Agenda for America 12 Steps Forward

Rebuilding Our Crumbling Infrastructure Reversing Climate Change Creating Worker Co-ops Growing the Trade Union Movement Raising the Minimum Wage Pay Equity for Women Workers Trade Policies that Benefit American Workers Making College Affordable for All Taking on Wall Street Health Care as a Right for All Protecting the Most Vulnerable Americans Real Tax Reform

1. Rebuilding Our Crumbling Infrastructure We need a major investment to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure: roads, bridges, water systems, waste water plants, airports, railroads and schools. It has been estimated that the cost of the Bush-Cheney Iraq War, a war we should never have waged, will total $3 trillion by the time the last veteran receives needed care. A $1 trillion investment in infrastructure could create 13 million decent paying jobs and make this country more efficient and productive. We need to invest in infrastructure, not more war. Share this page with friends. → Support the Agenda Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Twitter Do you agree we need a massive jobs program rebuilding our nation’s crumbling roads and bridges?

2. Reversing Climate Change The United States must lead the world in reversing climate change and make certain that this planet is habitable for our children and grandchildren. We must transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energies. Millions of homes and buildings need to be weatherized, our transportation system needs to be energy efficient and we need to greatly accelerate the progress we are already seeing in wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and other forms of sustainable energy. Transforming our energy system will not only protect the environment, it will create good paying jobs. Share this page with friends. → Support the Agenda Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Twitter Do you agree we need to lead the world in addressing climate change?

3. Creating Worker Co-ops We need to develop new economic models to increase job creation and productivity. Instead of giving huge tax breaks to corporations which ship our jobs to China and other low-wage countries, we need to provide assistance to workers who want to purchase their own businesses by establishing worker-owned cooperatives. Study after study shows that when workers have an ownership stake in the businesses they work for, productivity goes up, absenteeism goes down and employees are much more satisfied with their jobs. Share this page with friends. → Support the Agenda Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Twitter Do you agree we need to develop new economic models to increase job creation and productivity?

4. Growing the Trade Union Movement Union workers who are able to collectively bargain for higher wages and benefits earn substantially more than non-union workers. Today, corporate opposition to union organizing makes it extremely difficult for workers to join a union. We need legislation which makes it clear that when a majority of workers sign cards in support of a union, they can form a union. Share this page with friends. → Support the Agenda Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Twitter Do you agree that workers should have the right to collectively bargain for higher wages and benefits?

5. Raising the Minimum Wage The current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is a starvation wage. We need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. No one in this country who works 40 hours a week should live in poverty. Share this page with friends. → Support the Agenda Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Twitter Do you agree we need to raise the minimum wage?

6. Pay Equity for Women Workers Women workers today earn 78 percent of what their male counterparts make. We need pay equity in our country — equal pay for equal work. Share this page with friends. → Support the Agenda Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Twitter Do you agree that women should earn equal pay for equal work?

7. Trade Policies that Benefit American Workers Since 2001 we have lost more than 60,000 factories in this country, and more than 4.9 million decent-paying manufacturing jobs. We must end our disastrous trade policies (NAFTA, CAFTA, PNTR with China, etc.) which enable corporate America to shut down plants in this country and move to China and other low-wage countries. We need to end the race to the bottom and develop trade policies which demand that American corporations create jobs here, and not abroad.



Sign the petition to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership — another trade deal disaster » Share this page with friends. → Support the Agenda Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Twitter Do you agree we need to develop trade policies which benefit American workers?

8. Making College Affordable for All In today's highly competitive global economy, millions of Americans are unable to afford the higher education they need in order to get good-paying jobs. Further, with both parents now often at work, most working-class families can't locate the high-quality and affordable child care they need for their kids. Quality education in America, from child care to higher education, must be affordable for all. Without a high-quality and affordable educational system, we will be unable to compete globally and our standard of living will continue to decline. Share this page with friends. → Support the Agenda Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Twitter Do you agree that higher education should be affordable for every student, regardless of family income?

9. Taking on Wall Street The function of banking is to facilitate the flow of capital into productive and job-creating activities. Financial institutions cannot be an island unto themselves, standing as huge profit centers outside of the real economy. Today, six huge Wall Street financial institutions have assets equivalent to 61 percent of our gross domestic product - over $9.8 trillion. These institutions underwrite more than half the mortgages in this country and more than two-thirds of the credit cards. The greed, recklessness and illegal behavior of major Wall Street firms plunged this country into the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. They are too powerful to be reformed. They must be broken up. Share this page with friends. → Support the Agenda Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Twitter Do you agree we need to break up too-big-to-fail banks?

10. Health Care as a Right for All The United States must join the rest of the industrialized world and recognize that health care is a right of all, and not a privilege. Despite the fact that more than 40 million Americans have no health insurance, we spend almost twice as much per capita on health care as any other nation. We need to establish a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system. Share this page with friends. → Support the Agenda Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Twitter Do you agree that health care should be established as a right for all Americans?

11. Protecting the Most Vulnerable Americans Millions of seniors live in poverty and we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country. We must strengthen the social safety net, not weaken it. Instead of cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and nutrition programs, we should be expanding these programs. Share this page with friends. → Support the Agenda Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Twitter Do you agree we should expand Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and nutrition programs to reduce poverty?