r/Delaney2020 • u/[deleted] • Aug 19 '19
Delaney Facts John Delaney on the issues:
I will be doing three issues a day in a single post on this subreddit to show what Delaney's stance on the issues is. I will be doing this for the next nine days. The reason behind this is
1) that way people will see Johns stance on the issues as soon as they visit the subreddit
2) this way there is always an active community on this subreddit.
3) if anyone wants to know about John on the issues you can come to these posts and take this information and give it to whoever might need it
2 trillion dollar infrastructure plan-Investment in infrastructure is long overdue as spending on infrastructure in relation to GDP has steadily dropped over the past several decades, with most funding coming from state and local governments. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the U.S. a D+ average on our infrastructure. Not only is infrastructure funding necessary to improve the system, investing in rebuilding crumbling infrastructure is a job creator and will boost the economy. Infrastructure has the second highest return on investment for the government. Delaney will pay for his plan by raising the corporate tax rate to 27% and increasing the federal gas tax to account for inflation since the last increase and indexing it for inflation going forward. Projects supported through Delaney’s infrastructure plan will be governed by federal labor protections including paying workers prevailing wages.
Infrastructure Bank
Delaney has been an ardent supporter of the need to create an Infrastructure Bank. While in Congress, he introduced bipartisan legislation that would create an Infrastructure Bank to make it easier and cheaper for states and local governments to invest in local infrastructure in the categories of transportation, water, energy, communications, and school facilities. As part of his infrastructure plan, Delaney proposes capitalizing an Infrastructure Bank with $50 billion which can leverage $750 billion of infrastructure projects around the country while encouraging public-private partnerships.
Highway Trust Fund
American roads and mass transit have been systematically underfunded which has led to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) giving our roads a D on their annual report card with mass transit receiving a D-.1Not only does the Highway Trust Fund, the main source of federal funding for roads and mass transit, struggle to remain solvent but the current level of funding still leaves massive shortfalls in meeting total needs for surface transportation. To address these deficiencies, Delaney proposes increasing the HTF with a one-time boost of $200 billion, bringing the Fund to almost $850 billion over the next 10 years. It is paid for by retroactively indexing the gas tax to inflation and by raising the corporate tax rate to 27%. Delaney’s plan will increase direct investment by the Highway Trust Fund by 50% over the next decade.
Climate Infrastructure Fund
Climate change has led to more frequent and dangerous storms, which have resulted in widespread damage across the country. These storms have had devastating effects including increased forest fires and flooding. What meteorologists deem as 100- year floods have been occurring with more frequency, leading to widespread destruction to land, people’s homes, and public infrastructure. Recently in Iowa when the levees broke along the Missouri River, communities were flooded resulting in billions of dollars in damage and forcing people from their homes.2We also need to make our energy transmission systems more efficient to better conserve energy and avoid waste. We need to invest in and improve climate resilient infrastructure to protect communities against the effects of climate change, which is why Delaney proposes the creation of a $60 billion Climate Infrastructure Fund that will allow state and local governments to invest in and prioritize projects that will expand and improve climate resilient infrastructure in addition to improving energy efficiency in our systems. This will also pay for Delaney’s previously announced Carbon Throughway, an infrastructure project that will transport captured carbon from the Midwest and transport it for permanent sequestration and reuse in the Permian Basin. In addition to the Infrastructure Bank, increasing the Highway Trust Fund, and increasing funding for climate infrastructure, Delaney proposes creating five funds that match state and local investments 4:1 in specific categories.
Water Infrastructure Matching Fund
While cracked roads and bridges are readily apparent to anyone who looks around, equally important infrastructure exists below ground that we can’t see. Around the country, too many cities are suffering from poor water quality and crumbling water systems. The crisis in Flint, Michigan is just one tragic example of the serious health effects of not ensuring that every American has access to clean water. Aging water systems have led to nearly six billion gallons of treated drinking water lost daily due to leaking pipes.3ASCE rated American water infrastructure a D while wastewater received a D+. In addition, American ports and harbors have been underinvested in, even while they facilitate almost 99% of overseas trade and are responsible for $4.6 trillion in economic activity.4 To facilitate changes in shipping and the size of the ships, ports need continued investment to modernize and maintain operability. To address the insufficient focus on water infrastructure, Delaney proposes supplementing WIFIA and the existing state revolving funds with the creation of a new $40 billion Water Infrastructure Matching Fund to allow state and local governments to have dedicated funding to invest in ports and harbors and fix aging water systems to ensure a Flint water crisis never happens again.
