Kara Eastman

HEALTHCARE

I believe that healthcare is a human right and that no one in the United States should have to choose between seeking medical care and putting food on the table. Ninety-two percent of Americans favor lower prescription drug prices and over 70% favor importing medicine from Canada. The federal government is slated to spend over $34 trillion on healthcare over the next decade. Transforming our healthcare system would save the government over $2 trillion over that same period. It would increase efficiencies, reduce overhead costs, allow individuals to choose their provider instead of having to stay in network, eliminate premiums and deductibles, and free employers from having to administer healthcare plans.

Priorities:

• We must dramatically cut drug prices and make sure that the U.S. pays no more for prescription drugs than other major countries.

• All Americans must have medical care and insurance.

• I believe we need to improve medical care for all seniors.

JOBS AND THE ECONOMY

We have a $2 trillion investment gap in infrastructure, and we must restore our global competitive advantage through public-private partnerships and large investments in infrastructure to provide well-paying jobs across our country. I fully support Davis-Bacon wages on these kinds of federal projects. We also must raise the minimum wage and continue to foster trades programs within our community college system. I support economic opportunities that combat climate change as a way to create great jobs locally and invest in energy efficient housing. We must expand lending opportunities from credit unions and lower interest rates to small businesses, especially those in blighted communities, which in turn create jobs. We must ensure that all our citizens can achieve the American dream.

Priorities:

• We need to establish a livable wage for American workers.

• I support our unions, and I’m against so-called right to work laws, because they lower wages and hurt the collective bargaining power of unions.

• I favor expanding business and investment opportunities for people of color.

IMMIGRATION

NE-CD2 has over 100,000 immigrants who contribute to key sectors of our economy and help build the fabric of our diverse community. The current administration’s policies of separating families, imprisoning babies without access to basic needs, and rounding up hard-working immigrants is immoral and un-American. They are more concerned with scoring political points with their base than they are with border security. Now is the time for us to make significant investments in smart technology, work-force development, and foreign aid. Other solutions that transform our immigration system include hiring more immigration judges and fully staffing ports of entry. We must make law-abiding Dreamers citizens and ensure that immigrants who follow the law can earn a lawful presence in our country.

INCOME INEQUALITY

The World Bank puts our income inequality on par with some of the poorest and unequal nations in the world. This is dangerous for our economy and damaging to our collective sense of morality. The GOP Tax Plan was a clear hand-out to the very wealthy and large corporations that simply do not need welfare. It was shown to have raised taxes on the middle class and exempted those who can afford to pay their fair share - this is not fiscal responsibility. We need to ensure that all Americans have a livable wage, are not drowning in student loans and healthcare costs, have healthy, affordable housing, and have a way to care for their children while they go to work. We also need to regulate banks and Wall Street and tax financial transactions to help pay down our debt.

Priorities:

• Social security should not be seen as an entitlement program; it’s an earned benefit. And it’s a system that people rely on for retirement, so the cap must be raised in the short term or simply eliminated.

• We need to get back to regulating banks and investment firms.

• With effective and targeted regulation, we’re able to generate revenue to pay down our debt, which is well over $20 trillion today. Then, corporations pay their fair share.

VETERANS

The Department of Veterans Affairs will have to serve well over 4 million veterans in the next 20 years. One trillion dollars of the costs of our post-9/11 wars are directly tied to healthcare for vets. I support ensuring the VA provides timely, high quality healthcare, including dental care, to veterans. I also support programs that address some of the unmet needs of veterans such as education, mental health, and housing.

Priorities:

• I will work so that all of the vacancies at the VA are filled. We must ensure that the VA has the doctors, nurses, and medical professionals it requires to give veterans the care they need.

• I believe we must guarantee comprehensive dental care as a health care benefit to all former servicemembers.

• Because suicide is such a serious issue for our men and women in uniform, we should greatly expand access to VA mental health and suicide prevention services.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS AND FAMILY ISSUES

I trust women to make decisions about their own health and about their families, and I support the ideal of reproductive justice. I believe that access to birth control is a fundamental right of privacy in the United States. Pre-K schooling must be available to all, so that parents are able to provide their children with a quality early education. I also passionately support family leave and paid sick days as well as equal pay for women. In addition, there must be public and private investments in childcare to ensure these kinds of services are accessible to all.

Priorities:

• We must ensure that family leave and paid sick days are a part of our economic system.

• I will champion pay equity for women.

• I will work tirelessly to address racial disparities in the American healthcare system.

