We the People...      An Index of Issues

Excerpts from the Record and Speeches of Governor Brown

Our cause is clear. We must restore commitment to our nation,
vitality to the values of our society, vigor to our economy,
real democracy to our government,  and purpose to our national
life. Above all, we must secure our childrens birthright of  a
greater America than we ourselves inherited.

At the heart of my campaign is a Family Bill of Rights with
this commitment: Every person has the right to a living wage.
Every person has the right to health care. Every person has the
right to shelter. Every person has the right to an education.
Every person has the right to be free from economic insecurity
in their old age. That is my commitment and if you join, it will
be our commitment.  And it will be done.


Agriculture/Farm

As governor, created Farm Workers Health Services Program to
increase health care to migrant workers and their families.  We
have to design policies that recognize the stewardship of the
land, the continuity of families, and that means cooperatives,
marketing orders, expert assistance, and a recognition that
there is a value in making the same kinds of assistance
available to our own family farmers as we do to places like
Poland, or Egypt...where [loans are renegotiated, not
foreclosed]. When times get tough on the farm, its foreclosure.
I think we have to have a policy that...treats American citizens
and family farmers [better than] we do so many foreign
countries.

AIDS

Recently assisted Mother Teresa in opening AIDS hospice in San
Francisco. I think it ought to be at the top of the national
health care agenda. The President barely mentions it. Youve got
a million and a half people dying of AIDS; youve got good
research projects that are not even being funded; youve got
people who, while we're waiting for one or the other of these
health care plans, can't get covered. They are suffering, and no
other country, at least developed countries, would let that
happen. I think the Presidents got to stand up and say, `Look,
we've got a plague on our hands. We've got to talk about it- how
it's transmitted. We've got to warn people and we've got to pay
the money so that we don't abandon people who are suffering and
dying in every community in America.

Bush/Reagan Era

There has been unfair and unequal gain of wealth by the few at
the expense of the many. The stunning gains by the very rich did
not result from the success of hard work or a reward earned by
creative enhancement of the nation's prosperity. No, to the
contrary, this result reflects a decade of unfair tax breaks for
the privileged disguised as relief for all, the looting of the
National Treasury, the rigging of our free market economy, and a
host of successful scams and rip-offs best exemplified by
corporate take-overs on Wall Street and savings and loan
disasters on Main Street....The richest 1% increased their share
of the National income by almost $200 billion a yearand they
took it from the poor and the middle class without apology.
Truly, we have seen a class war and the redistribution of
income...by the self-interested and greedy who have manipulated
the tax codes for their own benefit.

Business

I believe the corporations should be encouraged to plow back
more of their money into what they're doing.  What we need to
do is have an industrial...economic strategy like the Japanese
have to target areas of opportunity for environmentally sound,
resource efficient growth. And I would see that in space, in
bioscience, in electronics, in telecommunications, in materials
science.

Campaign Financing

The chokehold which campaign contributions have on the political
process must be broken. We need real and meaningful campaign
reforms, and not just regarding campaign finance. Equally
imperative, candidates must have free access to the means of
mass communication in a modern society.  In terms of executive
orders...I'd find people for the Federal Communications
Commission who will develop a program of free television time so
candidates dont have to spend so much of their campaigning
raising huge [sums of] money to buy time on television to
manipulate voters. (Every Presidential campaign, hundreds of
millions of dollars go to consultants, advertising firms, and
the media.)

Crime/Punishment

As governor, mandatory prison terms for use of gun in a crime,
for repeat felons, for crimes against elderly and handicapped,
for heroin pushers; signed legislation creating Victim/Witness
assistance program and Rape Crisis Centers.  We've tripled the
prison population...Every prison causes the need for another
prison two-thirds as large because of the 60% recidivistic rate.
But if you took that money, and you invested in children, and
child care, and Head Start, and jobs...you will see this country
prosper and flourish.  You're never going to stop crime unless
there is an adequate opportunity for jobs and income for every
person.  Opposes capital punishment.

Defense - See Military/Defense

Domestic Policy

We have to be prepared to knit together a governing coalition of
labor, business, minorities, and people who represent
environmental concerns in a way that will allow investment in
our own people. I put that investment in three categories: in
human capital, which is education, job training and the
acquisition of skills; in technological capital, which provides
the competitive edge while allowing us to maintain our position
in the world; and in environmental capital, which will maintain
and enhance our forests, fisheries, agricultural land and air.
We need real reform. I think we have to reform the politics,
the tax code, the industrial policy, our health system. And as
we do that, we will be not only on the verge, but in the
beginning and the duration of a golden age.

Drugs

Decriminalized possession of less than one ounce of marijuana in
California. Favors drug treatment on demand. Would not legalize
marijuana.

