Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,talk.politi,talk.politics.theory,alt.politics.elections,alt.politics,talk.environment,alt.news-media,soc.culture.usa,soc.college,alt.activism
Date: Wed,  8 Apr 1992 18:04:26 -0400 
From: "Steven M. Maliszewski" <sm6f+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Election '92:  the issues before all of us



We the people.... An index of issues outlining Jerry Brown's positions

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"Our cause is clear.  We must restore commitment to our nation, vitality
to the values of our society, vogor to our economy, real democracy to
our government, and purpose to our national life.  Above all, we must
secure our children's birthright of a greater America than we ourselves
inherited."


"At the heart of my campaign is a Family Bill of Rights with this
commitment:  Every person has the right to a living wage.  Every person
has the right to health care.  Every person has the right to shelter. 
Every person has the right to an education.  Every person has the right
to be free from economic insecurity in their old age.  That's my
commitment- and if you join, it will be our commitment.  And it will be
done."



AGRICULTURE/FARM
As governor, created Farm Workers Health Services Program to increase
health care to migrant workers and their families.  "We have to design
policies that recognize the stewardship of the land, the continuity of
families, and that means cooperatives, marketing orders, expert
assistance, and a recognition that there is a value in making the same
kinds of assistance available to our own family farmsers as we do to
places like Poland, or Egypt...where [loses are renegotiated, not
foreclosed].  When times get tough on the farm, it's foreclosures, I
think we have to have a policy that...treats American citizens and
family farmers [better than] we do so many foreign countries."

AIDS
Recently assisted Mother Teresa in opening AIDS hospice in San
Francisco.  "I think it ought to be at the top of the national health
care agenda.  The President barely mentions it.  You've got a million
and a half people dying of AIDS; you've got good research projects that
are not even being funded; you've got people who, while we're waiting
for one or the other of these health care plans, can't get covered. 
They're suffering and no other country, at least developed countries,
would let that happen.  I think the President's got to stand up and say,
"Look, we've got a plague on our hands.  We've got to talk about it- how
it's transmitted.  We've got to warn people and we've got to pay the
money so that we don't abandon people who are suffering and dying in
every community in America."

BUSH/REAGAN ERA
"There has been unfair and unequal gain of wealth by the few at the
expense of the many.  The stunning gains by the very rich did not result
from the success of hard work or a reward earned by creative enhancement
of the nation's prosperity.  No, to the contrary, this result reflects a
decade of unfair tax breaks for the privileged disguised as relief for
all, the looting of the National Treasury, the rigging of our free
market economy, and a host of succesful scams and rip-offs best
exemplified by corporate take-overs on Wall Street and savings and loan
disasters on Main Street...The richest 1% increased their share of the
National Income by almost $200 billion a year- and they took it from the
poor and the middle class without apology.  Truly, we have seen a class
war and the redistribution of income..by the self-interested and greedy
who have manipulated the tax codes for their own benefits."

BUSINESS
"I believ the corporations should be encourages to plow back more of
their money into what they're doing." "What we need to do is have an
industrial...economic strategy like the Japanese have to target areas of
opportunity for environmentally sound, resource efficient growth.  And I
would see that in space, in bioscience, in electronics, in
telecommunications, in mattericals science."

CAMPAIGN FINANCING
"The chokehold which campaign contributions have on the political
process must be broken.  We need real and meaningful campaign reforms,
and not just regarding campaign finance.  Equally imperative, candidates
must have free access to the means of mass communications in a modern
society."  "In terms of executive orders...I'd find people for the
Federal Communications Commission who will develop a program of free
television time so candidates don't have to spend so much of their
campaigning raising huge [sums of] money to buy time on television to
manipulate voters."  (Every Presidential campaign, hundreds of millions
of dollars go to consultants, advertising firms, and the media.)

