The following plans depend on accessing the money spent on Iraq for a domestic agenda.

Education: Amend the No Child Left Behind Act to 1) eliminate the military recruitment aspect of the act; and, 2) redistribute funding to failing schools. Failing schools should be given adequate resources to prepare children for social adaptability, creative thinking and academic success. Such schools would have expanded programs, expanded hours, and greatly increased staff-to-student ratios. American public schools indicate a failure of consciousness as good competitive public education has lost many students to private and parochial education. Also we must renew funding for low-interest loans for college students.

Energy: The nation needs to avert global climate change and prepare for inevitable declines in liquid and gas fuels. In order to do this, the United States Department of Energy should create plans to mitigate economic disruption due to escalating prices and diminishing supplies over the long term. Mitigation will involve committing to lower energy consumption, possibly through an oil depletion protocol, implementation of plans involving conservation efficiency, and support for the redesign of cities and economies to reduce consumption.

Public Power:  The Raker Act, passed in 1913, has still not been realized.  I would sponsor an act calling for the fulfillment of the promise of the Raker Act — the municipalization of power in San Francisco.  Studies have also suggested that tidal power could generate enough electricity to power 12 percent of San Francisco homes.  I strongly believe that any power that is generated from tides should be generated through public entities — either the local Public Utilities Commission, a regional or state public utilities commission, or a federal agency like the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Immigration: Stop the outsourcing of jobs, and keep wages high. All workers are entitled to the same rights regardless of legal status in the United States, and immigrants should not be scapegoated.  I oppose the enforcement provisions of the new immigration laws being proposed in the House and Senate.  I also oppose the creation of a wall to separate Mexico from the United States.  I support drivers licenses for immigrants regardless of their legal status.  I support foreign language assistance so that immigrants can access federally funded programs.  I oppose guest-worker programs that create second and even third class status for workers.  All workers, regardless of their primary language or country of origin, deserve equal workplace rights.

Housing:  Since George W. Bush has been in office, federal funding for San Francisco’s 43 housing projects has declined annually.  The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development is instead diverting its diminished funding into mortgage programs.  Mortgage programs are not workable in San Francisco, as the cost of homeownership is prohibitive for all but a small percentage of San Franciscans.  I support a full restoration of funding the the San Francisco Housing Authority and am interested in pursuing federally funded community land trusts, as well.  I also support rent control — as I believe rent control is an important factor in tamping down inflationary forces — and support measures that protect tenants and homeowners from displacement due to economic forces beyond their control.

Jobs: I support the creation of a Works Progress Administration along the lines of the one that was established during the New Deal.  This program will be much larger and will direct funds into our inner cities for the creation of jobs, the revitalization of schools, and the construction of housing, parks, community gardens, theaters,  libraries, and public transit systems.  Such a program will be part of our national transition to a less energy-intensive, less polluting, and more community-based way of life, a transition that is inevitable given global warming and the global competition for declining supplies of liquid and gas fossil fuels.

Workplace Safety:  I support drastic increases in the budget of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.  This agency, OSHA, is tiny — and yet it is responsible for ensuring that workplace conditions of businesses that trade products across state lines are safe for workers.

Tax Code: I am calling for the reversal of the Bush tax giveaways of the last five and a half years; I believe in  restoring funding to social services and environmental programs, and restoring money borrowed from the Social Security Trust Fund.

Health Care: Renew transition to a single-payer system. Health care, like housing, clean water, clean air, and education, should be a basic right, part of the social contract between the government and the citizens.

Ryan White CARE Act:  I support expanded coverage of  the Ryan White CARE Act, so that traditional centers of HIV infection (San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other densely-populated urban centers) do not lose funding and new hot spots of HIV infection — poor, rural communities that are suffering epidemics of methamphetime use and concurrent HIV infection — also receive the necessary funding.  San Francisco presently receives only $28 million annually in funds under this act.  If the current Republican proposal to redistribute funds away from San Francisco and cities like it — without any increase in funding overall — in four years, San Francisco’s funding level will be cut by $10.4 million, or over a third of what our city now gets.  This will have a devastating impact on our HIV positive community and their ability to access basic services such as housing and health care that are critical to their long-term survival.

Marijuana:  Laws criminalizing marijuana should be repealed.  People should be able to cultivate marijuana for their own personal use.  If they want to distribute it, it should be regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and United States Department of Agriculture.  Passing sensible legislation in regard to marijuana, which serves as both a medicinal substance and a recreational substance, will save taxpayers billions of dollars over the course of a few years, in law enforcement and incarceration.  In addition, medical cannabis should be affordable to those in need.

