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I expect you want to know a little bit about me and what makes me tick before deciding if you’re going to support me. So here’s a little of my life story:
I grew up in family of pretty modest means. My dad enlisted in the US Air Force right out of high school and served through the Vietnam era. He and my mom married young, and she stayed home to raise the family. And a big family it was! I was the third of five kids, adopted because my parents wanted a girl after two boys. (I don’t think they were counting on my innate love for Tonka trucks and electronics. But my sister Tammy, two years younger than me, fulfilled my mom’s desire for ribbons and bows.)
Those who broke the laws in creating, selling, or grading the toxic assets that damaged our economy should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
The most important challenge facing Congress is a fundamental one: the institution has been bought and sold and no longer works for most Americans. It’s time we restored government of, by, and for the people – not government of, bought, and paid for by big corporations and the wealthy.
If we want progress on the economy, health care, and education, we first have to fix our broken Congress. We need to put a halt to corporations buying elected officials by passing campaign finance and lobbying reform, we need to open up Congress’s business to the public, and we need to force members of Congress to disclose earmarks and last-minute changes to bills.
Members of Congress are elected to serve the public interest, not their own interest, and that they must adhere to the highest standards of ethical behavior. I support tough ethics reform that will stop the revolving door between lobbyists and Congress and put an end to secret meetings with lobbyists that give corporations like Enron and Halliburton huge subsidies and no-bid contracts. My plan is simple: no more secret meetings, no gifts, no lobbyist-funded travel, no exceptions.
The best way to fix the American economy is to put Americans back to work. We have work that needs doing and people who want to be working; we should ramp up rebuilding our roads and bridges and investing in the next generation of energy technologies which will create jobs now and make us better off in the long term. We are a far cry from the vision of America’s founding fathers, but we can still fix this. We can return to a working America for working Americans.
I would require that multimillionaires and large corporations pay their fair share of the tax burden.
It’s time our major export was something other than good American jobs and our major import was something other than oil from petrodictators. I support fair trade that creates a level playing field for American workers and businesses. As technology and globalization transform our economy, the United States must use its market power to raise the bar on labor, environmental, and intellectual property standards worldwide, rather than accept the lowest common denominator. We have fought for decades for fair standards that advance the well-being of all people, and we are at a moment of opportunity to see those standards adopted worldwide. I will fight to advance the middle class all over the world.
Social Security and Medicare are the most successful government programs in this nation’s history. Workers have paid for and earned their benefits, and we must keep the promises we have made to them. These programs are promises made to working people. I will vigorously oppose any attempts to cut the Social Security or Medicare benefits that people have paid for, and I will fight against risky schemes that would destroy these programs, including privatization.
I will never stop working to make sure we keep our promises to our nation’s veterans. I come from a military family – my father, husband, and brother all served in the armed forces – so I understand the sacrifices made by our troops and their families. I will work to ensure that our veterans always receive the support they deserve for their service to our country, and I will opposed attempts to cheat them out of the medical services, educational opportunities, and retirements they have earned through their service.
Education is the road to opportunity and prosperity. As both a mother and the daughter of a public school teacher, I know first-hand how critical it is that our schools have high standards and help every child achieve their full potential. I support expanding access to high quality early childhood education, smaller class sizes, better pay for teachers, and more support for college or vocational training. To keep the federal government from further straining state and local budgets, I’ll fight for full federal funding of all federal educational mandates such as special education.
Transportation is one of the most critical local issues facing the Puget Sound region. Our area’s continued economic vitality and high quality of life depend on our ability to provide fast, safe, and efficient transportation options. Local, state, and federal leaders must all work together to ensure that our region has the resources it needs to develop innovative transportation solutions for the 21st century. I will work hard to bring federal funding back to the region to invest in our future mobility.
What most Americans want from the health care system is pretty simple: they want to be able see their doctor when they need to, they want to know that their care will be covered if they get sick and won’t bankrupt their family, and they want to be able to afford their health care even if they get laid off or change jobs. In America, no man, woman, or child should ever have to go without health care because they can’t afford it.