Economy

Number One, I would cut payroll taxes so that the withholding on
the people of America would go down in the next two weeks.
Secondly, I'd move off the backlog every single public works
project in America to put people to work. Number three, I would
take some of the money were now spending abroad and invest it
here at home in things that will create efficiency and a more
innovative economy. One more thing, I would fully fund Head
Start. Youve got to put an income floor under those families
that are under stress...[Create] enterprise zones. Take 50 of
the hardest-pressed areas in America, cut out the taxes to any
business that will go in there and hire people. [For] people who
are on public assistance, let them take their government check
and turn it into a voucher so they can turn it into a job, so
that the employer adds more to it. Anything that will make sure
that every American has a living family wage...

Education

As governor, tripled K-12 education budget; opposed charging
tuition at state colleges and universities; raised standards for
high school graduation and college entrance; Worksite Education
and Training Act to put people to work in skilled labor
positions; MESA Program to motivate women and minorities to
complete college degrees in math, engineering, and the sciences.
The public school is the major integrating institution in our
society...I want to make sure its fully funded. We can put a
computer in front of every school child...and have learning
programs from Kindergarten through the 12th grade. The same
people who are designing the Star Wars defense....that level of
commitment and skill and money...can revolutionize American
education.

Energy

Our current energy policy...depends on foreign oil, on
squandering resources, on promoting nuclear power and wrecking
the environment both offshore and in wilderness areas. I say
its time for the President to say `no to future nuclear power
and `yes to solar, biomass conversion, synthetic fuels, wind
powerto a whole array of energy sources that are safer, more
economically secure, that will not lead to the disaster that
nuclear is now taking us. If we commit ourselves to an energy
system no more wasteful than in Germany and Japan, we would save
more money than were spending on the entire defense
system....you can invest in new engines, lights, retrofitting
buildings. And...youll reduce the energy spending that will
free us from dependence on foreign oil, protect the environment
and put millions of Americans to work.

Environment/Ecology

As governor, led the nation in creating and enforcing clean-air
laws, enacting legislation to curb toxic wastes, and promoting
environmental awareness. Despite opposition from special
interest groups and Federal Bureaucracy, his administration
accomplished much in the area of environmental protection and
preservation by instituting a strict climate of regulatory
compliance. Favors clean renewable alternate energy sources;
i.e. wind, solar, cogeneration, geothermal.

Equal Opportunity

As governor, strongest commitment to affirmative action anywhere
in country; prohibited payment of different wages for jobs
requiring equal skill, effort and responsibility; promoted
training of women for job classifications in which 70% of
employees were men; prohibited sex or marital status as factor
in denial of credit; designated sexual harassment as unfair
employment practice; banned mandatory retirement; made age
discrimination illegal. Brown appointed 287 Asians, 435
African-Americans, 549 Hispanics, and 46 Native Americans to
government positions.

Federal Spending

As governor, reduced government costs and the growth of
government while saving money for taxpayers and delivering
exceptional service to citizens.  Every year the federal
government takes at least half a trillion dollars and,
essentially, dumps it in the trash.  There is enough money to
do what is needed to be done, and what must be done, and the
dying of cities and the destruction of a whole generation of
Americans right before our eyes is every bit as much a threat to
each of us and to our society as the collapse of the banking
system.

Foreign Policy

We ought to be able to find ways where people have the sense and
the power of their own national identity, but are harmoniously
integrated in regional economic and federal units...I would do
everything I could to bring together parties that are so far
apart and so different as the people there in the Middle East,
Israel, and its Arab neighbors...There is real fear and
insecurity and we have an historic relationship with Israel that
we must maintain.... Supports loan guarantees (the assurance
that Israel's loans will be repaid.)

Foreign Trade

Will we prosper as a virtual colony to the rest of the world by
supplying raw materials in exchange for imported, finished goods
of high value such as cars, TVs, steel and calculators? No, a
hundred times no. We will prosper by consciously setting forth
an economic agenda that will build for the future, not steal
from it.  We have got to have better products...so the people
want it and have to have it. Then we'll go to Japan and we'll
open up their markets.  How do you do trade? Not like we did in
the Gulf War 70% of the goods that we shipped over there for
that war were in foreign ships. You first build up your ports;
36 states in this nation have access to navigable waters. You
link it with trains, with rail...and then youre prepared to
enter into the vast growth of world trade, which can generate
the wealth.

Gay/Lesbian

As governor, repealed criminal penalties from private sexual
acts between consenting adults; signed executive order banning
discrimination based on sexual orientation. Favors passage of
the Gay Rights Bill.

