WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Democrats are launching a new policy agenda on Monday aimed at fixing an economy and political system that they allege are 'rigged' against the American people.
Over the next several months, Democrats will lay out a series of policies, which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says if enacted, will increase people's pay, reduce their everyday expenses, and provide workers with the tools they need for the 21st-century economy.
In a New York Times op-ed published Monday titled 'A Better Deal for American Workers', Schumer lambasted the Republican economic and political policies while admitting that 'Democrats have too often hesitated from taking on those misguided policies directly and unflinchingly', and failed to tell American people what they stand for.
The Opposition proposed creating jobs with a $1 trillion infrastructure plan, increasing workers' incomes by lifting the minimum wage to $15, and lowering household costs by providing paid family and sick leave.
Schumer said the Democratic Party is going to fight for rules to stop raising the price of lifesaving drugs, demand that drug companies justify price increases to the public, and push for empowering Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for older Americans.
The Party will fight to allow regulators to break up big companies if they're hurting consumers and to make it harder for companies to merge if it reduces competition.
A large tax credit to employers, particularly small businesses, to train workers for unfilled jobs, has also been proposed.
Schumer promised to offer additional ideas, 'from rebuilding rural America to fundamentally changing our trade laws to benefit workers, not multinational corporations', in the coming months.
The New York Senator confessed that in the last two elections, Democrats failed to articulate a bold economic program for the middle class, the working people and the poor, and vowed not to repeat the same mistake. 'This is the start of a new vision for the party, one strongly supported by House and Senate Democrats'.
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