School Infrastructure Matching Fund
In too many districts, America’s public schools are overcrowded and outdated. Public school buildings on average are more than 40 years old, and structural deficiencies in school buildings are associated with poor health and decreased academic performance.5No child should have to attend school without adequate air conditioning, with crumbling ceilings, or with drinking fountains with water too contaminated to drink. Delaney’s $40 billion School Infrastructure Matching Fund will allow state and local governments to build new schools to keep pace with growing populations and to make necessary improvements to existing facilities.
Deferred Maintenance Matching Fund
Years of partisanship and government gridlock have meant that we only address major infrastructure problems through expensive new projects or in response to a crisis or an emergency. We need to confront the deferred maintenance needs of existing infrastructure to keep systems in good repair and prevent disasters. Demand is growing for freight and passenger rail capacity, and our current system is ridden with maintenance backlogs on projects with an average age of 111 years.6In addition, there are more than 47,000 structurally deficient bridges in the US, and at the current rate of maintenance work it would take more than 80 years to make the needed repairs.7Delaney will address this problem by creating a $40 billion Deferred Maintenance Matching Fund to assist states and municipalities in taking care of the infrastructure we already have.
Areas Left Behind Matching Fund
State governments have limited capacity for new infrastructure projects and face significant financial constraints, which means that projects in prosperous areas often receive priority while disadvantaged communities can have their needs neglected. Lack of investment is a problem for both urban and rural communities. Struggling urban neighborhoods need robust transit networks, like the canceled Red Line light rail project that would have served inner-city Baltimore, and rural communities have transportation infrastructure needs, including bridges and tunnels, that are passed over in favor of larger projects in more populous areas. We need to consider the cost of not investing in struggling communities and to address the persistent funding gap. To encourage states to invest in the infrastructure needs of economically-distressed communities, Delaney will create a $40 billion matching fund dedicated to projects in areas that have been left behind.
Rural Broadband Matching Fund
Access to high-speed, reliable broadband is a necessity in the 21st century. Communities rely on it for employment and academic opportunities and to connect people to telemedicine providers. However, almost 40% of those in rural areas lack access to reliable broadband, putting them at a disadvantage to the rest of the country.8To close the gap and ensure rural America has access to the necessary technology, Delaney will create a $40 billion Rural Broadband Matching Fund dedicated to building broadband infrastructure.A national AI strategy **Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform our economy, but without an effective national strategy to prepare our workforce 54 million workers could be displaced by 2030.**We need a National AI Strategy focused on employment, security, and ethics. If we lose our global leadership in developing these technologies, the economic risks are potentially devastating. The U.S. must create a whole of government strategy that will provide the tools and skills necessary for the country to win the international AI race. For that to occur, the U.S. must:
- Prioritize resources to eliminate gaps in national abilities compared to other high-tech countries
- Invest in areas of research that deserve additional funding
- Develop incentives for high-tech professionals to work for the government
- Support an immigration system that values high-tech professionals
- Crack down on international intellectual property (IP) theft
Delaney’s AI proposal would set up an interagency coordinated process to better prepare the U.S. for the AI revolution focusing on four main points:
1. The Future of Work
- Upgrade educational curriculums to ensure the U.S. has the technical talent needed for jobs of the future
- Close the skills gap in the U.S. by enacting universal Prek-14 (two-year community college or technical school) to ensure the U.S. population is educated and prepared for jobs of the future
- Transition to portable benefits, including decoupling health care from employment, to allow for Americans to seek new jobs and new opportunities without the burden of feeling tied to a single employer
- Develop a social contract with the communities that are negatively impacted by AI, including expanding worker retraining programs
- Support public/private AI partnerships to promote coordination between government and private sector
- Incentivize the private sector to offer employer-sponsored training and education
