Pete Buttigieg

Democrat

• Age at Inauguration: 39
• Experience: Served 6 years as an intelligence officer for the Navy Reserves and spent 7 months in Afghanistan (2009-2017); Mayor of South Bend, Indiana (2012-present)
• Education: Harvard College (BA), Pembroke College - Oxford (MA) (Rhodes Scholar)
• Interesting fact: Buttigieg speaks 7 languages, including Spanish, French, and Arabic

Key Platform Points

• Calls for a generational change in leadership and promotes policy that would benefit the environment and economic opportunity
• Structurally reform the U.S.'s democracy by eliminating the Electoral College and expanding the Supreme Court to 15 Justices

Economy and Taxes

• Increase marginal tax rates on top income earners
• Raise the federal minimum wage to $15/hour and index it to wage growth
• Supports federal investment in clean water and wastewater infrastructure, transportation and mobility, and climate adaptation and resilience
• Spend $80 billion to expand high-speed broadband access to all currently underserved communities by creating a public option to compete with providers
• Critical of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), believes it has moved jobs previously in the Midwest overseas
• Supports changing USMCA
• Supports Trump's goal of taking on China, but would repeal the tariffs his administration imposed on goods from China
• Opposes using tariffs to pressure countries
• Repeal "right-to-work" laws
• Introduce multimillion-dollar penalties for employer interference in union elections and workersâ€™ rights
• Stop employers from permanently replacing workers who strike
• Allow workers at unionized worksites in the same line of work (such as fast food workers) to bargain towards a single bargaining agreement for all of their employers
• Give preference in government contracts to firms that treat their workers well
• Create a federal entrepreneurship fund to invest $20 billion over five years in entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds
• Forgive Pell Grant recipients' college loans if they start a business employing at least three people within five years of leaving school
• Award 25% of federal contracting dollars (over $100 billion per year) to small business owners from underserved communities

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Corporations

• Pass strict regulations on predatory lenders
• Strengthen antitrust standards
• Supports protection of rights over your own data
• Empower the FTC to intervene in anti-competitive behavior among tech companies, such as by blocking mergers
• Will not accept corporate PAC, lobbyist, or fossil fuel industry donations for his campaign

Criminal Justice and Drugs

• Reduce the number of people incarcerated in the U.S. by 50%:
• Double federal grants for state programs aimed pretrial reform, reducing the incarcerated population, and expanding alternative to incarceration (ATI) programs
• Supports legalizing marijuana federally and expunging past convictions
• Eliminate incarceration for drug possession and reduce sentences for other drug offenses
• Eliminate mandatory minimum sentencing, private prisons, and cash bail
• Cap the amount of revenue cities receive from fines and fees so that police can focus on protecting public safety rather than raising revenue
• Push to eliminate incarceration as punishment for failing to pay legal financial obligations, such as court debts or fines
• Protect people’s freedom from old criminal justice practices:
• Abolish the death penalty through a constitutional amendment
• Reduce our reliance on solitary confinement and abolish its prolonged use
• Ensure people who are incarcerated have access to education, health care, and rehabilitation and can integrate into society:
• Restore Pell Grant access to people who are incarcerated
• Remove the Medicaid exception for incarcerated people
• Empower states to provide better opportunities for individuals to prepare for life after incarceration
• Supports "Ban the Box" laws
• Grant all formerly incarcerated people the right to vote
• Establish comprehensive measures to hold police accountable to their communities and investigate civil rights violations

Education

• Invest $700 billion in affordable, universal, high-quality, and full-day early learning, as well as outside-of-school learning opportunities in K-12 education
• Make this early learning and care from age 0-5 free for lower-income families and affordable for all
• National service plan:
• Increase number of national service opportunities from 75,000 to 250,000 targeting high school, community college, and vocational students
• Create competitive grant funding for cities, counties, and communities to create service organizations around regional issues
• Quadruple service opportunities to 1 million high school graduates by 2026 by expanding existing and creating new service corps such as the Climate Corps and Community Health Corps
• Supports expanding the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which clears student loans in exchange for public service work
• Invest $500 billion so that 80% of families of public college students (those that earn up to $100,000) will not pay any public college tuition
• Invest $50 billion in workforce training and lifelong learning to create pathways for young and middle-age workers into good jobs
• Invest up to $5 billion over the next decade to ensure an apprenticeship program in a growing industry is available within 30 miles of every American
• Double the size of the Pell Grant
• Allow borrowers to refinance their federal student loans at lower interest rates
• Cancel the debts of borrowers from low-quality, predatory for-profit programs
• Dramatically increase Title I funding to support higher teacher pay and supplemental services for lower-income students
• Issue new regulations to diversify the teaching profession
• Increase federal investments and incentivize state and local investments in STEM programs for Black women and men
• Increase funding by $50 billion for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs)
• Have a Secretary of Education who values public education

