Lindy Li, candidate for U.S. Congress PA-01, Philly DSA Questionnaire
1)The CBO estimates that the GOP tax reform bill’s elimination of the ACA’s individual mandate will result in 13 million fewer people having health insurance by 2025. Should the projected 41 million uninsured, along with all other US residents regardless of immigration status, be covered under the same public health insurer?
Yes, definitely.
2) Over half of Americans cannot cover an emergency $500 expense without going into debt, but out-of-pocket costs associated with medical care are often much higher than that — even for those with employer-provided insurance. Would you support legislation that eliminates all healthcare cost-sharing?
Yes, though the wealthy should foot their own bill.
3) What do you consider to be the benefits of decoupling healthcare coverage from employment?
Employer-sponsored healthcare is an outdated vestige of WWII and should be phased out. Detaching the two would provide workers with greater job flexibility. Furthermore, some employers, such as Hobby Lobby, refuse to provide mandated birth control coverage, arguing that doing so would violate their religious principles. Besides, without the tax incentive of offering health insurance, employers may finally increase worker salaries.
4) If the US were to implement a single payer healthcare system, what policies would you advance to provide jobs for those presently employed in private health administration?
I have always wanted to invest in jobs of the 21st century, rather than seeking to resuscitate industries of the past, such as the fossil fuel industry and private health administration, which is an unnecessary middleman. Presumably, the single payer healthcare system would also require administration, so perhaps those presently employed in the private healthcare industry can look for jobs administering the public health insurer. Creative destruction unleashes new industries and possibilities, including in green tech, artificial intelligence, robotics, the service sector, and big data.
5) Would you sponsor amendments to H.R.676 to make it more similar to Bernie Sanders’s S.1804?
Yes, I love Bernie and share many, if not, all, of his goals. In fact, several members of his presidential campaign team, including Julian Mulvey, now work for our Congressional campaign.
6) S.1804 explicitly repeals the Hyde amendment. Would you favor amending H.R.676 to do so as well?
Absolutely. Women’s bodies shouldn’t be legislative battlegrounds.
7) Would you support healthcare funding mechanisms similar to those outlined in the white paper accompanying S.1804?
Yes.
8) Do you pledge to reject financial contributions from the insurance industry,
pharmaceutical industry, and the American Medical Association, as either a candidate or legislator?
Yes, and I already have.
9) Do you support a federal job guarantee?
Yes, as long as the jobs are actually meaningful and contribute to society. Eisenhower’s interstate highway program is a quintessential example.
10) What should the federal minimum wage be?
$15
11) Would you support federal legislation mandating just cause employment contracts?
Yes.
12) Would you sponsor legislation to prohibit state right-to-work laws, instate card-check recognition, permit secondary strikes and guarantee employer neutrality during unionization drives?
Yes, I believe that unions are the reason why we have our existing workplace protections. The millennial generation needs to recognize and appreciate the gains that the labor movement has made so far and fight hard to ensure that they endure and expand.
13) What, if any, worker codetermination models do you support?
Parity board-level representation and expansive positive rights in decision-making. Firms operating under such a model are more likely to be diversified and less likely to fail or undergo restructuring and layoffs.
14) Would you support legislation allowing sectoral bargaining units?
Yes, because sectoral bargaining is more comprehensive and may lead to more workplace gains than enterprise bargaining, which covers only individual firms.
15) Would you cosponsor the Employee Free Choice Act?
Absolutely — this is a no-brainer and vital for worker protections.
16) Would you support legislations clarifying the definition of employer under the NLRA and FLSA to include those who exercise indirect control over employees, such as subcontractors? Similarly, would you support legislation expanding the definition of employees and narrowing the definition of independent contractors under those acts?
Yes, many firms like Uber seek to categorize all of its employees as independent contractors, which would allow the company to shirk responsibility for their workers and thereby reduce their overhead and other financial and legal obligations.
17) Would you support an amendment/clarification to the NLRA to create monetary damages in refusal-to-bargain cases?
Yes.
18) Would you support an amendment to the NLRA overturning the doctrine of Mackay Radio?
Yes, this doctrine undermines workers and is almost universally condemned by unions and scholars.
19) Would you support an amendment/clarification to the NLRA allowing for short and/or intermittent strikes?
Yes
20) What should the tax rates in the top three personal income brackets be?
54.2%, 50.2%, 45.2%
21) Would you support taxing capital gains at the same rate as income derived from work?
Absolutely, except for the lower tax brackets.
22) Would you support increasing taxes on dividends?
Yes.
23) Would you support a dramatic increase in the estate tax rate (i.e. the tax rate on inherited wealth), and a substantial lowering of the value of the estate exempt from the estate tax?
Yes.
24) What tax deductions for the wealthy would you eliminate and what would the economic impact of closing those loopholes be?
I would restructure the mortgage interest deduction, which doesn’t benefit the people it is purportedly supposed to help. Indeed, families with incomes between $40,000 and $75,000 receive an average deduction of just $523, while those with incomes above $250,000 write-off approximately $5,459. I would also take a look at the capital gains deduction as well as the charitable deduction, though the recent Republican tax bill renders the latter less meaningful, since fewer people will itemize their deductions.
25) What policies would you implement to stop the rich from using overseas tax havens and to capture the wealth they currently hold offshore?
Work closely with Ireland and Switzerland to prohibit tax inversions and crack down on wealthy tax-dodgers. I would have required companies like Apple to pay more than just the 15.5% tax repatriation rate that they pay under Trump’s tax plan.