Global Ecology

Global warming indicates that we have to reduce our fossil fuel
use dramatically...we have to get about the business of
alternative energy.  As a small minority of the world's basic
resources for but a few percent of its people, but we can learn
to place quality above quatity and caring above consumption.

Gun Control

Believes in the right to bear arms but that automatic weapons
and Saturday Night Specials should be rigidly controlled.
Favors waiting periods, at least in accordance with California
laws.

Handicapped

As governor, instituted $25,000 tax deduction for remodeling for
handicapped access; created more than 25 living centers for the
disabled.

Health Care

As governor, developed health ed programs for students and
seniors; created Department of Alcohol and Drug Abuse; created
many programs for prevention, education, training, etc.; funded
program of preventive health care for seniors.  As governor, I
signed bills to let people compete with managed health care
plans, health maintenance organizations; there's 13 million
people in California that are now in them.  I believe health
care should be available to all Americans, and...I believe that
should be a top priority for the next US Senate, and I would
make it mine. We should have a single payor, universal health
care, emphasizing wellness and prevention and including the
choice of different healing arts whether it's acupuncture or
chiropractic.  In Canada, people are spending $500 less per
capita than we are, and they're living two years longer, and
they are covering every single citizen...[The Canadia system
would] save over $100 billion a year.  A man standing out in
the street, homeless, and President Reagan ought to all be in
the same health care system. You bet it will be a good one.

Homelessness

Homelessness is a social phenomenon created by neglect.
Available housing, a mental health system that really takes care
of people, reducing alcohol and drug dependency, and providing
jobs and income among those people in society that are
increasingly in the backwater - all these things have to be done
to really get at homelessness.  [We] would state as a premise
that every American has a right to shelter, and then we go from
there...we talk about the $10 billion loan guarantee for Israel.
[I would] link in the same legislation, a loan guarantee for
every single American...so we take care of our first
responsibility.

Jobs

The World Watch Institute has said that if you weatherize every
house in this country, you would cut energy consumption by
enough to pay for...that work and create 7 million jobs. [In
the Pentagon Budget there is] $300 billion a year of
unnecessary, wasteful and polluting envergy consumption...by
spending $300 billion to accomplish the goals of fuel efficient
homes, motors, refrigerators, fuel efficient cars, high speed
trains...you dont have to raise taxes one penny...If there was
a commitment, and if the oil companies...and the power companies
would stand aside...you would have seven million new jobs.  We
need to make the commitment to make sure people have
jobs...whether it be building the infrastructure for high-speed
trains, or creating things like the Civilian Conservation Corps
to get young people out of adverse circumstances and give them
an opportunity.

Military/Defense

Favors cutting the defense budget by half the first year.
Examine the absurdity of what's happening: When the Soviet
Union agreed to pull troops out of Germany, the Germans [agreed
to] pay the Russians $5 billion over the next several years to
[care for the] troops...And we're spending tens of billions to
defend Germany against those same soldiers.

Minorities

I picked...the first black appointed to the California Supreme
Court. And then I appointed the second African-American...to the
California Supreme Court. And I appointed the first
Hispanic...and the first woman...to be Chief Justice of that
court.

Native Americans

As governor, provided financial assistance to health care
programs; appointed 46 to government positions.

PACs/Lobbying I will tell you who is supporting the anti-term
limits. Phillip Morris gave $25,000 and the National Rifle
Association is the second biggest giver...if every 6 years
there's a new Congressman, somehow the clout is going to be gone.
`The clout - well, is that the clout for the tobacco company so
more kids can learn to be addicted to a Cancer causing
substance? Is that the clout we might lose? Then I say great,
the sooner, the better.

Pay Raises

That form of legalized bribery [honorarium] was something that
the individual senator took or not. And you took it, and now
you've given yourself a $40,000 pay raise in order to give up
$30,000 in honoraria. Now, you explain that one to me. I
disagree with you, I disagree very strongly...As governor, I
fought a pay raise eight out of eight years.

Privacy

As governor, signed legislation ensuring comprehensive right to
privacy for Californians.

Qualifications

I have the experience of being the chief executive of the
largest state in the country. That economy in California is
equivalent to the 8th largest country in the world. Just in our
medical budget alone we spent $5 billion a year. All the
problems we're talking about -- national service--we started.
The California Conservation corps--50,000 young men and women
have gone through it. Wellness and prevention--the first state
Wellness Commission, we did it there. Pioneering in controlling
toxics--the best environmental record anywhere in the country.
So I think there's a record there. for the future, I would say
the essence of what I'm doing here is reform. reform of the tax
code, reform of the politics.  Of all the candidates, I have
more experience...and I have the message for 1992...What I am
trying to do is to transform the party that I belong to and
transform the country. Anything short of that is just going to
compound and continue the decline and the suffering and the
injustice that is spreading all around the country.