Environment

• Supports the Green New Deal
• Believes climate change should be treated as an imminent threat to our economy and national security
• Invest more than $1 trillion to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and create 3 million clean energy and infrastructure jobs
• $200 billion investment over 10 years in clean energy research and development
• Create a $250 billion Clean Energy Bank to finance innovative technologies such as carbon capturing
• Create a $250 billion fund matched with $250 billion in private investment to lead development of green technologies
• Create a $50 billion seed fund for riskier and experimental ideas
• Fund $200 billion over 10 years into programs for displaced workers transitioning from fossil fuel industry jobs
• Rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement and increase its targets
• Hold a "Pittsburgh summit" so cities can work together to curb emissions
• Create a "U.S. Climate Corps" open to high school graduates dedicated to educating communities and rebuilding infrastructure to make it more resilient to the effects of climate change
• Supports setting a price on carbon to push companies to reduce their emissions, and return revenue as a dividend to the American people
• Supports banning fracking
• End leasing for fossil fuel extraction on federal lands
• Eliminate fossil fuel subsidies
• Supports changing soil management practices and other kinds of investments in agriculture
• Supports nuclear power

Foreign Policy

• Restore American credibility on the world stage, and establish a new and higher standard for the deployment of U.S. military force
• Pull troops out of Afghanistan within the first year of his presidency
• Limit foreign military intervention to 3 years that needs to be renewed
• Supports the Iran nuclear deal
• Keep the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem

Government Reform

• Proposes having a 15-justice court with 5 Democratic appointees, 5 Republican appointees, and 5 selected by unanimous consensus of the other 10 justices
• Open to implementing term limits for Supreme Court justices
• Replace the Electoral College with the popular vote
• End gerrymandering with independent, statewide redistricting commissions
• Overturn Citizens United v. FEC with a constitutional amendment
• Supports DC statehood and self-determination for Puerto Rico
• Open to eliminating the Senate filibuster
• Supports automatic voter registration and open to lowering the voting age from 18 to 16
• Make Election Day a national holiday
• Automatically register eligible voters using information the government already has
• Allow people to vote with a sworn written statement of identity to neutralize the effects of voter ID laws
• Allow online and same-day registration
• Enable the federal government to block racist voting laws before they take effect
• Force the executive office to receive approval from Congress to extend military force every three years

Gun Control

• Supports universal background checks
• Ban military-style assault weapons
• Supports a voluntary federal buyback program for military-style assault weapons
• Establish a nationwide gun licensing system which would require all gun buyers to be licensed
• Supports red flag laws
• Invest in evidence-based urban gun violence intervention programs proven to work

Health Care

• Supports Medicare for All as an end goal
• Supports “Medicare for All Who Want It” as a pathway to Medicare for All
• Ensure universal health care through the creation of a public option
• Supports building on the Affordable Care Act's foundation
• Supports keeping private insurance, for now
• Invest resources in mental health services
• Create a universal, gender-neutral, national paid family and medical leave program allowing for up to 12 weeks of paid leave
• Plan to lower prescription drug prices:
• Cap out-of pocket spending on drugs for those on government healthcare plan at $250 per month
• Make co-payments for generic drugs $0 for people with low incomes
• Allow the government to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies
• Tax pharmaceutical companies that refuse to negotiate 65% on the sales of that drug, increasing 10% each quarter until 95%
• Penalize pharmaceutical companies that raise prices by more than inflation
• Make it easier for generics to enter the market by ending tactics that prevent competition
• Doesn't support having the federal government produce and sell generic drugs at lower prices
• Supports importing drugs from other countries, given they are screened by the FDA for quality and safety
• Allow undocumented immigrants to be covered under a government-run health plan through the public option
• Create and fund Health Equity Zones to address high-priority health disparities in the local community, with a specific emphasis on racial and demographic health disparities
• Address the underrepresentation of Black Americans in the health workforce and train our current health workforce to combat bias–especially racial bias–when treating patients
• Incentivize medical students and workers to work in rural communities
• Ensure coverage for and access to the full range of reproductive healthcare services in rural areas
• Improve access to affordable and high-quality mental health and addiction treatment with $100 billion investment over 10 years
• Hold the drug manufacturers and pharmacies that exacerbated the opioid crisis for profit accountable
• Combat the opioid and methamphetamine epidemics