26) Would you support legislation that created a sovereign wealth fund similar to Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, with each citizen given one non-transferable share? What are the benefits of such a policy? How would the principle for such a fund be collected?
Fascinating idea! I would indeed. Norway derives its profits from oil profits, which are otherwise ignominious. Perhaps we could fund ours in a similar fashion. In addition to alleviating income inequality, the U.S., through the composition of its portfolio, would be able to endorse the industries and companies that embody American ideals and thereby invest in our principles.
27) How should the shares of such a fund be voted, if at all?
I support the idea of having proxies vote on behalf of citizen-shareholders. For instance, if one were keen on championing workers’ rights, one would be able to entrust the AFL-CIO with voting on one’s behalf.
28) Would you support a tax on short-term, round-trip currency exchange transactions intended to reduce currency speculation?
Yes
29) Would you support debt forgiveness legislation for Puerto Rico?
Yes, especially after Hurricane Maria.
30) Do you like how public schools in the U.S. are currently funded? If not, how do you think they should be funded?
The reliance that public school funding has on property taxes is detrimental to our children, leading to highly segregated rich and poor districts. I prefer federal funding for highly impoverished schools, especially when there is an achievement gap between their students and those attending other schools in their state.
31) Would you support a policy, such as the legislation recently passed in Iceland, requiring companies to demonstrate equal pay for equal work regardless of gender?
Certainly!
32) What sorts of parental leave policies should the U.S. guarantee?
We need 12 weeks of guaranteed, paid parental leave for mothers and fathers.
33) Should families be paid a universal child allowance?
Yes
34) How would you strengthen regulations on international capital mobility?
By implementing currency restrictions on the inflows and outflows of capital, since sizeable short-term flows endanger the financial system.
35) Should existing multilateral investment treaties be renegotiated to remove or substantially rework ISDS provisions? If so, how? Would you vote for any future treaty including ISDS?
Yes, absolutely. By removing the option that companies currently have to petition a secretive tribunal for relief from government regulations on, for instance, the environmental or labor protections. I would not vote for any treaties that permit ISDS.
36) In multilateral investment treaties, what should be the maximum time delay between ratification of a treaty and the full implementation of labor and environmental protections?
If it were completely up to me, I would want the provisions to go into effect immediately.
37) Would you support a transition to a 100% zero-carbon economy by 2030 or earlier? If so, what types of policies would you support to achieve this?
Much earlier than 2030. We are already too late. I would invest in electric cars, create the infrastructure (electric charging stations) to make large-scale adoption economically and logistically feasible, prioritize renewable energy, cease oil drilling, re-enter the Paris Climate Agreement, and once again be an international leader on climate change, which, I believe, is the defining issue of the 21st century.
38) Would you support legislation to immediately halt all further oil and gas exploration?
YES
39) Do you pledge to reject financial contributions from the fossil fuel industry, as either a candidate or legislator?
YES
40) What policies would you support to curtail the influence of wealthy individuals and corporations over electoral and legislative politics?
We’ve institutionalized bribery, which is absolutely unacceptable. In addition to comprehensive campaign finance reform and more accountability and transparency, we need a legislative cure to negate the Pandora’s box of ill effects unleashed by the Supreme Court decision on Citizens United. SuperPACs should be reined in immediately.
41) How should a legislator interact with the movement that elected them?
Once in office, how should a legislator mobilize that movement to enact the platform they ran on? The legislator owes his or her job to the movement and is responsible only to the people and the movement, not to special or monied interests. While in office, the movement needs to continue to hold the legislator’s feet to the fire and pressure him or her in the court of public opinion. Applying public pressure will serve as leverage when the legislator negotiates with colleagues.
42) Would you support legislation to reinstate Net Neutrality?
I already do and am glad that Attorney General Josh Shapiro sued the Trump administration in an effort to reinstate net neutrality.
43) Would you support legislation to legalize marijuana?
Yes
44) What policies would you support to expand voting rights?
Same-day voter registration, a longer voting period, automatic voter registration when obtaining one’s driver license, and combatting Republican efforts to purge voter rolls.
45) What paths to citizenship for undocumented immigrants would you advocate beyond maintaining the DREAM Act?
Shorten the period of conditional residency, which is currently six years, especially for those who serve in our military.
46) What policies would you support to eliminate police brutality and mass incarceration?
Help elect reform-minded prosecutors like District Attorney Larry Krasner (I’m meeting with him next week to discuss how we could work together), make it easier for prisoners to gain parole, end the death penalty, and eliminate mandatory minimums.
47) Should college tuition at public universities be free to U.S. citizens?
Yes.
48) Why do you want the support and/or endorsement of the Philadelphia Democratic Socialists of America?
You and I are fighting for the same progressive vision of America. I would be honored and would love to work with you to strengthen our incredible country and to give all of us the chance to not only get by, but to also get ahead.
49) In September, Senator Sanders, at a speech at Westminster College, layed out a progressive foreign policy agenda. In what areas do you agree with the Senator, and where would you improve upon his foreign policy agenda?
I just finished reading Jean Edward Smith’s fascinating biography, Eisenhower in War and Peace, in which he details President Eisenhower’s parting advice to the nation to contain the power of the military industrial complex. Suffice it to say that I was absolutely thrilled to find Eisenhower’s own words quoted in the Senator’s speech. I love Senator Sanders’ focus on income inequality, climate change, and continued U.S. involvement in global affairs. While the Senator’s foreign policy agenda is rather comprehensive, I would include a bit more about pressuring both China and Russia to do more on North Korea. China should face negative consequences for violating international sanctions aimed at pressuring Kim Jong-un.