01
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Workers First
Pass a modernized labor law with real penalties for union-busting, sectoral bargaining, and card-check recognition. Raise the federal minimum wage to $17/hour — indexed to median wage growth so it never erodes again. Mandate that companies over 2,000 employees put workers on their boards. Union density explains roughly 25% of the Gini decline between 1936 and 1968. When it collapsed, wages decoupled from productivity and never recovered.
Union density in 1968: 33% → Today: 9.9%
02
🏥
Healthcare for All
The U.S. spends nearly double any peer nation on healthcare and ranks last on outcomes. A review of 22 single-payer studies found 19 concluded it would cost less than the current system. Transition to Medicare for All through phased expansion — lowering eligibility by 10 years annually — while negotiating drug prices through international reference pricing. End medical bankruptcy. End job lock. End the 18% premium penalty small businesses pay relative to large corporations.
$14,885 per capita — twice any peer nation. Ranked last on outcomes.
03
🧒
Universal Childcare
Two incomes are no longer a lifestyle choice — they are a survival requirement. Yet childcare costs $15,000–$35,000 per year per child, consuming up to 40% of a working family's take-home pay. The solution is restructuring childcare as a not-for-profit public sector with federal and state subsidies capping family costs at roughly 7% of income — near zero for lower-income parents. Workers who dedicate their careers to raising the next generation deserve professional pay. This is an investment in every child's development and every parent's ability to stay in the workforce.
Average childcare cost: $15K–$35K/year per child
04
🏠
Housing You Can Afford
Minneapolis eliminated single-family-only zoning in 2018 — housing stock grew 12% while rents rose just 1%. Tokyo's national zoning makes a downtown one-bedroom $500/month. Vienna covers 60% of its population in social housing at €300–750/month with only 18% of residents rent-burdened versus 57–58% in Los Angeles. A federal zoning floor, a $20–30B annual social housing investment, land value taxation, and a mandate to build 10+ million homes over a decade can restore a 3:1 price-to-income ratio.
4.7M-unit housing deficit. 770,000 people homeless in 2024.
05
📊
Tax the Wealthy
The post-war Golden Age — 4% GDP growth, rising wages, expanding homeownership — ran on a 91% top marginal tax rate and 52% corporate rate. Today's 37% and 21% are a historical anomaly engineered by concentrated wealth. Restore progressive taxation: 50–60% on income above $1M, capital gains taxed as ordinary income, the carried interest loophole closed, a 2–3% wealth tax above $50M, and the step-up basis loophole eliminated. Revenue potential: $4–7 trillion per decade to fund universal programs while reducing the deficit.
1968 top rate: 91%. GDP growth: 4%/yr. Current top rate: 37%.
06
🔍
End the Corruption
$5 billion in annual lobbying and $1.4 billion in dark money is not democracy — it is regulatory capture. Create an independent U.S. Anti-Corruption Bureau modeled on Singapore's CPIB, which achieves a 98–99% conviction rate and has prosecuted sitting Cabinet ministers. Lifetime lobbying ban for former members of Congress. Ban congressional stock trading. Full DISCLOSE Act transparency. Public campaign financing with 6:1 small-dollar matching. Corruption is not a side issue — it is the mechanism through which every other policy failure is maintained.
Congressional approval: 15%. Trust in government: 20–25%.
07
🎓
Education That Works
The U.S. spends more per student than almost any peer nation and ranks 34th in math. The problem is inequality and design, not investment. Universal pre-K with a 3:1 to 9:1 benefit-cost ratio. Federal funding equalization to break the property-tax-to-school-quality cycle. Teacher professionalization modeled on Finland — top 15–20% of applicants, Master's degrees, full professional autonomy. A German-style dual vocational system for the majority of students who don't need a four-year degree. Tuition-free community college. Income-contingent repayment for remaining student debt.
$1.8 trillion student debt. 42.7 million borrowers.
08
⚖️
Criminal Justice Reform
1.9 million people in American cages — 5 to 10 times the rate of any European democracy. Eliminate mandatory minimums. End cash bail — New Jersey's elimination cut pretrial detention 50% with no increase in crime. Abolish private prisons whose bed-occupancy contracts directly incentivize mass incarceration. Transform remaining facilities into rehabilitation centers modeled on Norway, which cut recidivism from 60–70% to 18–25%. If Black Americans were incarcerated at the same rate as white Americans, prison populations would drop 40%. That number speaks for itself.
U.S. incarceration rate: 541/100K. Norway: 54/100K.
09
💊
Smart Drug Policy
The War on Drugs has cost over $1 trillion since 1971, produces 100,000+ overdose deaths per year, and incarcerates people of color at rates wildly disproportionate to actual drug use. Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001 — overdose deaths fell from 369 to 30 within 15 years, HIV infections among drug users dropped over 90%. Oregon's failure shows what not to do: treatment infrastructure must come first. Redirect the $25.7 billion currently spent on drug criminalization toward treatment-on-demand and supervised consumption sites.
Portugal model result: overdose deaths reduced 90%+ in 15 years
10
🌍
Immigration That Works
Immigrants account for 17% of U.S. GDP and $525 billion in annual taxes. The CBO projects recent immigration adds $8.9 trillion to GDP over the next decade. Yet 7+ million applications are pending and Indian employment-based applicants wait decades due to absurd per-country caps. Eliminate per-country caps. Adopt a hybrid points-based system modeled on Canada, which processes permanent residency in 6 months. Create a pathway for the 2.5 million Dreamers contributing $65 billion annually. Build a system that reflects our actual interests.
Immigration adds $8.9T to GDP over the next decade (CBO)
11
🥦
Clean Food Standards
The FDA's GRAS loophole allows manufacturers to self-certify additive safety — 99% of chemicals introduced since 2000 were approved by industry, not the government. The U.S. permits 72 pesticides the EU has banned, and allows food additives that Europe banned years ago. Farm subsidies of $16 billion annually flow almost entirely to commodity crops, not fruits and vegetables, artificially cheapening processed food. Close the GRAS loophole. Redirect subsidies. Adopt the EU's precautionary principle: prove it's safe before it goes in the food supply.
72 pesticides banned in the EU are legal in the U.S.
12
🏪
Small Business Liberation
Universal healthcare alone transforms entrepreneurship by eliminating the 18% cost penalty small businesses pay for equivalent coverage and ending the job lock that keeps workers in positions they'd leave if they could. Real antitrust enforcement that breaks monopolies crowding out competition. Public banking modeled on the Bank of North Dakota — 20% average annual profit over 21 years while expanding affordable lending. A genuinely level playing field is not anti-market. It's what a market looks like before it's been captured.
Small businesses pay 18% more per worker for equivalent coverage
