• Reduction in the high cost of Workers’ Compensation.
The Legislature worked to obtain reductions in the cost
of Workers’ Compensation, but it has not had the
desired results. I will continue to encourage efforts to
further reduce costs by seeking to better understand the
root causes of the high cost of this program in California
and to mitigate them. What are the key reasons for injuries
in the workplace and what programs can be put into effect
to prevent such injuries from happening? What are the inherent
high costs of this program and where can they be reduced?
• Reduction in the increasingly high cost of Medical Insurance.
We need to look at innovative measures to reduce the
dangerous spiraling costs that businesses bear to insure their employees
while ensuring that employees and all of our citizens
receive quality health care. One of the options that I will be
examining is the concept of going to a single payer health
care system in California, whereby the state becomes
the principal insurer while doctors and hospitals still stay
independent and patients have the right to choose their
doctors and treatment facilities. I am open to innovative
concepts such as this and will support programs that
will benefit both businesses and employees. We must approach
this very critical issue on a bipartisan basis at the
state level as well as at the national level.
• Affordable housing. The very high cost of housing in our
district is a key deterrent to healthy job growth. The
spiraling cost of homes and condominiums
makes it practically impossible for many professionals,
such as teachers,
professors, law enforcement officers and engineers to
own or even rent adequate
housing, along with workers in lower-paying jobs. Recruitment
of talented
individuals from other parts of the country, where housing
costs are much lower, coupled with the low national standing
of our educational system, is becoming
increasingly difficult. Yet affordable housing is possible
through innovative solutions by developers and agencies
that specialize in this area. When elected, I will promote
programs at the district and state level that will provide
such programs, while protecting our environment.
• Fair Trade. One of the key underlying reasons for the lack
of a healthy job growth is that many companies are increasingly
outsourcing their jobs to countries where qualified employees
are available at a much lower cost. While we cannot prevent
companies from seeking the most cost-effective ways to
provide their products and services, we can insist that
those fair labor and trade practices be implemented and
enforced in those nations where we do business so that
we provide as much of a level playing field as possible for
U.S. companies.
Congressman Bonior, the Democratic House Whip, expressed
the following views regarding our trade agreements, and
I fully agree with them. He noted that “It’s
very important that our trade agreements incorporate human
rights, workers’ rights and environmental standards
in the core agreements, just as we place guarantees of
property rights in those agreements. We are not asking
for developing countries to have our own standards at this
stage in their economic development. We are asking that
they abide by the principles they’ve already agreed
to when they signed the U.N. Charters on Human Rights and
Child Labor. But these principles are seldom enforced,
and most countries don’t encourage multinational
corporations to adhere to those standards either. Within
the U.S., we need to develop policies that reward corporations
that do adhere to labor and environmental standards,
and penalize those that do not. The rewards can take
the form
of tax relief, federal contracts, or singling out these
corporations for public praise. As to the institutions
that set the rules for the global economy, they need
far more transparency and openness in their dealings,
and they
too need to set standards that support working people
abroad, and reinforce their ability to maintain good
living standards
here at home and in the other more economically advanced
nations.”
