Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is the first of the Democratic presidential contenders to answer our 2020 presidential candidate questionnaire. Daily Kos, in light of the failures of the traditional media in 2016, is putting the focus on policy, to "use our robust platform, along with its highly dedicated liberal readership, to set a different tone in 2020. […] The Daily Kos editorial team formulated its first presidential candidate questionnaire for the wide field of talented Democrats who are just now beginning to stake out their policy positions in pursuit of the nomination."
The questionnaire, while not exhaustive, touches on issues that are of the most importance to Daily Kos readers, including health care, climate change, criminal justice reform, voting rights, education, economic inequality, immigration, LGBTQ equality, women and family issues, and the judicial branch. It's a huge field, and the candidates’ thoughtful responses on these issues will help inform the savvy, engaged Daily Kos community.
Gov. Inslee, who is centering his campaign on the existential issue of climate change, is the first to respond to the questionnaire. "We are the first generation to feel the sting of climate change," he writes, "and we are the last generation with a chance to do something about it."
The next President must commit to making defeating climate change the number one job of the United States. We must have a full-scale mobilization of the American government to create a clean energy economy, and I am the only candidate who has committed to make this job one. And if it's not job one, it won't get done. My administration will lead this mobilization, create millions of jobs and achieving net-zero emissions as part of a just transition that includes frontline communities and communities of color. Americans now understand the urgency of the peril of climate change, and we have one chance to realize the economic promise of a transition to a clean energy economy. And when you have one chance, you take it.
All of the questions and his answers are below.
Economic inequality
Economic inequality in the U.S. has risen since the 1970s, with the top 1 percent of earners now taking in 24 percent of the income, while the bottom 90 percent get just 50 percent. Wealth inequality is even more pronounced, with the top 1 percent having 39 percent of the wealth to just 23 percent for the bottom 90 percent of people. Racial disparities make economic inequality even more pronounced and harmful.
1. What specific policies would you propose to reduce these inequalities?
2. How would they address both income and wealth inequality and alleviate racial disparities? You are free—encouraged, even—to discuss the minimum wage, but please don't stop there.
As governor, I have worked tirelessly to make our tax system more fair and ensure that the wealthiest in our society pay their fair share, and while doing so have made historic investments in education, workers, and families. The investments we have already made to strengthen families and create family-wage jobs in Washington state are a model for what my administration will do for America.
We've expanded early learning, signed major teacher salary increases into law, and strengthened workers' rights to unionize. We've set the pace for the rest of the country by passing the nation's best paid family and medical leave program, which provides 12 weeks of paid leave to nearly every employee, and raising our minimum wage to $12, tied for the highest in the country, and to $13. 50 by next year.
At the same time, we've taken important steps to address racial disparities in the economy. We've legalized marijuana in our state, as we should across the United States, while also offering pardons to 3,500 people with misdemeanor marijuana convictions. We've “banned the box” to prevent discrimination against the formerly incarcerated, changed our juvenile justice laws to reduce recidivism, banned discrimination against renters that disproportionately targeted African-Americans, and stopped the use of the death penalty, which perpetuated fundamental racial disparity. And this year, I look forward to signing legislation we've passed to end racial gerrymandering.
These policies are a model for the rest of the country. As president, I will ensure we achieve universal health care coverage for all Americans. We will build a clean energy economy that will provide millions of new jobs. We will repeal the Trump tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires that are exploding our nation's deficit and putting Social Security and Medicare at risk. We will increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. And we will end the $27 billion in tax subsidies to fossil fuel companies that reward companies for polluting our air, water, and environment. That gravy train is over.
Wall Street reform
In the aftermath of the 2008 recession, a number of small reforms were enacted in the Dodd-Frank Act, some of which have since been rolled back.
What specific regulations would you like to see put in place to ensure Americans are protected in the event of another economic downturn?
I have long opposed allowing banks to grow to become “too big to fail,” threaten our economy, and pass the costs on to taxpayers and working families. In Congress, I voted against repealing Glass-Steagall, to pass the Dodd-Frank regulations on the financial industry, and against the $700 billion bailout to the banks that crashed our economy. I also voted to allow bankruptcy judges to help struggling homeowners by writing down their mortgage payments and co-authored important consumer protections for documents using E-Sign technology. And as governor, I signed legislation that subjects student loan servicers to state consumer-protection regulation so students are protected.
As president, I will work with Congress to ensure strong oversight of the banking system, strengthen Dodd-Frank rules that banks and their lobbyists are working hard to undermine, and restore the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau to its rightful role of protecting consumers rather than shielding banks from accountability.