RESTORING OUR DEMOCRACY

I support a government which is efficient and transparent. The current administration has too many ties to large corporations, not to mention business arrangements with some of our foreign adversaries. Similarly, my Republican opponent accepts a great deal of corporate PAC money from special interests. This is wrong, and I will not accept corporate PAC dollars. I also think “dark” money should not be allowed to corrupt our elections. Therefore, I stand against the 2010 Supreme Court decision Citizens United. Gerrymandering must be ended, and citizen commissions should draw fair, non-partisan districts. Participation in our electoral democracy must be increased through automatic voter registration and by ending voter suppression tactics. Finally, I have seen how difficult it is for candidates who do not come from wealth to raise funds and want to move toward public funding of federal election campaigns.

RACIAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Read our Racial Justice Plan

I have spent my career fighting for racial and social justice, running nonprofit organizations that center on empowering communities of color. In Omaha, I have focused my work on jobs creation and economic and community development, specifically in North and South Omaha. In Congress, I will work to repair the systemic inequalities people of color face in our district. This includes focusing on economic inequality, access to reliable transportation, healthy, affordable housing, debt-free education, and workforce development. This will also include reforming our criminal justice system by ending the school to prison pipeline, through bail reform and by the decriminalization of marijuana.

EDUCATION

I support debt-free tuition. This would lead to a dramatic lowering of costs for families making under $125,000 a year at all 4-yr. state colleges and universities. Community colleges should be accessible for everyone at virtually no cost (Tennessee already has pioneered this). In the short term, we must reduce student debt and challenge lenders who profit off student debt burden. Finally, I am against public funding of charter schools because they don’t uniformly outperform public schools, they aren’t all unionized, and oversight can be lax.

Priorities:

• I believe education should not be defined by zip-code or socioeconomic status.

• I support creating debt-free college pathways and improving workforce development.

• I will work to expand the reach of existing Head Start programs so all children have access to public pre-K education.

ENVIRONMENT

Climate change is the number one moral and security threat our nation faces. We must reorient our environmental and economic policies to meet this incredible challenge and once again become a global leader in innovation and sustainability. Following the 2020 elections, we must get back into international agreements like the Paris Agreement and then aggressively update them to bring down carbon emissions. In the meantime, wind and solar must be harnessed as clean energy options, especially here in Nebraska. I will fight for a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, getting to net-zero by 2040, and a 100% clean energy plan for America.

Priorities:

• If we care about future generations, we must transition to a 100% clean and renewable energy economy by 2040. This means investments in wind, solar and geothermal energy and upgrading buildings, homes, and public transportation systems.

• We must retrain workers currently employed in the fossil fuel industry and invest in communities heavily impacted by the extraction economy so that no worker is left behind. At the same time, we will incentivize the creation of green jobs.

• We must make sure unions have a prominent seat at the table as new employment opportunities become available.

FOREIGN POLICY

There are many senior level cabinet positions and diplomatic posts that have never been filled under the current administration. This, combined with the lack of funding for the State Department, puts our national security at extreme risk. We must engage in negotiation, diplomacy and alliance building in order to prevent unnecessary conflict in the world. The Iraq War cost us more than $3 trillion; close to another $3 trillion has been spent in Afghanistan, and now the President has torn up the Iran Nuclear Deal which puts us in jeopardy of starting another unaffordable, unnecessary war.

GUN SAFETY

As a mom, I am outraged by the lack of movement we have seen in the country on this issue. Groups like the NRA have commandeered the discussion. This is a public health menace, and common-sense solutions are supported by 85 to 90% of Americans. Universal background checks, mandatory waiting periods, smart technology, age requirements, and a ban on the sale of weapons of war would help ensure our children are not gunned down in their schools or playgrounds.

Priorities:

• The vast majority of private sales (including gun shows and online) must fall under the existing background check umbrella.

• We must end the gun show loophole. All gun purchases should be subject to the same background check standards.

• I support raising the minimum age to buy a firearm to 21 years old. We need to keep guns out of the hands of young people, and this is a good way to do it.

FARMING/AGRICULTURE

When in Washington, I will demand that the new tariffs be rescinded and that Congress determine economic policy as set out in the Constitution. Plus, I do not believe that our nation’s farmers, who are on the losing end of an unnecessary tariff war, should have to get paid off to fund an economic conflict with China. In Nebraska, where one in four of our jobs are in the $4-7 billion agricultural sector, producers of soybeans and other commodities are being used like pawns. Looking toward the future, we must invest in regenerative farming practices and ensure that all Nebraskans have access to high quality, nutritious food.^[1]