Melinda is a reformer and will pursue campaign finance reform, limit access of lobbyists to Capitol Hill, and work to change “too big to fail.”
WALL STREET
Her statement:
I support efforts to deny further taxpayer bailouts of Wall Street. I will work to support legislation that denies bailouts to fund the excesses of Wall Street monolith corporations labeled, “too big to fail.” I will work to strengthen the integrity of the SEC in governing Wall Street’s handling of your money as an individual investor. No investor should ever feel their hard-earned money is being used in a Wall Street gamble; people deserve to be protected from this kind of reckless risk by their elected officials.
I support the need for continued campaign finance reform in the wake of the Citizens United ruling which gave corporations unprecedented power in the electoral process. I support the Fair Elections Act that will provide for public campaign financing. I do not believe millionaires should buy their way to the U.S. Congress. Elitism in our government is not a democracy.
CIVIL RIGHTS
I support full marriage equality and I believe that DADT should be fully repealed. With respect to civil rights, I believe a strong institutional home for civil rights must be created at the cabinet level. Civil rights have been badly eroded under the Bush administration, only by providing for an adequate level of citizen inclusiveness at the federal level will the average person feel their government cares.
IMMIGRATION REFORM
I would work to enact strong guest worker protections to end economic exploitation of this hemisphere’s most poor and vulnerable people. I will support immigration reform to process undocumented workers; and provide for means to ensure that these workers are not victimized by a brutal employer dominated heirarchy. Generally my position is:
1. Obtaining documented status for these 12 million that “live in the shadows.”
2. Crackdown on employers who exploit workers and create dangerous work conditions.
3. Reform the legal system regarding immigration; and enact a 24-48 hr mandatory disposition law in dealing with family reunification issues. The legal system is hopelessly ill-equipped to deal with this emerging area of law. I would formalize the means to manage immigration issues effectively that is non-paternalistic, rather respects the foundations of international human rights law.
4. Community integration of immigrants in their communities.
JOB CREATION PRIORITIES—THE NCLR MODEL CAN BE COPIED
The NCLR model can be replicated, it is along the same lines as what I propose now. Further, this model can be expanded to include women, youth and certain constituencies of the LGBT community; who all have the common situation of high unemployment.