Housing
In recent decades, housing costs have risen dramatically while wages have stagnated.
About a third of American households, including both renters and owners, spend more on housing than the 30 percent of their income that's considered affordable.
1. What would you do to address America's affordable housing crisis, including:
- Relief for the 47 percent of renters who are cost-burdened, with half of those paying more than 50 percent of their income for housing?
- Home-buyers who face prices for single-family homes more than four times the median income?
- The ongoing inequities created over decades by segregation, redlining, and discriminatory lending practices?
- The 2. 3 million evictions filed in the U.S. in 2016?
As governor, I was proud to sign legislation making it illegal for landlords to deny housing to tenants who benefit from public assistance. We've also increased our state's Housing Trust Fund by tens of millions of dollars. This year I signed legislation increasing the notification window for changes in rent, and our Legislature passed another bill that will extend the notification window for evictions. As president, I strongly support greater federal investment in building affordable housing and smart, sustainable growth in our communities.
Climate change and the environment
While a consensus of scientists find that climate change is happening, is caused by human activity, and represents an existential threat to our nation and our world, public polling often shows it lagging in importance behind other issues.
1. What importance would you place on addressing climate change as president?
Defeating climate change must be the nation's number one priority, and the first and foremost mission of the next administration. If it's not job one, it won't get done, and I'm the only candidate prioritizing it in this way.
I'm calling on America to engage in a new national mission, a mission to defeat climate change, and a full-scale mobilization of the federal government to complete it.
I am committed to putting American ingenuity, innovation, creativity and hard work into an all-out effort to solve this problem.
Our new national mission will have four specific goals:
- We will transition to powering our economy with clean energy and achieve net-zero greenhouse gas pollution, through a comprehensive suite of sectoral strategies and investments for electricity, transportation, buildings, industries and agriculture.
- We are going to invest in creating millions of good jobs in every community building our clean energy future.
- We will focus on justice and inclusion as a centerpiece of this economic transformation, to ensure that no group is left to bear the cost of transition and that everyone benefits from new jobs and investment.
- And finally, we need to end the giveaways and billions in subsidies to fossil fuel industries.
As governor of Washington state, I am already working to ensure America is leading the fight to defeat climate change. We created a new Clean Energy Fund, which has invested more than $100 million in developing and deploying innovative energy technologies, and growing clean energy businesses and jobs. We passed the largest and greenest transportation infrastructure investment package in state history. And we funded the Clean Energy Institute at the University of Washington, which is pioneering research into next-generation renewable energy technologies like solar and battery storage. This year, we passed a ban on super-pollutants like hydrofluorocarbons, efficiency standards for buildings and appliances, and the nation's strongest clean energy bill that will make Washington state's electricity 100% clean.
But greater global ambition is necessary to prevent warming from reaching unacceptable levels, and the U.S. must help catalyze more ambitious national targets and actions to accelerate the pace of emissions reductions throughout the world. I am running for President of the United States because I know we are ready for this challenge.
2. Donald Trump has:
- Withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris Agreement
- Ended the Clean Power Plan begun under President Obama
- Rolled back fuel economy requirements
- Suspended rules limiting methane emissions
- Increased allowances for logging on public lands
- Rolled back regulation of coal mining and coal-fired power plants
- Relaxed standards on drilling on public lands
- Opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling
- Opened new areas along the coasts for oil and gas drilling
- Reduced the size of national monuments by millions of acres
- Proposed rules that would gut the Endangered Species Act
Which of these Trump policies would you commit to repealing immediately, and would you commit to restoring all of the environmental and climate protections that were in effect before Trump took office?
As president, I will end each and every one of these misguided Trump Administration policies, and America will once again have a president who protects our environment and public lands. I will reinstate, and strengthen, crucial Obama-era federal climate policies. These include greenhouse gas pollution requirements in the electricity sector, vehicle emissions and appliance efficiency standards, rules governing methane and hydrofluorocarbon pollution, and rules governing how federal agencies consider the climate impacts of major energy projects in their environmental review processes, to name just a few.
3. The federal tax on gasoline has been unchanged, holding steady at 18.4 cents per gallon for over 25 years.
Would you consider raising this tax both to help address America's critical need for infrastructure improvement and to promote a transition to electric vehicles?
Yes, increasing the federal gas tax is one option for funding our transition to a fossil fuel-free economy. In Washington state, we have passed sensible increases to the state gas tax. These revenues have funded billions of dollars of investments in transit, clean modes of transportation, as well as electric vehicle tax credits, and funded over 200,000 estimated construction jobs. I am proud that, because of this and other successes, Washington state has the second-highest share of electric vehicles on the road and is on track to put 50,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2020.
