As Democrats move forward with legislation on prescription drug costs, their central message should be a moral case against pharmaceutical industry profits and the idea that patents are a privilege the industry has abused.
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In the nearly two decades since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States has dramatically increased its global military footprint in the name of national security. This has included large-scale ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, targeted air strikes, covert operations across the Middle East and North Africa, hundreds of military bases across the world, and a heavy pipeline of arms sales. This “War on Terror” posture has carried a massive price tag, both in terms of dollars spent and lives lost.
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Data for Progress surveyed key components of Bernie Sanders’s “Workplace Democracy Plan” and Elizabeth Warren’s “Empowering American Workers and Raising Wages” and found that the platform’s policies are broadly supported by voters. The policies tend to have broad support from Democrats, but many also have net positive support among independents and Republicans. In addition, we find that there is a potential key bloc of voters that either did not vote in 2016 or voted for Trump that support components of the platform, making them potential targets for 2020 election efforts. One caveat is important: many of these policies also showed high rates of voters having no strong opinion, meaning the numbers could change.
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Today, more than four in five US workers (81 percent) do not have paid family leave from their jobs for family care, and 60 percent do not have short-term disability insurance through their jobs to ensure they have paid leave for their own serious health issues, including pregnancy-related health challenges. These aggregated figures mask substantial disparities by occupation, industry, and wage levels, and also mask unequal access to paid leave—even within the same firm. The FAMILY (Family and Medical Insurance Leave) Act sponsored by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is a national paid family and medical leave program would cover virtually all working people in the United States. It is the most comprehensive family leave proposal currently introduced in Congress, and sets the standard for the 2020 Presidential field. Most of the leading Presidential contenders support the Family Act.
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