Note: in addition to this page, if you’re interested in reading more about where Tom stands on the issues, you may want to consult his statement about why he is running, several detailed questionnaires he has filled out, and his voluminous writings.
On Banking
“Before Congress goes after bank misdeeds on Wall Street, let’s stop the petty theft on Main Street. I mean the predatory mortgages and usurious loans. Had we protected the poor and the weak, the problems of our mighty banks might not be so great. Why don’t we have a “National Usury Act”? Why, in the party of William Jennings Bryan, is there no one demanding an interest cap on our Visa cards and our MasterCards?” (5/06/08 American Prospect)
On Iraq
“I’m against invasion. As Doctor Johnson might say of so rash an act—the expense, damnable (up to $200 billion or more); our strategic posture, ridiculous (as our allies flee us, and North Korea goes nuclear); and any pleasure, even for a hawk, fleeting (since we may be in Iraq a very long time). So count me in with Robert Byrd, the pope, James Baker, and Joschka Fischer.” (2/19/03 Slate)
Workers’ Rights and Trade
“The countries with the strongest labor movements are also the most open to free trade. Sure, there is, and should be, some protectionist instinct. But the protectionism of an open democracy, with labor rights, is much more modest than the protectionism of a ‘managed democracy’ without one.” (9/07/07 American Prospect)
Reviving Labor
“Indeed, all sides, even the Bob Dole Right, could stand a little more class-based politics, a little more Dunlop-type rationality. ‘The great thing about class-based politics,’ a professor once told me in college long ago, ‘is that it’s rational.’ Instead of the Politics of Meaning, we talk $1.25. The purpose of such politics is not to heat the country up, but to calm it way down. Get back to the America of Dwight Eisenhower, when labor was at high tide and there was social peace. But to get back to that Era of Good Feelings, first we have to remind people, ‘You’re Being Robbed.’” (6/23/95 American Prospect)
Layoffs
“It hollows out companies so they can’t compete. It hollows out the country by removing middle-class jobs. It hollows out the middle-class employees who are laid off and then too often drop permanently to a demeaning, low-wage way of life. To Mr. Uchitelle, who reports on economics for The New York Times, corporate America’s addiction to the layoff has gone past the point of economic rationality. In this fascinating book he tries to tell the history of the United States in our time as the unchecked rise of layoffs.” (03/09/06 New York Times)
Student Loans
“Declare an amnesty. Or let college grads off the hook if their incomes fall below a certain level. Or at least let them discharge the loan in bankruptcy.” (7/02/03 The Nation)
Create More Jobs, Less Prisons
“It’s strange that the incarceration rate is not as big an issue in the U.S. now as it was in Dostoevsky’s Russia, not to mention Dickens’ England. It’s strange, because the numbers are so much bigger. For locking up people, the U.S. has a capacity that is unmatched in the history of the world.” (12/26/07 American Prospect)
Healthcare
“First, we should “re-enact” Medicare — for everyone. We should take our single-payer health-care system and just make it wall to wall. Aside from its merits, people also understand it, while they don’t really understand any of the health-care plans. One thing that Ronald Reagan proved is that people like big, simple ideas: In his era, the big simple idea was tax cuts, and in ours, the big simple idea should be “Medicare for all adults,” and “national coverage of children, too.” (I know it comes out to the same thing, but since single-payer is a big pill to swallow, it’s nice to cut it in two.) Above all, keep it simple. The Democrats seem to specialize in coming up with health-care plans that only Paul Krugman can understand.” (10/26/07 American Prospect)
“Did you know that uninsured people pay two to three times what you and I, as insured patients, have to pay? I bought a class-action suit case for uninsured patients because the hospitals gouge them. You and I have Blue Cross or Humana to negotiate for us and lower the prices. The uninsured have no one.” (Which Side Are You On?)