4. The Green New Deal includes 13 goals for addressing climate change, including improving power generation, transportation, industry, and agriculture while protecting biodiversity and the environment.
Are there specific items in the Green New Deal that you particularly agree with or disagree with? Would you consider endorsing the plan in full?
The Green New Deal has succeeded in making people understand the urgency of the peril of climate change, as well as the promise of a clean energy economy that will create millions of job. It has brought frontline communities into the discussion that have been hit first and worst by climate change. And it has helped people understand that the next president must make defeating climate change our nation's highest priority, requiring a full national mobilization and active involvement from every federal agency.
The next administration must work with Congress to advance ambitious legislation similar to the Green New Deal that sets America on a path to net-zero greenhouse gas pollution and that invests in good jobs, infrastructure and innovation to build a more just and inclusive American clean energy future. We need not just a transition, but a just transition to a clean energy economy that lifts up every community.
But it will also be incumbent on the next administration to explore the use of existing regulatory authorities—including under the federal Clean Air Act—to help drive major greenhouse gas pollution reductions. We need to act today and must pursue a broad approach to defeat climate change, and I am the only candidate in this race who will make defeating climate change the number one priority of the United States.
Immigration
In 2013, the Democratic Senate passed an immigration reform bill that included a path to citizenship and billions for border security. But the GOP-led House refused to bring it up for a vote, even though it had enough support to pass. Since then, Congress has continued to implement part of that bill by allocating billions for more deportation agents, detention beds, and fencing (even as rates of apprehension have dropped to record lows), all while doing nothing to provide relief to immigrants.
1. How will your administration address this?
I have been proud, as governor of Washington state, to have led the charge in standing up to Donald Trump's inhumane immigration policies. Ours was the first state to sue the Trump Administration over the Muslim ban, and as the Administration's policies became more cruel and mean-spirited, Washington state became more safe and welcoming for immigrants and refugees. As president, my immigration policy will uphold the American values of inclusion and openness to immigrants that Donald Trump has forgotten, and I will support comprehensive immigration reform legislation as I have throughout my career, including a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
The Trump administration rescinded Obama guidance that usually, but not always, prioritized the arrest of those who posed a danger to others. As a result, the number of arrests of immigrants with no criminal record more than tripled in the first 14 months of Trump's presidency. Unshackled immigration agents have targeted DACA recipients, blatantly lied to the public, and spied on political opponents of the administration. Meanwhile, vulnerable kids have languished under cruel detention policies. In December, two migrant kids died in CBP custody. In recent oversight hearings, lawmakers revealed that HHS has received thousands of complaints of sexual abuse against against migrant kids.
2. How do you plan to hold immigration agents and their agencies accountable?
3. How do you plan to address rampant abuses and deaths in detention facilities?
4. What can be done to rehabilitate or reform ICE and CBP?
5. Do you support a truth and reconciliation commission on ICE and CBP abuses?
As a governor of a border state, I know how important it is that we have humane, efficient, and just immigration policies. That's why the policies of the Trump Administration are so abhorrent to me. When the Trump Administration targeted undocumented persons through its cruel enforcement policies, I signed an executive order that ordered our state agencies not to cooperate. As president, I will cease this abusive enforcement, restore sanity to our immigration policies by seeking permanent protections for DACA-eligible individuals as well as comprehensive immigration reform. I will also ensure that our immigration authorities are honoring the spirit and letter of our laws, and that civil and criminal investigations into reports of misconduct are able to be pursued without political interference.
The administration separated more than 2,500 kids under its policy of “zero tolerance.” Months after a judge's reunification deadline, some are still in custody. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General said that potentially thousands more families may have been separated prior to the policy. It's unknown how many children have been returned to their families, or how many remain with sponsors or foster families. Yet not one official has been forced to resign over this disaster.
6. How do you plan to hold former officials of the Trump administration accountable?
7. Do you support recent legislation to put separated families on a path to citizenship? Would you consider allowing other immigrants who were cruelly deported by the Trump administration to return to the U.S.?
When Donald Trump enacted his family separation policy, Washington state sued the Administration and provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in emergency aid to organizations helping families ripped apart by this unconscionable policy. As president, I will immediately end these policies in favor of humane enforcement policies, ensure families are reunited, and allow investigations into misconduct to proceed without political interference.
The administration has reduced the number of refugees that are welcome in the U.S. to a record low. ABC News reported that President Obama “had initially set a cap of 110,000 refugees, but once in office, Trump banned refugee admissions for 120 days and then set a new cap of 50,000 refugees.” His cap is now 30,000 refugees, but far fewer may actually be admitted.