Immigration

• Supports a pathway to citizenship for the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants now living in the U.S., including Dreamers
• Modernize our immigration laws to reflect today’s humanitarian and economic needs
• Meet target of 110,000 annual refugee admissions set during the Obama administration
• Increase funding for border security
• Against the Trump administration policy of family separation at the border
• Does not support detaining asylum-seeking families until their asylum claims can be processed
• Supports using technology to secure the Southern border
• Change crossing the border from a criminal offense to a civil offense
• Supports increasing foreign aid to Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala in an effort to reduce the flow of asylum seekers to the U.S.
• Restructure ICE

LGBTQ+ Rights

• Supports same-sex marriage
• Pass the Equality Act
• Improve access to and quality of health care for LGBTQ+ people
• Reduce disparities in mental health care for LGBTQ+ Americans
• End youth homelessness, which disproportionately affects LGBTQ+ youth
• Ensure that the freedom of religion is not exploited into a license to discriminate
• Pass the LGBTQ+ Suicide Prevention Act to address key risk factors for death by suicide
• End the HIV/ AIDS epidemic by 2030
• Prohibit violence, bullying, and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity
• Launch the We Belong National Mentorship Program for LGBTQ+ youth
• Ban "conversion therapy" nationwide
• Supports placing a third gender option on federal identification cards and documents

National Security & Veterans Affairs

Social Security & Welfare

• Increase the cap of income eligible for Social Security and Medicare taxes from what it is now at $132,900 to about $250,000
• Invest $430 billion to unlock access to 7 million affordable housing units to end homelessness for families with children 7 million
• Invest an additional $170 billion to ensure that all eligible families with children have access to housing choice vouchers, mobility counseling, and wrap-around services
• Expand federal protections for tenants against eviction and unjust harassment
• Proposes the Community Homestead Act: launch a public trust to purchase abandoned properties and provide them to eligible residents with a 10-year forgivable lien to promote the rehabilitation of the home and its use as a primary residence
• As mayor, implemented "1000 Houses in 1000 Days," where in total 1122 houses were either repaired or demolished because they did not meet state guidelines
• Form a commission to consider reparations proposals for African Americans

Women's Rights

• Pro-choice stance
• Repeal the Hyde Amendment
• Increase access to comprehensive reproductive health care
• Called the gender wage gap "an embarrassment to our country"
• Supports the Paycheck Fairness Act
• Immediately make public the total pay gap at every large company
• Pass anti-harassment laws and gender nondiscrimination laws for the workplace

Children

Economic:
• Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit offered to lower-income families, particularly those with children

Health:
• Supports Medicare For All as an end goal
• Allow people to opt into a government-backed health insurance option and let keep their private insurance plans if they like them
• Create a universal, gender-neutral, national paid family and medical leave program allowing for up to 12 weeks of paid leave
• Supports creating a tax credit to help families pay for child care

Education:
• Invest $700 billion in affordable, universal, high-quality, and full-day early learning, as well as outside-of-school learning opportunities in K-12 education
• Make this early learning and care from age 0-5 free for lower-income families and affordable for all
• Dramatically increase Title I funding to support supplemental services for lower-income students
• Supports expanding the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which clears student loans in exchange for public service work
• Invest $500 billion so that 80% of families of public college students (those that earn up to $100,000) will not pay any public college tuition
• Increase national service opportunities from 75,000 to 1 million high school graduates by 2026 by expanding existing and creating new service corps such as the Climate Corps
• Invest $50 billion in workforce training and lifelong learning to create pathways for young and middle-age workers into good jobs
• Invest up to $5 billion over the next decade to ensure an apprenticeship program in a growing industry is available within 30 miles of every American

Child Welfare:
• Invest $430 billion to unlock access to 7 million affordable housing units to end homeless for families with childrener 7 million
• Invest an additional $170 billion to ensure that all eligible families with children have access to housing choice vouchers, mobility counseling, and wrap-around services
• Invest $100 million to close down youth prisons and expand programming that meets the needs of children
• Push to raise the age at which one can be tried as an adult
• Remove children from adult jails and prisons
• Enforce the Supreme Court’s ban on juvenile life sentences without parole
• Recognize Dreamers as US citizens and end child separation

Other:
• See Buttigieg's Environment and Gun Control stances for more related to children's policy