Survey of 2020 Presidential campaign websites: on Welfare & Poverty


Jo Jorgensen: Government anti-poverty programs don't work

Government anti-poverty programs don't work. The cure for poverty is a vibrant economy that generates plentiful jobs and high wages, combined with an affordable cost of living. I will work to eliminate policies that cripple economic growth. I will give special attention to regulations driving up the cost of housing & health care, as well as those creating barriers to new businesses. I will work to repeal laws that prevent individuals and charitable organizations from helping those in need.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website jo20.com Jul 26, 2020

Tom Steyer: Increase the earned income tax credit

Corporate influence in Congress has silenced labor groups, and halted progress on wages, retirement security, health care, and other issues affecting families across the country. It's time to push power back to the people who actually do the work. Tom's first and best partner in organizing has always been organized labor. As president, he will keep fighting for a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour, strengthen the right to organize, institute paid family leave, and make childcare more affordable and available. Tom will invest in programs that work for working people: increasing the earned income tax credit, enforcing strong workplace protections, and fighting for a living wage.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website TomSteyer.com Feb 3, 2020

Mike Bloomberg: Create 1 million new black homeowners

Mike's plan lays out a path for the creation of 1 million new Black homeowners by providing down-payment assistance, getting millions banked and recognized by credit scoring companies, enforcing fair lending laws, reducing foreclosures and evictions and increasing the supply of affordable housing.

Mike will increase the supply of affordable housing units nationally--lowering costs for middle and low-income residents. He will expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and enhance its value. He will prioritize new transportation funding for areas that have undertaken progressive zoning reform and reward municipalities that support affordable housing development in neighborhoods with good schools, transportation, and economic opportunity.

Mike will make homelessness a national priority--and double federal spending on homelessness from under $3 billion to $6 billion annually.

Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeBloomberg.com Jan 20, 2020

Mike Bloomberg: Created or preserved 175,000 affordable homes

Mike Bloomberg worked to improve life in NYC neighborhoods across the five boroughs. In 2013, NYC had the largest affordable housing program in the nation. NYC added more than 850 acres of new parkland, created or preserved 175,000 affordable homes, and funded more than 100 public art installations across the five boroughs.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeBloomberg.com Nov 9, 2019

Joe Sestak: War on Poverty made real improvements; let's do more

It has been more than 55 years since President Lyndon Johnson declared a "War on Poverty" in his 1964 State of the Union address. The official poverty rate in the United States then was 19%. Today, it stands at 12.3%. By some measures, it is closer to 14%. While that does represent a real improvement, it is still a far cry from where we need to be as a nation. Far too many people still lack the resources to provide for their basic needs, including food, water, shelter, electricity, and heating. Far too many children still go hungry, the only square meal they receive coming just five times a week at their public school lunch. This should be unacceptable to all of us--and as President I will work every day to finally bring an end to poverty in America.
Source: 2020 presidential campaign website JoeSestak.com Jun 23, 2019

Howie Hawkins: Reintegrate urban amenities, like walkable mixed-use cities

The ecosocialist Green New Deal will rebuild and restructure our cities around egalitarian and ecological principles. Skyrocketing rents are driving working people out of their homes and communities. Sprawl development is a social and ecological disaster. Segregation by race and class has been increasing for decades, isolating the poor away from resources and opportunities and isolating the rich away in their gated communities.

We will campaign for an urban policy that will reintegrate urban amenities with the natural environment. It would promote walkable mixed-use neighborhoods, convenient and affordable mass transit, clean energy, urban agriculture, green manufacturing, and a massive public housing program that is high quality, mixed income, carbon negative, and scattered site across the city/suburbs divide. It will be a jobs program, a desegregation program, and a clean energy program as well as an affordable housing program.

Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us May 19, 2019

John Delaney: Invest in rural America: opportunity zones & doubled EITC

Investment has been concentrated in a small number of cities and rural America has been left behind. Reversing this trend requires investment:
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website JohnDelaney.com May 2, 2019

Mike Gravel: 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

Steve Bullock: Passed statewide Earned Income Tax Credit

Working with a Republican legislature, he expanded Medicaid, passed an Earned Income Tax Credit, established the state's first public pre-K and passed one of the most progressive anti-dark money bills in the country. At the same time, Bullock has repeatedly vetoed Republican bills that would have undermined public education, workers' rights, civil rights and a woman's right to choose.
Source: 2020 presidential PAC campaign website ourbigskyvalues.org Mar 30, 2019

Julian Castro: Government can help needy families get back on their feet

As the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, I worked to expand the promise of opportunity to Americans all over the nation. Together, my team and I made housing more accessible, lessened homelessness among our nation's veterans and even offered internet access to families in public housing. We set out to help families get back on their feet and achieve more than they thought possible.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website JulianForTheFuture.com Mar 27, 2019

Andrew Yang: Create culture of lifting up the least among us

Meeting this week with a national gathering of Christian entrepreneurs was enlightening. I found that the themes of the campaign and their point of view are aligned in many important respects?--?a mindset of abundance, of community, and of lifting up the least among us.

Most people who are struggling today aren't struggling because of choices they made. Often economic hardship is the result of things outside of a person's control, like job loss, illness, or the place where they were born. It can also be the result of a culture that cares more about stock portfolios than people in need.

Jesus' command to love our neighbor is at the heart of Christianity. More than 70% of Americans call themselves Christians. My question for each one of them comes from 1 John 3:17: "How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?"

Source: 2020 presidential campaign website yang2020.com May 15, 2018

  • The above quotations are from Survey of 2020 Presidential campaign websites.
  • Click here for definitions & background information on Welfare & Poverty.
  • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
  • Click here for more quotes by Mike Gravel on Welfare & Poverty.
  • Click here for more quotes by Pete Buttigieg on Welfare & Poverty.
2020 Presidential contenders on Welfare & Poverty:
  Democrats running for President:
Sen.Michael Bennet (D-CO)
V.P.Joe Biden (D-DE)
Mayor Mike Bloomberg (I-NYC)
Gov.Steve Bullock (D-MT)
Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-IN)
Sen.Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Secy.Julian Castro (D-TX)
Gov.Lincoln Chafee (L-RI)
Rep.John Delaney (D-MD)
Rep.Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI)
Sen.Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Gov.Deval Patrick (D-MA)
Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
CEO Tom Steyer (D-CA)
Sen.Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Marianne Williamson (D-CA)
CEO Andrew Yang (D-NY)

2020 Third Party Candidates:
Rep.Justin Amash (L-MI)
CEO Don Blankenship (C-WV)
Gov.Lincoln Chafee (L-RI)
Howie Hawkins (G-NY)
Gov.Gary Johnson(L-NM)
Howard Schultz(I-WA)
Gov.Jesse Ventura (I-MN)
Republicans running for President:
Sen.Ted Cruz(R-TX)
Gov.Larry Hogan (R-MD)
Gov.John Kasich(R-OH)
V.P.Mike Pence(R-IN)
Gov.Mark Sanford (R-SC)
Pres.Donald Trump(R-NY)
Rep.Joe Walsh (R-IL)
Gov.Bill Weld(R-MA & L-NY)

2020 Withdrawn Democratic Candidates:
Sen.Stacey Abrams (D-GA)
Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NYC)
Sen.Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Sen.Mike Gravel (D-AK)
Sen.Kamala Harris (D-CA)
Gov.John Hickenlooper (D-CO)
Gov.Jay Inslee (D-WA)
Mayor Wayne Messam (D-FL)
Rep.Seth Moulton (D-MA)
Rep.Beto O`Rourke (D-TX)
Rep.Tim Ryan (D-CA)
Adm.Joe Sestak (D-PA)
Rep.Eric Swalwell (D-CA)
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Page last updated: Dec 01, 2021