8. As president, will you commit to returning numbers of refugees admitted to the U.S. to previous levels, or higher?
I understand that diversity is a strength of the United States, and that the promise of opportunity and safety for persecuted peoples around the globe is essential to who we are as a nation. That's why, when other governors succumbed to fear and sought to turn away to Syrian refugees fleeing from ISIS, I ensured that Washington state would continue to welcome them. As a result, hundreds of Syrian refugees have come to our state, enriching our communities. I called on the Trump Administration to reverse its wrongheaded caps on refugee admissions, including Syrian refugees. As president, I will do at least that, as well as end his racist ban on Muslim immigrants to the United States.
9. Is there anything else you'd like us to know about your immigration platform?
I was proud to sign, as governor of Washington, the Real Hope Act that has allowed thousands of undocumented students to receive state tuition for a college education. During my administration, we have reaffirmed time and again that Washington state is a welcoming and inclusive place for immigrants. As president, I will ensure that this is once again true of America.
Criminal Justice Reform
The United States has the largest prison population in the world, with more than two million people incarcerated and five million people on probation or parole. Racial disparities remain endemic in policing, in prosecutions, and in sentencing. Efforts to reform the criminal justice system, including revisions of drug laws, re-enfranchisement of those that have completed their sentences, increased mental health services, and reforms of juvenile detention systems, are now being called for in both parties.
1. What steps would you take as president to move forward on those or other criminal justice reforms?
As governor of Washington, I placed a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in our state, becoming the third governor to do so at the time. The death penalty has since been found unconstitutional in our state for the very reason I ordered the moratorium: it discriminated against citizens on the basis of race. This is one of many steps my administration has taken to address the racial disparities in our carceral system, including “banning the box” so that employers cannot ask about criminal history, providing rehabilitative services for those in the juvenile justice system, and reducing the number of minor teenagers charged as adults.
Perhaps most importantly, we have recognized the inequity inherent to incarcerating people for misdemeanor marijuana possession when marijuana is legal in our state. That is why I have created the Marijuana Justice Initiative to offer pardons to thousands of people with these convictions, and why I look forward to signing the bill passed this year in the Legislature to vacate the misdemeanor marijuana convictions of anyone 21 or older. I also believe it is time to legalize marijuana across the United States.
Voting Rights
1. Do you support statehood for Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico (if the commonwealth wants it)?
Yes, I support statehood for Washington, D.C., and for Puerto Rico with the support of the Puerto Rican people. As a Member of Congress, I voted to allow Puerto Ricans to determine whether or not they wanted to join the Union, as well as to protect the voting rights of Puerto Rico's delegate to the House of Representatives.
2. Do you support eliminating the filibuster to enact critical voting rights policies, such as the For the People Act (H.R. 1), and ending the disenfranchisement of American citizens in Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico?
The Senate filibuster is an archaic relic of a bygone age, and it must be eliminated if we are going to pass any meaningful legislation to defeat climate change or take on any of the big challenges we face as a nation. I understand that if you want to be serious about defeating climate change, you have to eliminate the filibuster, and I urge all of my competitors to join me in calling for this.
3. Do you support expanding the size of the Supreme Court if the court continues to strike down voting rights protections, invalidate campaign finance regulations, and uphold gerrymandering?
Mitch McConnell destroyed Americans' faith in the Supreme Court to be fair and representative body by stealing a seat from Barack Obama and refusing to give Merrick Garland even a hearing. Now, McConnell is compounding this damage by seeking to eliminate virtually all debate on circuit court judges. We must be thoughtful and considerate about any changes to the Supreme Court and other federal courts, but we also need to restore Americans' faith in the judicial branch and restore the balance that McConnell broke. I'm open to any ideas and discussion on how to reset that balance.
4. Do you support the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which would supersede the Electoral College and allow Americans to elect their presidents by a national popular vote?
I am proud that Washington state is a member of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. I believe in one person, one vote, and activating the Compact is the fastest way to ensuring that is the case in our Presidential elections. It is past time to end the Electoral College.
5. Do you support the Fair Representation Act, which would permanently end gerrymandering by implementing proportional representation in elections for the U.S. House?
We must end the pernicious gerrymandering that has robbed people of their ability to choose their elected leaders, and has instead allowed politicians to choose their voters. As chair of the Democratic Governor Association, I was proud to help elect Democratic governors in Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Virginia, and Wisconsin, and re-elect the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania. Each of these governors will help unrig our elections by rolling back Republican gerrymandering and fighting for fair representation. As President, I am open to considering any option that achieves this goal, especially independent commissions for the drawing of Congressional boundaries as we have in Washington state.
