- What should be done to address the current economic difficulties facing the country?Instead of the failed $700 billion bipartisan blank-check bailout of Wall Street, the Nebraska Green Party would have invested in real things that benefit Main Street America immediately and the environment in the long run. We would invest in green jobs and green technologies the whole world is seeking. We would build a renewable energy infrastructure for the 21st century with wind, solar, geothermal, and ethanol production from cellulose and algae. We would insulate the homes of elderly and low-income households, rebuild the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, and invest in universal health care and college education for everyone eligible.
- What direction should the U.S. pursue in the war on terror and the war in Iraq?Current leaders are too pre-occupied with wars over oil at the expense of our long-term economic and environmental health. This year, the U.S. will spend over $1 trillion on war-related expenditures – more than all the other nations of the world combined. War spending is taking American resources away from developing healthy citizens and communities. We need to move rapidly toward reducing the violence in the world and creating peaceful, diplomatic approaches to foreign policy. We need to work together peacefully to solve our serious environmental challenges for the benefit of all humanity. We should bring our soldiers and military contractors home from Iraq within six months.
- What changes would you propose in U.S. farm policy?In the face of rapidly escalating oil prices, we need to strengthen the family farm and local food systems. We need to invest in research that reduces our dependence on oil in food production and find ways to provide more employment opportunities producing food and energy in rural America. We need to invest heavily in the development of renewable energy from wind, solar, geothermal, and ethanol production from alternative sources like cellulose and algae. We need to educate our young people in the science of renewable energy so they can be the inventors of the new renewable green technologies of the future which the whole world is seeking.
- What immigration policy should the U.S. pursue?Many immigrants struggling to get into the U.S. are economic refugees from unfair, so-called “free trade” policies that impoverish farmers around the world while profiting multinational corporations. We need to pursue more “fair trade” policies that protect and support farmers and protect the environment around the world. We need to develop technologies that support the development of the fullest potential of small farmers and rural communities around the world. That will greatly reduce the inflow of immigrants into the U.S. and support the development of human and environmental potential around the world.
- What changes would you propose in tax policy?I would reduce the income tax on labor and instead tax pollution through a carbon tax on burning fossil fuel. This will provide incentives to reduce our dependence on oil and to invest in clean, renewable sources of energy. To better assure the long-term solvency of Social Security, I would eliminate the cap on income taxable under Social Security. I would retain the inheritance tax to encourage those who gain the greatest wealth from our society give something back to keep our society healthy and vibrant. Finally, with the income disparity between rich and poor Americans greater than at any time in our nation’s history, I propose adopting Sweden’s “solidarity wage increase” system where lower-paid workers get higher percentage increases in income, slowly narrowing the gap.