Many jobs require a degree, which requires taking on tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of student loan debt, but the promise of higher pay has failed recent graduates. We are doing a huge disservice to college graduates who can’t pursue their chosen career out of fear of not making enough money to cover monthly student loan debt payments. It’s time to close the racial and class disparities that exist in higher education by canceling student loan debt.

It’s time for a comprehensive tax system that benefits working people and ensures the top 1%, Wall Street, and large corporations pay their fair share.

Americans have lost millions of jobs due to unfair trade deals. It’s time to end the race to the bottom and renegotiate these rigged deals that only benefit the elite. Multinational corporations should not possess the power to dictate laws for the United States. We need to eliminate incentives for multinational corporations to outsource jobs overseas and prioritize strong labor, environmental and human rights standards for all trade agreements. Our trade deals should focus on lifting up workers across the world and toward a common agenda of tackling the global crisis.

Republicans and far too many Democrats have been trying to privatize and cut benefit programs for decades. We must expand Social Security benefits for all recipients and protect pensions.

Transitioning every building, home, and mode of transportation to 100% green energy will create millions of good-paying jobs. Our nation can grant a job to every American who wants one. The climate crisis requires a massive jobs program A federal jobs guarantee program  would establish a baseline for wages and benefits for the nation’s workforce. The program would provide a baseline minimum wage of at least $15 an hour. By investing in our own workforce, we can lift thousands of American families out of poverty and help people re-enter the workforce, doing the work that needs to be done to build a better future.

High tuition costs have put college and trade schools out of reach for millions of people and saddled millions more with a lifetime of student loan debt. We support free public college and trade schools for all to end the equity gap in higher education.

Now is the time for a comprehensive, once-in-a-generation mobilization that prioritizes front-line communities, combats the climate crisis, and creates millions of good-paying union jobs. A Green New Deal will transition away from fossil fuels and dramatically expand existing renewable power sources with the goal of meeting 100% of national power demand through renewable sources. A Green New Deal also provides people across the country with the opportunity, training and education needed to participate fully and equally in a green economy, offering jobs to help rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. A Green New Deal ensures a just transition for all workers, low-income communities, communities of color, and indigenous communities.

Over the past several decades, the cost of living has increased significantly while workers’ wages have remained relatively stagnant. While CEO’s compensation soars, most workers’ wages aren’t even keeping up with inflation and affordable housing remains out of reach. We must secure a minimum wage of at least $15 that’s tied to inflation.

The United States has the most expensive and least effective healthcare system compared with other industrialized nations. It’s time to end the destruction of healthcare in America by price gouging, for-profit private health insurers and catch up to every other modern nation that’s implemented a single-payer universal healthcare system – no networks, no premiums, no co-pays, no deductibles and no surprise bills. Medicare For All will expand Medicare coverage to include dental, hearing, mental health and substance abuse treatment, prescription drugs, long-term and disability care, and reproductive and maternity care. We must also invest in frontline care workers who are the backbone of our economy.