CRIME/PUNISHMENT
As governor, mandatory prison terms for use or guns in a crime, for
repeat felons, for crimes against elderly and handicapped, for heroin
pushers; signed legislation creating Victim/Witness assistance program
and Rape Crisis Centers.  "We've tripled the prison population...Every
prison causes the need for another prison two-thirds as large because of
the 60% recidivistic rate.  But if you took that money, and you invested
in children, and child care, and Head Start, and jobs...you will see
this country prosper and flourish."  "You're never going to stop crim
unless there is an adequate opportunity for jobs and income for every
person."  Jerry Brown opposes punishment.

DEFENSE- See Military/Defense

DOMESTIC POLICY
"We have to be prepared  to knit together a governing coalition of
labor, business, minorieties, and people who represent environmental
concerns in a way that will allow investment in our own people.  I put
that investment in three categories:  in human capital, which is
education, job training and the acquisition of skills; in technological
capital, which provides the competitive edge while allowing us to
maintain our position in the world; and  in environmental capital, which
will maintain and enhance our forests, fisheries, agricultural land and
air."  "We need real reform.  I think we have to reform the politics,
the tax code, the industrial policy, our health system.  And as we do
that, we will be not only on the verge, but in the beginning and the
duration of a golden age."

DRUGS
Decriminalized possession of less than one ounce of marijuana in
California.  Favors drug treatment on deman.  Would not legalize
marijuana.

ECONOMY
"Number One, I would cut payroll taxes so that the withholding on the
people of America would go down in the next two weeks.  Secondly, I'd
move off the backlog every single public works project in America to put
people to work.  Number three, I would take some of the money we're now
spending abroad and invest it here at home in things that will create
efficiency and a more innovative economy.  One more thing, I would fully
fund Head Start."  "You've got to put an income floor under those
families that are under stresss...[Create] enterprise zones.  Take 50 of
the hardest-pressed areas in America, cut out the teaxes to any business
that will go in there and hire people.  [For] people who are on public
assistance, let them take their government check and turn it into a
voucher so they can turn it into a job, so that the employer adds more
to it.  Anything that will make sure that every American has a living
family wage..."  Favors increase popular contril of Federal Reserve.

EDUCATION
As governor, tripled K-12 education budget; opposed charging tuition at
state colleges and universities; raised standards for high school
graduation and college entrance; Worksite Education and Training Act to
women and minorities to complete college degrees in math, engineering,
and the sciences.  "The public school is the major integrating
institution in our society...I want to make sure it's fully funded." 
"We can put a computer in front of every school child...and have
learning programs from Kindergarten through the 12th grade."  "The same
people who are designing the Star Wars defense...that level of
commitment and skill and money...can revolutionize American education."

ENERGY
"Our current energy policy...depends on foreign oil, on squandering
resources, on promoting nuclear power and wrecking the environment both
offshore and in wilderness areas."  "I say it's time for the President
to say 'no' to future nuclear power and 'yes' to solar, biomass
conversion, synthetic fuels, wind power-to a whol array of energy
sources that are safer, more economically secure, that will not lead to
the disaster that nuclear is now taking us."  "If we commit ourselves to
an energy system no more wasteful than Germany and Japan, we would save
more money than we're spending on the entire defense system...you can
invest in new engines, lights, retrofitting buildings.  And...you'll
reduce the energy spending that will free us from dependence on foreign
oil, protect the environment and put millions of Americans to work."

ENVIRONMENT/ECOLOGY
As governor, led the nation in creatone and enfocing clean-air laws,
enacting legislation to curb toxic wastes, and promoting environmental
awareness.  Despite opposition from special interest groups and Federal
Bureaucracy, his administration accomplished much in the area of
environmental protection and preservation by instituting a strict
climate of regulatory compliance.  Favors clean renewable alternate
energy sourves;i.e. wind,solar,cogeneration, geothermal.
 
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
As governor, strongest commitment to affirmative action anywhere in
country; prohibited payment of different wages for jobs requiring equal
skill, effort and responsibility; promoted training of women for job
classifications in which 70% of employees were men; prohibited sex or
marital status as factor in denial of credit; designated sexual
harasment as unfair employment practice; banned mandatory retirement;
made age discrimination illegal.  Brown appointed 287 Asians, 435
African-Americans, 549 Hispanics, and 46 Native Americans to government
positions.
 