Beyond the Affordable Care Act, there should be at least one option Americans can choose that the insurance companies can’t control. I fought for the public option when the Affordable Care Act was being debated in Congress, and I will fight to build on that groundwork and make it possible for every American to buy at cost into a plan like Medicare where you choose your own doctor, you are covered for prescriptions and preventive coverage, and you won’t be denied because of a previous illness or a hidden ceiling.
Women’s reproductive decisions are best left to women and their doctors — without interference from politicians. I also believe we can and should do everything possible to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, in the U.S. and poor countries, by ensuring that every woman who wants them as access to family planning services.
I support full national recognition of marriages legally performed in any state – as the Interstate Commerce Clause clearly constitutionally requires. This means I support complete repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.
The civil rights movement succeeded in making illegal discrimination on the basis of race in housing, jobs, commerce, and other key facets of life; I support fully extending those protections to outlaw discrimination based on sex or gender.
We must address immigration in a way that is fair, practical, safe and grounded in the rule of law. It is essential for the United States to secure its borders, particularly for national security reasons, and that this can be done through a combination of technology and increased manpower. We must also enforce existing immigration law, including cracking down on employers who hire undocumented workers. Finally, we should encourage undocumented workers to come out of the shadows by creating a path to legal residency. Eventual citizenship for those currently living and working inside the US must depend on their willingness to work hard, pay taxes, and obey the law.
Because I do not believe in creating a two-tiered society, I oppose guest-worker programs. Everyone we invite to work in the United States should have the full protection of employment laws and a clear path to citizenship.
A healthy environment is essential for a high quality of life and I am committed to protecting it for current and future generations. The environment is much more than just beautiful scenery: it is the air we breathe, the water we drink, the ocean and soil that provide our food, and the stable climate we depend on. I will fight for the environment we all cherish, including aggressively addressing global climate change.
The Internet has been the greatest tool for human communication ever invented. With it, someone can communicate with their family, comment on ideas put forward by a philosopher, and help organize the Arab Spring all in the space of a few minutes. The Internet has the potential to be the medium on which the democratic future of the world is written.
Unfortunately, there are regular attempts by some members of Congress to solve problems like music piracy in ways that would cripple the key legitimate uses of the Internet. People who create intellectual property (music, movies, software, etc.) should be able to make a living pursuing their craft, but the ways in which we protect their intellectual property cannot infringe on the rights of legitimate users to communicate with each other on the Internet.
Consequently, I support net neutrality and oppose both SOPA and PIPA, because we must protect the civil liberties role the Internet plays in the 21st Century.
I support the goals of peace, prosperity, stability, and security for all inhabitants of the Middle East. U.S. policy in the region should be governed by our nation’s core values of fairness, justice, and a firm commitment to the rule of law and the fundamental human rights of all people. The United States must work to encourage moderate voices in the region, on all sides, and regain its role as an honest broker in mediating a just and lasting peace.
We need to end the war in Afghanistan. It makes no sense that we are spending more than $100 billion per year in Afghanistan when we need schools and roads here at home. It is long past time we had a plan for returning control of Afghanistan to the Afghan people and bringing our troops and our money home. The Afghanistan Study group, which I was a part of, concluded that ‘Our vital interests in Afghanistan are limited and military victory is not the key to achieving them.’ Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton (ret.) also agrees that the best option for the U.S. — for our national security, the lives of our troops and their families, and for our economy – is to end the war in Afghanistan.
I condemn the use of terrorism by any party for any reason and support Israel’s right to defend itself against all hostile entities. I favor a strong U.S.-Israeli relationship, as well as strong U.S. relationships with Arab governments and leadership organizations that have renounced terrorist tactics and publicly acknowledged the right of Israel to exist in peace and security. In the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I support a two-state solution in which an independent, democratic, and economically-viable Palestine lives side-by-side with a secure, democratic, and Jewish Israel, with both countries receiving the international support necessary to maintain peace and stability.
It’s time that our biggest import is something other than foreign oil and our biggest export is something other than good American jobs. We need to free the United States from its reliance on the dirty fuels of the nineteenth century and achieve American energy independence by investing in the clean energy technologies of the twenty-first century. I will fight to end subsidies to oil companies, investing instead in new clean energy technologies that will protect the air we breathe and the water we drink while creating jobs right here in Washington State.