6. Are there any other policies you support that would expand voting rights?
Republican national voter suppression efforts, which have degraded voter turnout in communities of color across the country, illustrate the necessity of national mail-in paper ballots, mailed to voters 3+ weeks before election day. My state has adopted one of the country's most sweeping, far-reaching Access to Democracy packages, including automatic voter registration, all mail-in paper ballot voting, with pre-paid postage, and early registration for 16 and 17-year-olds. I believe we are a model for the country.
Corruption and Accountability
The Trump era has seen numerous corruption scandals, from improper personal use of government planes by Trump Cabinet officials to Trump's unapologetic refusal to divest from his private businesses, profiting as president from payments made by political and industry groups to his various privately owned companies. Multiple members of Donald Trump's staff have been prosecuted for lying to government investigators probing Russian interference in the last presidential election.
Many Americans worry that the precedents set by the Trump administration are irreversible, weakening or nullifying ethical norms that the nation has long relied on as bulwark against those who would seek to use government office for their personal gain.
1. As president, what steps would you have your administration take to ensure accountability for abuses of the public trust by members of the Trump administration?
2. If the investigations into Donald Trump result in the discovery of crimes committed by Trump before or during his presidency, would you support the indictment of the former president for those crimes?
In recent weeks, we have seen the Trump Administration set new marks for unethical behavior and corruption, whether by appointing an oil lobbyist to manage America's public lands as Interior Secretary, offering pardons to his officials if they carry out his illegal immigration orders, or refusing to cooperate with Congressional oversight of everything from his actions in office to his tax returns. I have been proud to hold President Trump and his political appointees to account while I've been governor.
We've accomplished this both by blocking the Administration in both the courts—where we are now 21-0—and in our state legislature, as happened when we passed legislation enshrining net neutrality. As president, I will observe the long-standing norm that presidents not interfere with appropriate Congressional oversight or investigations by regulators and career law enforcement professionals.
Education
2018 and 2019 have seen a wave of teachers striking for increased education funding to reduce class sizes, increase pay, increase the number of support staff such as nurses and librarians, and fix crumbling school buildings.
1. How would you increase education funding so that all students get the education they deserve?
2. Several of these strikes have called attention to the role of charter schools and other forms of privatization in siphoning funding from public schools. What would you do to maintain public funding of public education?
One of my proudest accomplishments as governor of Washington state has been our ability to dedicate nearly $2 billion in teacher salary investments, including an average 12% pay raise for our hard-working teachers. We managed to do this by closing hundreds of millions of dollars in tax loopholes, and without cutting other public services. We've also reduced class sizes in kindergarten through third grade and expanded early education. In total, we've added over $9 billion in K-12 education spending in our state, and for the first time in three decades, Washington state now spends over 50% of our state budget on public schools.
But we're not done, in our state or in our country, when it comes to providing a strong public education to every child. As president, I will support investments in our K-12 education system, our teachers, and early learning to help ensure that every child has a local public school that meets their needs.I oppose appropriating public money to private schools and will take no federal action that does so. We must have local public oversight and accountability, and we must ensure our public school systems are all that they can be.
Student loan debt totals over $1.5 trillion and constitutes a massive drag on the lives and futures of multiple generations of Americans.
3. What would you do both to prevent future college students from leaving school in debt, and to reduce the burden on those who are already affected?
As governor, I signed legislation instituting a tuition cut for students attending both four-year and two-year institutions in our state. I also ensured that we provided in-state tuition to undocumented students by passing the Real Hope Act, and funded a multi-million expansion of our Career Connect Washington program to help students achieve training and education outside of a four-year institution structure.
Washington state offers the second-highest per-student financial aid awards in the nation, but thousands of students seeking our State Need Grant—nearly a quarter of those eligible—were not able to receive financial aid that they qualified for in previous years. This year, the Legislature passed the Washington College Grant program and new investments to increase access to college education and apprenticeship opportunities. These kinds of investments in higher education for a range of students pursuing their dreams are a model for the country.
4. For-profit colleges have played an especially problematic role in the student debt crisis, too often using fraudulent and deceptive recruiting practices to persuade students to take on debt for degrees that ultimately prove worthless. How would you regulate the for-profit college industry, and what accommodations would you provide to its past victims?
The Trump Administration has outrageously rolled back regulations on for-profit educational institutions. In Washington state, we've taken a different path, and in 2018 I signed legislation banning for-profit institutions from selling their own student loan products or having a financial investment in deepening their students' debt load. The bill also creates a safety net for students attending for-profit institutions that suddenly close without providing a degree, a critical step since the Trump Administration refuses to extend loan forgiveness to students victimized by failed institutions. These protections are another example of how Washington is leading the way, and are a model for America if I am elected president.