FEDERAL SPENDING
As governor, reduced government costs and the growth of government while
saving money for taxpayers and delivering exceptional service to
citizens.  "Every year the federal government takes at least half a
trillion dollars andm essentially, dumps it in the trash." "There is
enough money to do what is needed to be done, and what must be done, and
the dying of cities and the destruction of a whole generation of
Americans right before our eyes is every bit as much a threat to each of
us and to our society as the collapse of the banking system."
 
FOREIGN POLICY
"We ought to be able to find ways where people have the sense and the
power of their own national identity, but are harmoniously integrated in
regional economic and federal units...I would do everything I could to
bring together parties that are so far apart and so different as the
people there in the Middle East, Isreal, and its Arab
neighbors...There's real fear and insecurity and we have historic
relationship with Isreal that we must maintain..."  Supports lan
guarantee (the assurance that Isreal's loans will be repaid.)
 
FOREIGN TRADE
"Will we prosper as a virtual colony to the rest of the world by
supplying raw materials in exchange for imported, finished goods of high
value much as cars,TVs, steel and calculators?  No, a hundred times no. 
 We will prosper by consciously setting forth an economic agenda that
will build for the future, not steal from it." "We have got to have
better products..so the people want it and have to have it.  Then we'll
go to Japan and we'll open their markets." "How do you trade?  Not like
we did in the Gulf War-70% of the goods that we shipped over there for
that war were in foreign ships.  You first build up your ports;  36
states in this nation have access to navigable waters.  You link it with
trains, with rail.. and then you're prepared to enter the vast growth of
world trade, which can generate the wealth."
 
GAY/LESBIAN
As governor, repealed criminal penalties from private sexual acts
between consenting adults; signed executive order banning discrimination
based on sexual orientaion.  Favors passage of the "Gay Rights" Bill.
 
GLOBAL ECOLOGY
"Global warming indicates that we have to reduce our fossil fuel use
dramatically..we have to get about the business of alternatice
energy.""As a small minority of the world's basic resources for a few
percent of its people, but we can learn to place quality above quatity
and caring above consumption."
 
GUN CONTROL
Believes in the right to bear arms but not automatic weapons and
"Saturday Night Specials" should be rigidly controlled.  Favors waiting
periods, at least in accordance with California laws.

HANDICAPPED
As governor, instituted $25,000 tax deduction for remodeling for
handicapped access; created more than 25 living centers for the disabled.

HEALTH CARE
As governor, developed health ed programs for sutudens and seniors;
created Department of Alcohol and Drug Abuse; created many programs for
preventive, education, training, etc.; funded program of preventive
health care for seniors.   "As governor, I signed bills to let people
compete with managed health care plans maintenance organizations;
there's 13 million people in California that are now in them."  "I
believe health care should be availiable to all Americans, and ... I
belivethat should be a top priority for the next US Senate, and I would
make it mine."  "We should have a single payor, univeral health care,
emphasizing wellness and prevention and including the choice of
different healing ars whether its acupuncture or chiropractic." "In
Canada, people are spending $500 less per capita than we are, and
they're living two years longer, and they're covering every single
citizen...[The Canada system would] save over $100 billion a year."  "A
man standing on the street, homeless, and President Reagan ought to all
be in the same health care system.  You bet it will be a good one."

HOMELESSNESS
"Homelessness is a social phenomenon created by neglect.  Availiable
housing, a mental heath system that really takes care of people,
reducting alcohol and drug dependency, and providing jobs and income
amony those people in society that are increasingly in the backwater-
all these things have to be done to really get at homelessness."  "[We]
would state as a premise that every American has a right to shelter, and
then we go from there...we talk about the $10 billon loan guarantee for
Israel.  [I would] link in the same legislation, a loan guarantee for
every single American...so we take care of our first responsibility.

IMMIGRATION
Favors immigration with controls.