Other Street Drugs:  Addiction to hard drugs such as heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, crack cocaine, and other addictive street drugs should be treated as medical conditions and treated as such.  Other countries, such as Great Britain, are experimenting with the medicalization of addiction to dangerous street drugs, and we should, too.

Environment/EPA/Endangered Species Act: I support protecting the Endangered Species Act, expansion of the EPA, and enhancement of its enforcement powers. I also support empowering the EPA to regulate more toxins, including greenhouse gases.  I also strongly support the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and am especially alarmed by attempts by the United States Navy to undermine the MMPA.

Transgender Rights:  I support the passage of a federal law outlawing discrimination against transgender individuals, or the amendment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include transgender individuals.

The Presidio National Park: I am calling for the repeal of the act that created the Presidio Trust and began precedent-setting privatization of our national parks.

Foreign Policy:  At the moment, access to oil and natural gas dominates almost every aspect of American foreign policy.  The United States also works for the creation of trade treaties favorable to large corporations and indifferent to human rights and the environment and for decades has considered it its right to intervene in other countries when popular movements turned against the interests of corporations and American consumers.  A third prong of our foreign policy focuses on Israel.  Israel receives more foreign aid money than any other country, a vast per capita inequity compared to other countries with much larger, more impoverished populations.  It is imperative that our energy and trade policies change for reasons of geopolitical stability, global human rights, and protection of the environment for future generations — and the foreign policies that result from our over consumption fed by our favorable trade policies and our access to cheap energy.  We must also reassess our relationship with Israel and the other nations of the Middle East if we are to avoid more disasters such as the destruction of much of Lebanon in recent months and ongoing hostilities between the Israeli government and the Palestinians.  We must demand a more balanced foreign policy for this part of the world.

Impeachment and Accountability: The foundation of a healthy democracy is the ability of the voters to hold those it has elected accountable. I call on the House of Representatives to draw up Articles of Impeachment against George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzalez, and Condoleezza Rice. These Articles of Impeachment will include charges of:

1) Lying to the American people about the threat posed by Iraqi weapons of mass destruction on the United States;

2) Lying to the American people about links between Saddam Hussein and terrorists;

2) Whipping the nation into a frenzy of fear in order to build support for the invasion of Iraq;

3) Disregarding the separation of powers through the use of signing statements, essentially turning Congress into an advisory body;

4) Disregarding the separation of powers through employing delaying tactics to essentially ignore court decisions;

5) Spying on the American people in violation of the Fourth Amendment;

6) Criminal negligence in relation to its failure to respond adequately to the destruction of New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina; and,

7) Criminal negligence in relation to global climate change and the failure of the administration to address this crisis.

Electoral Reform

There are four major planks to my position on electoral reform. They relate to corporate control of our government, the absence of representation for those who are not members of either of the two major political parties, and the threat of voter fraud.

1. Corporate control of our government through lobbyists is the primary cause for the erosion of democracy. While it is widely understood that George W. Bush is an errand boy for the energy, defense, pharmaceutical and other industries, a glance at the May 2006 report by Public Citizen reveals that both of the major political parties and their candidates and officeholders are beholden to the corporate/lobbyist system. For example, Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi ranks 31 in lobbyist contributions out of all the members of the House of Representatives since 1998. Democrats Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, and Christopher Dodd are among the top recipients of lobbyist donations in the Senate since 1998.

The Green Party opposes corporate donations, and I will refuse corporate donations. I also support publicly-financed elections and the following reforms proposed by Public Citizen:

• Contributions from lobbyists and lobbying firm PACs to federal candidates should be capped at $200 per election and contributions to national parties and leadership PACs should be capped at $500 per election cycle;

• Lobbyists and lobbying firms should be prohibited from soliciting, arranging or delivering contributions to federal candidates or from serving as officials on candidates’ campaign committees and leadership PACs; and

• Lobbyists, lobbying firms and organizations that maintain lobbying operations should be prohibited from paying or arranging payments for events honoring members of Congress and political parties, such as parties at national conventions, and from contributing or arranging contributions to entities established or controlled by members of Congress, such as foundations.

2. Many people do not participate in the electoral process because they do not feel that either of the two major parties represents them. We can inspire greater participation in the electoral process by empowering third parties. As a congresswoman, I will introduce legislation to give financial assistance to localities and states to implement ranked-choice voting and proportional representation.

3. Many people no longer trust the electoral system because they believe that electronic voting machines can be tampered with to alter their votes. I will introduce legislation to give financial assistance to localities and states to create systems of ballots that can be hand-counted.

4.  I support legislation that creates funding streams for publicly-financed elections at all levels of government.