Democracy
“I say to my friends that the Democratic party is missing the real issue: it should live up to its real name and stand for more democracy. Democratize the workplace, democratize the economy, democratize the whole country, in new ways, we go into the next century.” (Which Side are You On?)
Fighting for Working People
“The line of battle keeps going backward. First, it was: Would they be union? We lost. Then would they keep a pension? Lost. Then, health insurance? Lost, either all or part. Now it’s: whether they are really “employees” at all or just independent contractors. That’s the big one now”. (Which Side Are You On?)
Democratizing Foreign Policy
“That is, we just pass a simple law. ‘Yes we will comply with Kyoto.’ Or: ‘We’re in the ICC.’ It’s a straight up or down vote in the House. Then it’s 50 votes plus the veep in the Senate, if we get rid of the filibuster under special fast-track-type rules. Otherwise our next president is going to be a Woodrow Wilson.” (06/18/07 American Prospect)
Immigration
My firm and I have done a great deal of Civil Rights litigation particularly in the area of immigrant rights, my colleague handled the appeal of a Voting Rights Act case to increase the representation of Latinos in the Aurora City Council.
We’ve also represented working people, who are not citizens, in cases that seek WARN Act wages and in discrimination cases. We’ve also created good case law in the Northern District of Illinois suing on behalf of an immigrant mother and her child when the child was denied the right to attend the public schools in her community.
My firm also regularly provides pro bono representation to immigrant day laborers who get arrested merely because they stand on the street seeking employment.
Because of my experience representing people like this, I know how crucial it is for such hard working people, my clients, to have a pathway to citizenship as outlined in Congressman Gutierrez’s bill.
My colleague, Jorge Sanchez, is a former Acting Regional Counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund and he has brought his concern for issues which affect immigrants to our practice. Our law firm has represented many people in these important issues.
Woman’s Right to Choose
I am morally opposed to abortion in most cases. I am against attempts to overturn Roe v Wade. I oppose the use of the coercive power of the state to punish women who have had abortions or to override the woman’s decision with respect to abortion.
LGBT Issues
I support full marriage equality for same-sex couples, and I oppose any local, state, or federal laws which attempt to deny civil marriage rights to those of the same sex.
Unfortunately, state and local laws which prohibit anti-gay discrimination in the workplace provide limited and often inadequate remedies; therefore, I support amending the Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Israeli/Palestinian Conflict
In the matter of Israel and the Palestinians, I start with three principles: (1) Israel has a right to self defense, including military action. (2) Palestinians have a right to autonomy. (3) Both Israelis and Palestinian civilians have a right to live their lives in safety and free of fear.
I also believe our country has a moral obligation to press for an end to the violence, whether that violence may come from an off target military strike in Gaza or a Hamas rocket landing in an Israeli village. In the past few weeks we have seen too many dead Palestinian children – just as we have seen too many dead and wounded Israelis from rocket attacks over the years.
In the long run there will be no peace between Israel and Palestinians without some kind of two-state solution. The urgent question is how to get Hamas (or the leading part of Hamas) to renounce violence just as part of the IRA in Northern Ireland finally did – that is, how to pull at least the “political” people in Hamas into the peace process, and peel them off from those who will never give up their guns. I would press the Administration to rely on those who can tell us how to bring about this result.
One final note: I think Israel as a country is a remarkable phenomenon. Personally, I would like to spend time there. I wonder whether the U.S. would be as open and democratic if we had been under siege as the Israelis have been. Ultimately, though, the question is not Israel’s right to self defense, which is indisputable, but whether Israel’s recent military action in Gaza in the name of self defense is really achieving any security for Israel.
I expect the Obama Administration to be far more engaged in the peace process in the Middle East. This is not a matter we can treat with “benign neglect.” The Bush Administration let violence fester. Indeed, by a stupid and murderous war in Iraq, it contributed to a climate of killing in the Middle East. There can be no peace or rule of law in Gaza, in the Middle East or in the world until it is clear that the U.S. itself is committed to ending violence and establishing the rule of law.