JOBS
"The World Watch Institute has said that if you weatherize every house
in this country, you would create 7 million jobs."  "[In the Pentago
Budget there is] $300 billion a year of unnecessary, wasteful and
polluting energy consumption...by spending $300 billion to accomplish
the goals of fuel efficient homes, motors, refrigerators, fuel efficient
cars, high speed trains...you don't have to raise taxes one penny...If
there was a commitment, and if the oil companies...and the power
companies would stand aside...you would have seven million new jobs." 
"We need to make the commitment to make sure people have jobs..whether
it be building the infrastructure for high-spped trains, or creating
things like the Civilian Conservation Corps to get young people out of
advers circumstances and give them an opportunity."

MILITARY/DEFENSE
Favors cutting the defense budget by half the first year.  "Examine the
absurdity of what's happening:  When the Soviety Union agreed to pull
troops out of Germany, the Germans [agreed to] pay the Russians $5
billion over the next several years to [care for the] troops...And we're
spending tense of billions to defend Germany against those same
soldiers."

MINORITIES
I picked...the first black appointed to the California Supreme Court. 
And then I appointed  the second African-American...to the California
Supreme Court.  And I appointed the first Hispanic...and the first
woman...to be Chief Justice of that court.

NATIVE AMERICANS
As governor, provided financial assistance to health care programs;
appointed 46 to government positions.

PAC's/LOBBYING
"[I'll tell you] who's supporting the anti-term limits.  Philop Morris
gave $25,000 and the National Rifle Association is the second biggest
giver..."  "...if every 6 years there's a new Congressman, somehow the
clout's going to be gone.  'The clout'- well, ist that the clout for the
tobaccor company so more kids can learn to be addicted to a Cancer
causing substance?  Is that the clout we lose?  Then I say great, the
sooner, the better."

PAY RAISES
"That form of legalized bribery [honorarium] was something that the
individual senator took or not.  And you took it, and now you've given
yourself a $40,000 pay raise in order to give up $30,000 in honoraria. 
Now, you explain that one to me.  I disagree with you, I disagree bery
strongly...As governor, I fough a pay raise eight out of eight years."

POPULATION EXPLOSION
Wouldn't legislate to control population.

PRIVACY
As governor, signed legislation ensuring comprehensive right to privacy
for Californians.

QUALIFICATIONS
"I have the experience of being the chief executieve of the largest
state in the country.  That economy in California is equivalent to the
8th largest country in the world.  Just in our medical budget alone we
spent $5 billion a year.  All the problems we're talking about- national
service- we started.  The California Conservation corps- 50,000 young
men and women have gone through it,.  Wellness and prevention- the first
state Wellness Commission, we did it there.  Pioneering in controlling
toxics- the best environmental record anywhere in the coutnry.  So I
think there's a record there for the future.  I would say the essence of
what I'm doing here is reform, reform of the tax code, reform of the
politics."  "Of all the candidates, I have more experience...and I have
the message for 1992...What I am trying to do is to transform the party
that I belong to and transform the country.  Anything short of that is
just going to compound and continue the decline and the suffering and
the injustice that is spreading all around the country."

SECRECY
Believes that for the people to govern, they must be informed.  Favors
opening the JFK files.

SPACE
"We should be investing in protecting human beings into space; it ought
to be done on a multinational basis...as we create more shared working
and experimental opportunities for human beings.  Space reserac h can
break down political barriers as well as push back scientific frontiers.
 And it's a crucial part of the investemtn strategy of this nation."

TAXES
As governor, reduced tax burden, moving Californians from 3rd highest to
24th ranking among states.  Eliminated longstanding oil and insurance
company tax breaks.  "The taxc code is a veritable feast of fundraising,
corruption, lobbying, and activities...a moneymaker for the people down
in congress."  "I know if we wre to abolish the income tax, the Social
Security payroll tax, the gasoline tax, the airline ticket tax, the
corporate tax, and the estate and gift tax, we can replace it with a
simple 13% flat tax on gross income and business added.  With that,
you'll get economic efficiency, you'll see the stock market go, you'll
se jobs being produced, and I belive with that we'll be able to afford a
national health care system modeled on the Canadian variety."  "If you
apply [the 13% flat tax] on the business value added and the personal
adjusted gross increase, it equals $8 trillion.  You multiply something
about 12.5% and you will come out with what was collected last
year...Three deductions only- rent, charity, and home mortgage.  That's
it."  (Federal excise taxes to remain on cigaretter and alcohol)

TERM LIMITS
"The problem is not that the president serves two terms it's that the
president seves two terms, it's that senators are down there for
30...for 40 years."  "That's no right, and especially it's not right
when you look at the judiciary panel and you see those men there.  Is
that America?"

