01, 2021