Abortion
1. Do you unequivocally believe that women should be able to get insurance coverage for abortion no matter where they get her health insurance, including those receiving Medicaid?
Not only do I unequivocally support this, but I was proud to sign the Reproductive Parity Act into law in Washington state that enshrines this very principle.
2. Do you pledge to make access to a full range of reproductive health services, including abortion, inherent and explicit in any future government-sponsored health plan, such as Medicare for All?
Yes.
3. Do you support allowing youth to confidentially access reproductive health services, including safe and legal abortion, without the notification or consent of a parent or guardian?
Yes. I oppose parental notification requirements for access to safe and legal abortion services.
4. Should the government be able to decide if a woman can obtain a legal abortion at any point in her pregnancy? And would you oppose any legislation that aims to restrict doctors from using the abortion method they deem most medically appropriate?
No. I oppose any legislation that restricts doctors from providing medically-appropriate treatment regarding reproductive or abortion care. Decisions regarding abortion procedures should be made between patients and their doctors. That's why I'm pleased that Washington state was successful in our lawsuit against the Trump Administration's proposed “gag rule” that would have prevented providers like Planned Parenthood from referring patients for abortions, one of 21 victories in court over the Trump Administration.
Paid Family Leave
1. Do you support paid family leave?
2. If so, what are the outlines of your plan for paid family leave, and how would you pay for it?
Yes. In 2015, my administration sought federal funding to study and convene an advisory group to design a state-level paid family leave program for Washington state. Just a few months after that work was complete, I signed into law one of the nation's best paid family and medical leave policies, which is a model for the entire country. This program—one of only five in the nation at the time of its passage—offers 12 weeks of paid leave to nearly every employee in Washington state, and splits the costs between both employers and employees. This program not only provides extended paid leave but includes provisions to protect new mothers' ability to care and bond with their babies.
Childcare
1. Do you have a plan to make child care more affordable?
2. How would your plan for affordable child care work, and how would you pay for it?
Yes. In Washington state, we succeeded in expanding access to early childhood education, we fully funded all-day kindergarten, and are currently fighting for tens of millions in funding for home nurse visits for newborns. At the federal level, I have also supported legislation introduced by Senator Patty Murray, the Child Care for Working Families Act, which would guarantee high-quality, affordable child care and support access to high-quality preschool for working middle class families. These policies would represent a model for the country.
LGBTQ Issues
1. Do you support allowing transgender service members to serve openly in the military, and would your administration ensure their ability to do so?
Yes. The Trump Administration's ban on transgender service persons in the military is harmful to our national security and to the service persons volunteering to protect their nation.
2. Federal law provides no explicit nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ individuals. Would you make passing the Equality Act, which would amend existing civil rights law to include sexual orientation and gender identity protections, a top priority for your administration?
Washington state law bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity protections, and these protections must be enshrined in federal law.
3. Do you believe anti-LGBTQ laws should be subject to a standard of constitutional scrutiny similar to that applied to laws targeting people on the basis of race or sex?
Yes.
4. Using specific examples, please identify how you have professionally and/or personally helped advance the rights of LGBTQ individuals and families.
In 2018, I was extremely proud to sign legislation into law that banned the practice of “conversion therapy” in Washington state. And when states across the country passed so-called “religious liberty” bills that discriminated against their LGBTQ citizens, I ordered our state officials not to travel to those states for anything other than essential business. Further, I supported the passage of marriage equality in Washington state by initiative in 2012, and helped ensure its effective implementation in our state.
5. Conservative politicians continually pledge their allegiance to protecting people's “religious liberties,” code for protecting anti-LGBTQ policies and actions. How would you protect the rights of LGBTQ Americans from religious discrimination?
My administration would protect the rights of LGBTQ Americans to experience lives free of discrimination. Federal agencies under President Trump have been turned into cudgels to be used against LGBT Americans, denying both services and dignity out of ignorance and mean-spiritedness. Under President Inslee, the discrimination and erasure would stop immediately.
Health care
A recent comparative study of advanced nations in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that in 2016, the U.S. spent nearly 18 percent of its GDP on health care, compared to healthcare spending in other industrialized countries ranging from less than 10 percent (Australia) to 12.4 percent (Switzerland). Life expectancy in the U.S. was the lowest of the 11 countries studied, and infant mortality was the highest. The U.S. is spending more to provide care to fewer people, and with worse outcomes.