VOTING
As governor, signed into law the pastcard registration procedure. 
"Bills to allow people to vote ought to be paseed forthwith...Let's have
same-day voter registration...an election holiday...so that every
citizen in this country is invited and empowered to vote."

WELFARE
As governor, program asssisted families to move from welfare to
self-support; provided job search assistance; Project voucher system for
promoting employment of welfare recipients by private business.  [The
problem isn't] some Welfare Queen making a few thousand dollars a
month...The Welfare King is the former president of General Motors...[He
 helped] drive General Motors into the ground, and he gets $1.2 million
for the rest of his life.  That's the kind of privelge that is at the
hear of what's ailing America."

WOMEN's ISSUES
As governor, supported women's right to personal choice concerning her
body and her reproductive system; extended child care and unemployment
disability benefits to all working women; granted state employees one
year of leave for purposes of pregnancy, childbirth, and recovery;
mandated against discrimination in hiring based upon pregnancy;
empowered enforcement for child support payments; named women to fill
nearly one third of appointed posts, included 131 judges, 5 cabinet
members, 22 deparment directors, and 10 deputy directors; appointed the
first woman Chief Justice of Supreme Court, the first African-American
woman to the mn's prison system...the first woman in charge of the
Highway Department, the Business Department, the Finance Department, the
Health Department, the Veteran's Affairs Department.  Regarding
abortions:  "I support the right of a woman to make this decision
totally free from any pressure or inducement from the federal
government."  Supports Roe v. Wade, the Freedom of Choice Act, overturn
of the "Gag Rule," Medicaid funding; opposes Constitutional amendment
outlawing abortion, mandatory parental notification/consent laws.

WORKERS
As governor, increased unemployment insurance benefits; collective
bargaining for farm workers; collective bargaining for teachers;
Occupational Carcinogen Control Act required registration of
carcinogens; increased benefits for employment disability; increased
minimum wage above the federal minimum; tripled job training programs,
including health and vocational apprenticeships; provided Californians
25% of all the new jobs in the nation.  "Banning the replacement of
people who go out on strike is nothing more than giving reality to the
strikers ultimate weapong- to withhold one's labor...when managment can
just replace strikers, you've essentially destroyed organized labor...a
pillar of progressive politics since the 30's."

MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES
Governor Brown acknowledges that some issues have been raised which he
is not yet fully conversant.  His staff is recording and researching
these issues, and Governor Brown intends to give them his attention as
soon as he is able.  He thanks his correspondents for asking about his
position and requests their patience during this critical period of his
campaign.

WHAT WHOULD THIS COST?
debate moderator:  "OK, you become president...What is the cost of your
program, of transforming it?"
Governor Brown:  "I'd say three things:  On defense...[I could} show a
$700 billion saving between now and the next ten years...The second
point is that the tax amnesty...could recapture 1%.  You tell people in
the underground economy ...who've not paid their taxes, that if they
come back in...we'll work out an installment plan.  There have been
about $8 trillion in taxes paid in this country in the last six years. 
If we could get 1% of that, that's somewhere in the neighborhood of $80
billion.  The third thing is that I recommend that you eliminate the
gasoline tax, the social security tax, all these federal taxes and
replace them with a singlie, stable flat tax, that's fair, that'll give
stability over time, that will give that longer horizon for investment
and saving that every economist says is needed if we're going to produce
the productivity that we need."

                      Grassroots Campaign to elect
                       Jerry Brown for President

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