The money of the ultra rich, billionaires and highly connected people are ruining our democracy.
Citizens United got it wrong when it said corporations are people and are allowed to spend unlimited money on campaigns (which ironically, actual individuals cannot). Ban corporate and union spending on campaigns, ban corporate and union PACs, and erase dark money, meaning all contributions from individuals to campaigns must be disclosed.
I will introduce or co-sponsor legislation to achieve this and it’s an easy yes vote.
Additionally, I support public funded elections and will work to create a method to bring these types of campaigns to fruition.
The path to affordable housing starts with removing the excessive commercialism that has overtaken the home-buying process. Ordinary people simply can’t compete with corporate interests, large investor groups, and rental conglomerates buying up entire neighborhoods. We need policies that limit the percentage of housing units any corporation or landlord can own in a given area, while also reserving a share of available homes specifically for first-time buyers so families have a fair chance to build stability.
Affordability also depends on modernizing the way our cities are zoned. Exclusionary single-family zoning should be replaced with frameworks that allow multi-family homes and more diverse, attainable housing types. In major metro regions like Los Angeles, large stretches of land remain locked into industrial or commercial classifications that no longer serve their original purpose. Many of those businesses are not coming back, and those parcels should be rezoned for residential or mixed-use development that reflects the realities of today’s economy.
None of this can happen without partnership at the local level. The federal government should offer targeted block grants to cities and counties that are willing to update their zoning rules, expand their housing supply, and adopt more inclusive land-use practices.
From DOJ to your local police, I will introduce legislation that makes law enforcement accountable to the people it serves.
Qualified immunity is a court-created legal construct that allows law enforcement to break the law in pursuit of enforcing the law. You read that right.
There is no statute for qualified immunity. I will, though, introduce legislation to make it clear that qualified immunity is not a defense, and additionally that law enforcement must follow the law at all times and be held accountable when they break the law.
When people say that cops will leave the force if they are not offered qualified immunity, that is not a negative, that is a good thing! I am pro-law enforcement, I served in correctional facilities for 10 years. I know that we can do without any officer who thinks they need to break the law in order to serve the law. This is how we create police forces that are accountable.
No more allowing our politicians and elected officials to campaign with law enforcement because you cannot provide oversight for people that you are campaigning with. The current system of candidates, electeds and law enforcement makes accountability impossible. I will use my bully-pulpit to encourage local agencies to update their ethics standards and training.
Our members of the community do not need to be treated like enemy combatants. They are citizens and residents and must be treated with respect and the presumption of innocence. I will put a halt to the transfer of decommissioned military hardware to our local police.
Too often, we ask the police to respond to calls that they are not trained for, especially people having mental health crises. In fact, a majority of LAPD calls are in response to mental health incidents. Instead of sending ill-equipped police, let’s fund mental health care professional responders and expand the Unarmed Model of Crisis Response (UMCR) everywhere. The federal government must provide funds for this transition and I will propose the legislation to make this happen.
We need to fix immigration.
Document the undocumented. We need an amnesty for all current undocumented people. The process requires them to come out of the shadows to be qualified first as legal residents and then with a pathway to citizenship. Qualifications are simple: tell us your name, where you are from and a background check, plus a review of your civic record in the US.
A single, standard form and an amnesty period for everyone to raise their hand and be counted. For the safety of the undocumented and for the safety of everyone in our communities.
End the exploitation of undocumented workers that has gone on for generations.
For current legal residents, speed up the time for them to apply for citizenship. There should be an expedited process for any legal resident who wants to become a naturalized citizen.
DACA recipients should be prioritized in the pathways from undocumented to legal resident to citizen. Far from punishing these children and young adults, we should be recognizing them for their citizenship.
Protect migrant workers with minimum livable wage and tax them for healthcare why they are here. If they want to become permanent legal residents, then provide them a lane to move from migrant to resident.
Additionally, we need more immigrants of all types from all four corners of the world because that is how we build an America that works for all of us today and into the future. Over half of all new businesses are founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants, and over half of all new employment comes from the businesses founded by immigrants.
Private money out of healthcare. For-profit healthcare is an oxymoron. Healthcare is a basic human right.
We need healthcare for all. Tax funded public healthcare, whether it is a single payer model like Medicare for All or the Bismark model used in Germany and Japan, that covers every single American is the only option.
This is cheaper and better than private health insurance, and won’t cause any American to ever experience bankruptcy from medical debt. You shouldn’t have your financial life ruined because you had a medical incident.
We need a tax system that taxes the ultra rich and billionaires and corporations on every dollar of wealth they bring in from all possible sources of income, the same way you and I are taxed on every dollar of our wages.
This creates a fair and equal system, where all of us are paying our fair share of taxes based on the totality of our wealth.