1. Do you embrace the goal of universal health care?
Absolutely. Because my administration aggressively implemented the Affordable Care Act, including Medicare expansion, we have extended affordable and secure health coverage to over 800,000 of our state's residents and achieved an unprecedented reduction in our uninsured rate – from 14% down to 5. 5%. We are working every day to ensure every Washingtonian is insured, and I know we can do that for every American. As president, I will use this experience to ensure we meet that goal, rather than use my power to strip people of their health care as Donald Trump has tried to do.
2. Do you support Sen. Sanders' and/or Rep. Jayapal's bills for a Medicare for All, single-payer healthcare system? If not, what specific proposals do you have for expanding health care?
Health care is a right for all Americans, and as president, I am committed to achieving the goal of universal coverage, and this year, we passed the nation's first public health care option to create another pathway for delivering affordable coverage. I believe this can be one part of the solution for delivering universal health care in our country. I believe that we must also lower the age of enrollment for Medicare, allow Americans to buy into or automatically enroll in Medicare, allow Medicare to import and negotiate the price of drugs, and end the Trump Administration's outrageous effort to strip millions of Americans of their health care.
3. Do you support the inclusion of dental, vision, and long-term nursing care as essential covered health services in any reform plan?
I am so proud that Washington state has passed the nation's first long-term care benefit program, a ground-breaking victory that helps Washingtonians cover the costs that all of us face as we grow older. This is another example of Washington state leading the way, and I look forward to signing this legislation. The policies covering care that we have passed in Washington state are a template for success for the nation, and show that we are capable of getting this done. I am supportive of these goals.
4. How will you reduce high prescription drug prices?
One of the most important things we can do is allow Medicare to negotiate for better drug prices. As a member of Congress, I was also proud to support legislation that closed the prescription drug “donut hole” and to vote for reimportation of drugs from industrialized countries like Canada.
5. What do you see as the role of employer-based health insurance in healthcare reform?
I am open to employer-based health insurance continuing to be a part of a strategy to deliver universal health coverage is affordable and provides high-quality care.
6. Presuming the transition to a Medicare for All system would take a number of years, what actions would you take to to expand and reform the Affordable Care Act, employer-based insurance, and Medicaid to reverse coverage losses under the Trump administration?
I am proud that Washington state has been a national leader during my administration on implementing the Affordable Care Act, using it to expand affordable health coverage to 800,000 of our residents. I am the only candidate in the race for president to have both voted for Obamacare's passage and implemented it in my state. As president, I would immediately start to repair the damage to our healthcare system caused by the Trump Administration's outrageous attacks on the Affordable Care Act. My Department of Justice will defend the Affordable Care Act and put an end to the Trump Administration's efforts to undermine our health care system. I will also seek full funding for cost-sharing payments so we can restore predictability to the marketplace. I will also aggressively pursue efforts to drive up participation in open enrollment that the Trump Administration has sought to undermine, and encourage states that have not yet expanded Medicaid to do so.
7. Affordability remains an issue for insured Americans both under the ACA and in employer-based plans, with higher and higher premiums, deductibles, and other out-of-pocket costs. How would you address increasing out-of-pocket healthcare costs?
In Washington state, we have managed to limit the spikes in premium costs compared to those seen in other states. However, more must be done, and that is why we must end the Trump Administration's efforts to destroy the Affordable Care Act that are contributing to this challenge. In particular, we must reduce the burden on our most vulnerable citizens, and that is why I support both strengthening Medicare by allowing negotiation of drug prices and reimportation of prescription drugs, as well as regulation and competition to keep premium costs down.
8. How would you address consolidation and monopoly power in the healthcare industry?
I believe a public option, similar to the Cascade Care program which has passed our Legislature this year, could be one part of the solution to address this disturbing trend in the health care industry. I am proud that Washington state is the first in the nation to enact such a program.
Medicare
1. Will you protect Medicare from cuts planned by some members of Congress?
Absolutely. As president, I will never allow Medicare to be undermined in order to fund tax breaks for billionaires and donors, as the Trump Administration and Republican Congress have done.
2. Would you allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices?
Absolutely.
3. Would you support adding vision and dental care to Medicare's core coverage?
I am supportive of this goal.
4. Would you advocate lowering the eligibility age for Medicare?
Yes, I would.
Medicaid
1. What do you see as the future of Medicaid?
Medicaid is an essential part of our social safety net, and the Trump Administration's attempts to gut Medicaid must come to a stop. As president, I will be an aggressive champion for further state expansions of Medicaid.