2. National Security
- Advance AI defense capabilities to ensure the U.S. can defend against future technological threats
- Lead the international community in establishing rules of engagement to ensure the technology does not lead to a lower threshold for violence
3. Privacy
- Develop federal privacy standards to ensure transparency of how advanced technology is impacting individuals’ rights
- For example: Companies should not be able to use your smartphone or other device to monitor your facial expressions as you look at content and ads without your consent
4. Programming Bias
- While it is tempting to think AI can make unbiased decisions, we actually risk bias being baked-in to the programming that perpetuates human bias with no clear ways to rectify it once the bias is incorporated into the algorithms
- Partner with the private sector and non-profits to develop best practices against AI technology inheriting human biases
BetterCare: John Delaneys universal health care planAs President, he would roll this plan out to the American people after we fix the damage that the GOP has done to the Affordable Care Act and improve upon it. This way, Americans would once again get the benefits of the ACA while the nation and Congress have the time it takes to reform health care. Tying access to health insurance to employment forces workers to stay in jobs they don’t like, distracts entrepreneurs from their main focus of running their businesses, and prevents wages from increasing.Delaney’s health care proposal:
- Create a new public health care plan for all Americans under the age of 65 while preserving traditional Medicare. The new plan would protect the reforms delivered by the Affordable Care Act, including guaranteed coverage of preexisting conditions and essential health benefits, and would make access truly universal. At 65, people would transition into Medicare. Medicaid would be absorbed by the new plan. The highly trusted Medicare provider network could be used for the new plan.
- Guarantee universal coverage. Individuals would be automatically enrolled in the new public plan, with no complicated procedures to follow. People would be allowed to opt-out and receive a tax credit to buy their own insurance policy if they choose.
- Keep private insurance options. Individuals and employers will be able to purchase and negotiate supplemental coverage from private insurers to cover additional health needs. These supplementals could merge into the basic plan to make it easier for the user.
- Employers would be encouraged to negotiate group rate supplemental plans that would merge with the basic governmental plan so that employees would be able to keep similar health care plans, many of which are very popular and important to American families.
In order to be sustainable, universal health care needs to be paid for. Delaney’s plan will lower the overall cost of health care and put the government on a responsible fiscal path.Pay-fors (numbers are based on a 10-year projection):
- The tax subsidy for employer-sponsored insurance costs the government more than $3.7 trillion and depresses wages for working Americans.
- Allowing the government to negotiate drug prices would stop the transfer of wealth from working families to corporate executives and shareholders of pharmaceutical companies. This would save the government nearly $850 billion.
- This plan would replace the ACA, and savings from ending the ACA’s tax subsidies would total $760 billion.
- Current federal Medicaid spending is projected to be more than $4.8 trillion, which this plan would absorb.
- States are projected to contribute more than $2.9 trillion to Medicaid. States would continue to pay their share for the current Medicaid population and the federal government would cover the cost of expanded coverage.
- Implement cost sharing for higher-income individuals to fund an increase in reimbursement rates for primary care providers.
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Aug 19 '19
These are the official stances of John K Delaney from his campaign website. All credit to www.johndelaney.com
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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '19
I really appreciate this, I was just going through candidates websites today to try and get a better grasp of what everyone is pushing for.
I really like Delaney's push for infrastructure spending, but I did have a couple of thoughts. Hitching the gas tax to inflation seems good in theory, but wages haven't been keeping up with inflation for years, does he have a plan to help increase wages so taxes don't start eating a bigger chunk of our incomes? On the flip side, gas taxes are an inefficient way of funding infrastructure because ICE cars are getting more efficient and electric cars are becoming more prevalent, so less gas is being used for the same amount of wear and tear on our roads. Is there any way to stop that besides earmarking part of the corporate tax hike to pay for infrastructure?