Green Party on Budget & Economy Party Platform

Steady-state economy better than increasing GDP

Answers to wealth inequality are out there; ask the people

While this year's State of the Union mentioned inequality of wealth, it failed to mention poverty, homelessness, or the ongoing home foreclosure crisis (except in passing), and in any case failed to offer substantive solutions. It is not as if the answers are not out there.

In Pennsylvania, the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign is moving people into vacant housing. In Richmond, California, Green Party Mayor Gayle McLaughlin is working on a program to take back foreclosed homes from banks and return them to original owners. The people are moving to find ways to meet their needs. The silence of the twin corporate parties makes it only a matter of time before the people move forcefully to build a political party of their own.

Working people bear federal debt burden disproportionately

Working people and the small business community are bearing a disproportionate amount of the federal debt burden. Yet the federal debt is, to a large degree, the end product of tax cuts for the wealthy and big business, and the military-defense industry buildup.

For many years the federal government borrowed trillions of dollars. Money that should have been going into a better "safety net" for the poor, homes for the homeless, environmental and public lands conservation, sustainable jobs, research and development, roads and bridges, schools and the technologies of tomorrow, has been lost to servicing the national debt. We cannot ignore the consequences of our nation's past deficits and the related costs of debt service.

Increase affordable housing & protect renter’s rights

Increase Affordable Housing Supply
• Enforce laws against illegal hotel conversions.
• Use vacant housing--whether at closed military bases, housing kept off the market by speculators, or landlords delinquent in taxes--to shelter homeless persons.
• Build human-scale, low income housing (as does Habitat for Humanity).
• Pursue more efficient use of our existing housing supply, such as home-sharing & cooperative conversions of existing dwellings.
• Subsidies, trade-offs with developers, and the creative use of city zoning ordinances should be used to increase affordable housing.
• Renter’s Rights
• Protect tenants with rent control laws, including vacancy control.
• Prevent evictions without just cause. Restrict owner move-in evictions of long-term tenants, the elderly, and disabled persons.
• Crack down on landlords who refuse to maintain their properties in habitable condition, or who engage in illegal evictions, with hefty fines and, in extreme cases, jail terms.