Secrecy

Believes that for the people to govern, they must be informed.
Favors opening the JFK files.

Space

We should be investing in projecting human beings into space; it
ought to be done on a multinational basis...as we create more
shared working and experimental opportunities for human beings.
Space research can break down political barriers as well as push
back scientific frontiers. And it's a crucial part of the
investment strategy of this nation.

Taxes

As governor, reduced tax burden, moving Californians from 3rd
highest to 24th ranking among states. Eliminated longstanding
oil and insurance company tax breaks.  

The tax code is a veritable feast of fundraising, corruption,
lobbying, and activities...a moneymaker for the people down in
congress.  I know if we were to abolish the income tax, the
Social Security payroll tax, the gasoline tax, the airline
ticket tax, the corporate tax, and the estate and gift tax, we
can replace it with a simple 13% flat tax on gross income and
business added.  With that, you'll get economic efficiency,
you'll see the stock market go, you'll see jobs being produced,
and I believe with that we'll be able to afford a national
health care system modeled on the Canadian variety. If you
apply [the 13% flat tax] on the business value added and the
personal adjusted gross income, it equals about $8 trillion. You
multiply something about 12.5% and you will come out with what
was collected last year...Three deductions only--rent, charity,
and home mortgage.  That's it.  (Federal excise taxes to remain
on cigarettes and alcohol.)

Term Limits

The problem is not that the president serves two terms, it's
that senators are down there for 30...for 40 years.  That's not
right, and especially it's not right when you look at the
judiciary panel and you see those men there. Is that America?

Voting

As governor, signed into law the postcard registration
procedure.  Bills to allow people to vote ought to be passed
forthwith...Let's have same-day voter registration...an election
holiday...so that every citizen in this country is invited and
empowered to vote.

Welfare

As governor, program assisted families to move from welfare to
self-support; provided job search assistance; Project Intercept
to collect child support payments; adoption programs. Favors
voucher system for promoting employment of welfare recipients by
private business. [The problem isn't] some Welfare Queenmaking
a few thousand dollars a month...The Welfare King' is the former
president of General Motors...[He helped] drive General Motors
into the ground, and he gets $1.2 million for the rest of his
life. That's the kind of privilege that is at the heart of
what's ailing America."

Women's Issues

As governor, supported women's right to personal choice
concerning her body and her reproductive system; extended child
care and unemployment disability benefits to all working women;
granted state employees one year of leave for purposes of
pregnancy, childbirth, and recovery; mandated against
discrimination in hiring based upon pregnancy; empowered
enforcement for child support payments; named women to fill
nearly one third of appointed posts, including 131 judges, 5
cabinet members, 22 department directors, and 10 deputy
directors; appointed the first woman Chief Justice of Supreme
Court, the first African-American woman to the men's prison
system...the first woman in charge of the Highway Department,
the Business Department, the Finance Department, the Health
Department, the Veteran's Affairs Department. Regarding
abortion: "I support the right of a woman to make this decision
totally free from any pressure or inducement from the federal
government." Supports Roe v. Wad, the Freedom of Choice Act,
overturn of the "Gag Rule," Medicaid funding; opposes
Constitutional amendment outlawing abortion, mandatory parental
notification/consent laws.

Workers

As governor, increased unemployment insurance benefits;
collective bargaining for farm workers; collective bargaining
for teachers; Occupational Carcinogen Control Act required
registration of carcinogens; increased benefits for employment
disability; increased minimum wage above the federal minimum;
tripled job training programs, including health and vocational
apprenticeships; provided Californians 25% of all the new jobs
in the nation. "Banning the replacement of people who go out on
strike is nothing more than giving reality to the strikers
ultimate weapon--to withhold one's labor...when management can
just replace strikers, you've essentially destroyed organized
labor...a pillar of progressive politics since the '30s."

What Would This Cost?

Debate Moderator: "OK, you become president...What is the cost
of your program, of transforming it?"

Governor Brown: "I'd say three things: On defense...[I could]
show a $700 billion saving between now and the next ten
years...The second point is that the tax amnesty...could
recapture 1%. You tell people in the underground
economy...who've not paid their taxes, that if they come back
in...we'll work out an installment plan. There have been about
$8 trillion in taxes paid in this country in the last six years.
If we could get 1% of that, that's somewhere in the neighborhood
of $80 billion. The third thing is that I recommend that you
eliminate the gasoline tax, the social security tax, all these
federal taxes and replace them with a simple, stable flat tax,
that's fair, that'll give stability over time, that will give
that longer horizon for investment and saving that every
economist says is needed if we're going to produce the
productivity that we need."

Authorized by Brown for President/Labor Donated

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Santa Monica, CA 90404-5277 Voice:
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