Campaign Finance Reform
The policies coming out of Washington D.C. don’t represent the interests of ordinary Hoosiers. This is because billionaires and large corporations flood our elections with huge sums of money to get their preferred candidates elected. As elected officials in government, they use their power to give massive tax breaks to billionaires and implement trade policies that allow corporations to outsource jobs to other countries where labor is less regulated.
Andy Ruff understands that Big Money is the greatest threat to democracy, and he supports legislation focused on campaign finance reform and election reform.
Universal Healthcare
It is not right that 44 million Americans have inadequate health insurance and 27.5 million Americans have no health insurance at all. it is unacceptable that 500,000 people go bankrupt due to medical expenses every year while the health insurance companies and pharmaceutical industry generate billions of dollars in profit. It is absurd that the United States spends twice as much on healthcare per person than other countries but has generally worse health outcomes.
Andy Ruff believes we need to make healthcare a right in this country and guarantee all Americans high quality healthcare through a universal healthcare system as proposed in the Medicare for All Act of 2019.
Workers’ Rights & Living Wages
In 2018, Andy Ruff changed his town’s comprehensive plan to acknowledge the importance of labor in city planning. Real wages are no higher than they were decades ago, and unionization is at an all-time low. This has resulted in many hardworking Hoosiers struggling to make end’s meet on a day-to-day basis while the richest one-percent of Americans have gained $21 trillion dollars in wealth since 1989. This is unacceptable.
Andy Ruff stands with working families and supports their right to unionize and strike, and he supports all legislation which protects and strengthens workers’ rights and raises the minimum wage to $15 or more.
Affordable Education
The reality is that higher education is unaffordable and out of reach for many Hoosiers. Nobody should have to go into extreme debt to gain an education at a trade school or college. In fact, the United States of America should be helping young people earn a higher education, not only for their own benefit but for the good of the country. Having educated people is the only way our country will stay competitive in the global economy.
Andy Ruff believes we need to make trade schools and colleges tuition-free and forgive student loan debt for all people so that everyone has an opportunity to earn a higher education.
The Green New Deal
The disastrous consequences of climate change are being felt across the country and all around the world. Wildfires have raged from California to the Amazon Rain Forest to Australia. Antarctica warmed to a historic temperature of 70 degrees earlier this year, and the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere continues to rise despite alarming reports that we have only ten years to prevent irreparable damage to our Earth. The time for action is now.
Andy Ruff supports policies aimed to decrease CO2 levels, such as carbon taxing, but it is clear that these policies won’t be enough. That is why Andy believes we need to develop the Green New Deal to radically transform our energy systems and speed our transition to renewable energy.
