Economic Policy, Job Creation and Social Justice
We support a free and fair economy based on Equity, that gives everyone an opportunity to pursue their Happiness. This means a strong and fair economy that works for everyone.
General
Ensure that legislators have the resources they need to fulfill their duties as servants of the people.
Fully fund the Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA).
Increase investment in public infrastructure: lands, buildings, research, and development.
Strengthen and enforce Dodd-Frank to prevent future financial and bank crises.
Fully fund all government agencies that protect the public consumer, such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Increase enforcement and oversight and expand existing Anti-Trust laws.
Ensure that the cost of all financial government bailouts are borne by the executives, shareholders and bond holders first, of any company receiving a bailout, that they are legally held accountable for any malfeasance or
crimes they perpetrated.
Enforce and expand laws that void government contracts with companies that violate the public trust, that repeat offenders be barred from future government contracts.
Implement new and enforce existing policies banning offshore tax shelters, as well as tax shelters in the U.S.
Extend and expand tax credits for children, families, seniors and public education opportunities for those in need.
Enforce existing tax-exemption rules regarding religious organizations that promote political candidates.
Defense Policy and Spending
Enforce present policies that audit and oversee defense contractors to ensure any unauthorized payments or cost overruns are reimbursed to the government. Excess profit should not be a motive for war.
Replace all private contractors used for armed conflict and security purposes with military personnel.
Replace or eliminate obsolete, ineffective, redundant, or unnecessary weapons and other military systems.
Require any company using Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) or other government funded research and technology, pay appropriate royalties and licensing fees to the Federal Government.
Corporations
Repeal laws that protect corporations from lawsuits or other forms of public accountability.
Prioritize public ownership of “natural monopolies” in industries such as energy and the internet; oppose the
regulated monopoly framework.
Fully prosecute corporations and their officers who violate securities, investment, health, or environment laws.
Hold corporations doing business in the United States accountable for human rights abuses they commit or
enable anywhere in the world.
CEO pay and compensation should be no more than 60 times the pay of the lowest paid employee of the same company.
Trade and International Commerce
Support Fair and Free Trade Laws and Treaties that guarantee labor's right to organize, worker protections, safe working conditions, child labor laws, living wages, environmental protections, public safety, and human rights in general.
Negotiate proposed and re-negotiate existing international trade treaties to reflect our values.
Increase incentives for companies to bring jobs back to the United States and repeal any laws that do the opposite.
Promote a global standard for earned income that protects the rights of workers.
Oppose the privatization of water rights and water systems here or abroad.
Oppose the limiting of public access to crops through patents.
Encourage Fair Trade products whenever possible.
Support the Buy American Act, that the U.S. government purchase only U.S. made products where possible, that all domestic U.S. contracts be with U.S. companies using U.S. products where possible.
Taxation
Repeal TABOR.
Implement progressive and uniform taxation on all forms of income and wealth at both the State and Federal level.
Implement progressive estate taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
Income and Wealth
Work should be valued. A full-time job should provide enough income for workers to have a comfortable standard of living.
Raise the minimum wage to a living wage that reflects inflation and productivity gains.
Establish a universal basic income.
Eliminate the food service exception to minimum wage laws.
Enforce equal pay for work that is comparable in terms of skill, effort, and responsibility.
Require all companies with 500 employees or more to reimburse Federal and State governments 100% of the
cost of public assistance to their employees.
Assess reparations/land transfers to Colorado’s indigenous peoples and people of color for previous takings of life, liberty, and land.
Banking, Finance and Consumer Protection
Implement strict controls on predatory and other usury loans.
Implement stricter regulation of the credit card industry.
Support the establishment of postal, State and community-owned public banks.
Reform Bankruptcy Code regarding the means-test to ensure that bankruptcy offers a fresh start, not continued servitude to debt.
Modernize and increase the state homestead exemption to reflect current property values, incorporate means testing, and expand the statewide cap.
Protect consumers from insolvency due to externally caused situations such as medical expenses and predatory lending practices.
Protect consumers from the debt-buying industry. Full documentation must be required from end-to-end and not allow debt buyers to have special privileges to file cases without full supporting documentation.
Make the Mortgage Electronic Recording System (MERS) public; home buyers are entitled to know who services their mortgage and the real owner of the debt.
Law firms representing foreclosing banks in all states must be held to account for practices that are abusive to consumers in all areas of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Housing
Address homelessness and housing insecurity as a state of emergency.
Require that low-income housing units be 25% of all new housing and rehabbing of existing housing stock.
Revise Zoning to increase density where possible.
Promote the rights of tenants to organize.
Implement and enforce a Tenants Bill of Rights.
Increase wait time before landlords can evict tenants without cause.
Implement stricter regulation against landlord abuses.
Overturn the state ban on rent control, with a cap on annual rent increases.
Encourage local implementation of rent control.
Strictly regulate “rent to own” and other leasing schemes.
Ban price-gouging after disasters.
Empower bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages on primary residences for all individuals.
Provide government-funded legal assistance for those who are facing foreclosure or eviction.
Allow policies, without threat, that permit loan modifications to allow the lender and borrower to share in future appreciation of the property.
Give those foreclosed upon first right of refusal to repurchase the home at current market value. 16. Promote public investment in struggling areas underserved by traditional financial institutions. 17. Support the development of community Land Trusts.
Social Safety Net & Retirement
Implement cost of living adjustments on Social Security and Social Security disability benefits equal to actual increases in the cost of living.
To ensure solvency of the Social Security System, increase the cap for maximum taxable earnings to $250,000.
Expand programs to allow seniors and the differently abled to live in their own homes.
End the Social Security Windfall Elimination Provision.
Repeal Government Pension Offsets.
Repeal lifetime limits on public assistance.
Increase benefits in programs such as SNAP, CHIP, etc. to a reasonable amount that actually helps families and
individuals out of poverty.
Implement legislation to require that all publicly supported social service offices be adequately staffed to ensure
proper access to services for those in need.
Invest in services that enable seniors to live independently as long as possible and facilitate the highest quality
of life for people of all ages and abilities.
Fully fund emergency shelters, food banks and programs to end homelessness.
End criminalization of resting in public places.
Allow all those on public assistance to keep their modest savings for emergencies.
Amend laws to encourage and support Community Development Corporations, Cooperative businesses and
neighborhood-based nonprofit corporations to create jobs, housing and other opportunities and physical and social infrastructures.
Veterans’ Affairs
Improve access to earned benefits for veterans and their families to health care, education, and job opportunities.
Protect and maximize veterans benefits and expand benefits for dependent survivors of fallen service members.
Fully fund the Veterans Administration, and VA hospitals, and provide adequate healthcare access by
constructing satellite VA clinics.
Allow military personnel to remain on active duty following recovery from serious injury.
Implement accountability for VA employees and management who breach the compact and violate the trust of
veterans.
Implement property tax exemption for disabled veterans, Property Tax Assistance for Widows or Widowers of
Veterans.
Oppose efforts to privatize the VA.
Provide safe and sanitary short and long-term shelter for veterans.