2. Would you protect Medicaid from efforts by a Republican Congress to reduce funding, convert it to a block grant, or otherwise undercut the program?
Yes.
3. Would you revoke Trump administration waivers allowing states to impose barriers such as work requirements?
Yes.
Social Security
Social Security provides nearly two-thirds of seniors with most of their income, and one-third with virtually all of their income, and lifts over 22 million Americans—including more than a million children—out of poverty. We are fast approaching a retirement crisis, in which more and more middle-income workers are seeing costs rising higher and faster than Social Security can keep up, while private retirement funds and other assets lose value.
1. Would you support Social Security expansion by increasing average benefits?
2. Do you support protecting low-income workers by setting minimum benefits above the poverty line and tying them to wage levels to ensure that the minimum benefit does not fall behind the cost of living?
3. Would you supporting changing the annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) formula to better reflect the costs incurred by seniors through adopting a CPI-E formula?
4. Would you restore full funding to the Social Security Administration to properly staff the agency and modernize its systems?
I am open to considering any options that would shore up our retirement security programs and social safety net, particularly after years of Republican attempts to undermine these programs to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. As a Member of Congress, I fought the Bush tax cuts that endangered Social Security, rejected Republican efforts to privatize Social Security, and voted to protect the Social Security trust fund. I also voted against Republican proposals to cap entitlement spending, and support raising the Social Security wage cap.
Filibuster
Democrats are unlikely to take a 60-vote majority in the Senate in 2020. Given the probable lack of a filibuster-proof Democratic majority in the Senate after the next general election, and the urgent need for massive policy programs, such as the Green New Deal and health care reform, that largely cannot be achieved through budget reconciliation, would you support filibuster reform in the Senate?
The Senate filibuster is an archaic relic of a bygone age, and it must be eliminated if we are going to pass legislation to defeat climate change. Because of the filibuster, in the Senate today,I understand that if you want to be serious about defeating climate change, you have to eliminate the filibuster, and I urge all of my competitors to join me in calling for this.
Judges
Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell have engineered a process to remake the federal judiciary. As many as 40 percent of judges in the federal judiciary could be appointed by Trump by the end of his first term. This is the result of a determined effort by McConnell to subvert the norms and traditions of the Senate.
1. Would you support an effort to increase the number of seats on circuit courts and on the Supreme Court to achieve more balance in the judiciary?
2. Would you support a legislative effort to make the judicial code of ethics applicable to Supreme Court justices?
Mitch McConnell destroyed Americans' faith in the Supreme Court to be fair and representative body by stealing a seat from Barack Obama and refusing to give Merrick Garland even a hearing. Now, McConnell is compounding this damage by seeking to eliminate virtually all debate on circuit court judges. We must be thoughtful and considerate about any changes to the Supreme Court and other federal courts, but we also need to restore Americans' faith in the judicial branch and restore the balance that McConnell broke. I'm open to any ideas and discussion on how to reset that balance.
Big Tech
Serious concerns have arisen in recent years around tech companies, focusing on everything from companies selling users' personal data, to manipulation by bots and fake news accounts, to questions about the companies' influence as gatekeepers and monopolists.
What specific measures you would propose to regulate, rein in, or break up large tech companies?
Americans have the right to expect that tech companies uphold their end of the bargain when it comes to preserving a free and open Internet, empowering broad-based competition, and preventing their services from becoming platforms for hate speech or foreign disinformation. In Congress and as governor, I have been a strong advocate for protecting consumers' rights to control their personal data, whether it's from tech companies, big banks, or anyone else. I also believe it's time that corporations pay their fair share in taxes, and that's why, as president, I will repeal the Trump tax cuts and end the billions in tax breaks and subsidies given to fossil fuel companies polluting our air and water.
I am proud to have been the first governor to sign legislation enshrining net neutrality in state law, and as president, I will fight for the same and appoint commissioners to the Federal Communications Commission who support net neutrality. I will welcome proposals to strengthen federal anti-trust laws that promote fair competition across the economy, including in the tech sector, as well as other proposals for appropriate regulatory action.
Anything else you want to tell voters?
We are the first generation to feel the sting of climate change, and we are the last generation with a chance to do something about it. The next President must commit to making defeating climate change the number one job of the United States. We must have a full-scale mobilization of the American government to create a clean energy economy, and I am the only candidate who has committed to make this job one. And if it's not job one, it won't get done.My administration will lead this mobilization, create millions of jobs and achieving net-zero emissions as part of a just transition that includes frontline communities and communities of color. Americans now understand the urgency of the peril of climate change, and we have one chance to realize the economic promise of a transition to a clean energy economy. And when you have one chance, you take it.
