Rebuild Our Crumbling
Infrastructure
Quick facts
•
Infrastructure includes:
roads, bridges, water systems,
electrical grid, airports, railroads,
power plants, and schools
•
The American Society of
Civil
Engineers gave the United States’
infrastructure a D grade in 2013
Bernie’s agenda
Invest $1 trillion to rebuild
infrastructure, which could create
up to 13 million decent paying
I-35W Mississippi bridge collapse in Minnesota, 2007
jobs.
Raising the minimum wage
Quick facts
The federal minimum
wage is $7.25 an hour
•
Cost of living keeps
rising while wages don’t
•
23% of all children in
the
United States live in
poverty
•
Bernie’s Agenda:
Raise to federal minimum
wage to a living wage - $15
per hour.
Hours needed to work at
minimum wage to afford a onebedroom apartment
Making College Affordable
for All
Quick Facts
The average Class of 2014 graduate
who took out loans had $33,000 in
student debt
• Currently, there is over 1$ trillion in
student loan debt
• Student loan debt has nearly
quadrupled in the past 10 years
•
Bernie’s Agenda
Bernie introduced the College For All Act,
which would eliminate tuition costs at
four-year public higher education
institutions by taxing Wall Street
transactions.
Average debt per borrower in each year’s graduating class
Reversing Climate Change
Effects of future climate change and global
warming include:
Increase in frequency and severity heat
waves.
•
Increase in frequency and severity of
drought like the one occurring in California.
•
Increase in frequency of wildfires
•
Rising sea levels which threaten coastal
cities like New York City, New Orleans, Miami.
•
Overall, climate change will have severe
economic, social, and health impacts if not
addressed
Bernie’s Agenda:
•
fossil fuels and to renewable energy
Projections for future average global
based on emissions scenarios
Transform our energy system away from
• Vastly increase the amount of energy created via
wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, and other
forms of sustainable energy
temperature
Taking on Wall Street
Quick Facts:
The U.S. economy lost 8.7 million
jobs in the Great
Recession, which was caused by
reckless and risky trading on Wall
Street.
• Currently, the six largest financial
institutions have assets equal to $10
trillion, nearly 60% of U.S. gross
domestic product.
• If they fail again, the U.S.
economy will crash again Bernie’s
Agenda:
•
Introduce legislation to break up the
banks. “If they are too big to fail, they are too big to exist
Trade Policies that Benefit
Americans
Quick Facts:
• Since 2001, we have lost more than
60,000 factories and more than 4.9 decentpaying manufacturing jobs
• Previous trade policies - supported by
corporations - have allowed corporate
America to send millions of jobs overseas
• Unions and trade workers vigorously
oppose these trade policies Bernie’s
Agenda:
Stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which
would be another disastrous trade policy that
ships American manufacturing jobs overseas
Campaign Finance Reform
Quick Facts:
• In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in
Citizens United v. FEC that money was
free speech and could not be restricted,
which opened up unlimited spending in
U.S. elections
• Three-quarters of Americans support
stricter campaign finance laws Bernie’s
Agenda:
Pass a constitutional amendment and / or
appoint Supreme Court justices that
reverse the disastrous Citizens United
Supreme Court decision.
Real Tax
Reform
Quick Facts:
• One out of four corporations
doesn’t pay anything in federal
income taxes
• We lose over $100 billion in
revenue each year because
corporations and the wealthy
stash their money in offshore tax
havens
Bernie’s Agenda
pay.
Institute a progressive and real
tax reform that is based on the
ability to