JONATHAN'S PRIORITIES

America has become unaffordable, because big corporations have continually raised prices since Covid. Both parties have let big corporations off the hook, and corporate profits are soaring at our expense. When Jonathan is elected, he will put pressure on major corporations to quit constant price increases.

We must raise the minimum wage to $26/hour. If the minimum wage were tied to inflation between now and 1976, it would be $26/hour. Without raises to the minimum wage, working people are getting year over year demotions and are unable to keep pace with the cost of living.

Americans are not only getting squeezed at the in the check out line, they are also getting squeezed in their paychecks. Wages have not kept pace with inflation, despite near-constant corporate price increases. While corporate profits are sky-high, the workers that drive the those profits never see the results of it.

An economic system that only compensates the top 1% is not sustainable.

We need to increase grant opportunities for emerging small businesses, particularly in downstate Illinois, and increase economic investment in underprivileged communities.

Communities become depressed because businesses move out; we need to provide incentives for businesses to move back in and start hiring.

We need to dramatically increase housing availability and affordability as quickly as possible. We need to eliminate red-tape regulations that get in the way of building, offer incentive-based grants to communities and private companies to quickly build affordable housing, and bar corporate entities from speculating on housing. We also need to offer first-time home buyer assistance.

What really made this country great was a higher marginal tax rate on the top 1% of earners. That tax structure built infrastructure, schools, and community and secured the promise of the middle class. We need to return to higher marginal rates.

Health care is a human right. It makes no economic sense, and is a drain on our economy, for workers to be one diagnosis away from bankruptcy. Medicare can provide a baseline level of health care for all citizens while folks can elect additional insurance as they wish.

As a parent of school-aged children, I see how deprived of funding our schools are. We need more funding for early childhood and elementary education, particularly in underprivileged communities where additional teachers, counselors, librarians, and social workers can lead to substantially better outcomes for at-risk and vulnerable youth.

It's reliable, inexpensive, abundant, and will lower all our energy bills. It's renewable (literally). Solar and wind energy are the most secure form of energy we can rely upon and we need to build much more of it. We also need to re-establish the tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act.

Inflation in higher education is out of control and needs to be reigned in permanently. Students are being saddled with enormous student debt. We need to address root causes of skyrocketing costs of higher education, including excessive staff and faculty salaries and school spending.

We need to pass the PRO Act. At a time when economic inequality is the greatest it has been since the Great Depression and the founding of labor unions, we need to take steps to strengthen worker's rights to organize. After all, unions were responsible for the middle class, and the war against unions is responsible for shrinking the middle class.