Jill Stein: My response to the presidential debate

Jill Stein | USATODAY

Third-party candidates were not invited to participate in the presidential debates. USA TODAY invited them -- and their vice presidential candidates -- to provide answers to one question from each debate. Here's Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein's answer to how she would go about creating new jobs:

As our nation's first Green president, my mandate won't be just to "create new jobs." My mandate, if elected, will be to end mass unemployment once and for all. I will do this in my first term through a Green New Deal -- the centerpiece of my campaign -- which will create 25 million jobs through direct public works programs and support for cooperatives and community businesses. I urge voters to read about the Green New Deal on my website at JillStein.org.

I ran against, and debated, Mitt Romney in the 2002 Massachusetts election for governor. Romney was a jobs killer then, and he still is today. He makes money off of destroying jobs and driving down workers wages. He wants to do to America what he did at Bain Capital, "harvesting profits" in his words by sucking the value out of what we, the people, have built.

As for President Obama, for the past four years he has played it safe. Safe for himself, that is, but not safe for the rest of us. Instead of fighting for areal economic stimulus -- the kind of massive investment in our economy I am fighting for with the Green New Deal -- this president bailed out Wall Street.

Meanwhile, he has allowed youth unemployment to hit 25%, and student debt to skyrocket. I think it's time we bailed out the working students, not the rich bankers, don't you?

A vote for me is a vote for a Green New Deal, for ending unemployment, for 25 million jobs, for a transition to a new green economy that puts working people first, because working people are the ones who built this country.

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