Let’s Get to Work: My Economic Policy Plan to Save the Middle Class

As a young man, I worked in construction on the South Side of Chicago. During that time, one thing became clear: The union guys always had higher pay, safer conditions, and a real pension.

That’s what built the middle class. But, today, American union participation is nearing all-time lows. Arizona families continue to be hammered by the affordability crisis. And, on top of that, Americans are worried—rightfully so—about the threat of AI and what it means for their job security.

That’s why I’m fighting for our middle class to be able to buy a home, raise a family, take vacations, and retire with dignity—without having to worry about how to make it all happen.

My five-pillar plan, “Saving the Middle Class and Restoring the American Dream,” address these issues and lays out the plan to restore our once strong middle class. The plan includes a tax on data centers and AI, a New-Deal style public service jobs program, and raising the minimum wage to $20-per-hour to build an economy by-and-for the middle class—not the elites.

Here’s How We Get There:

My wide-ranging plan is based off five pillars, aimed at tackling the affordability crisis and putting the American Dream back within reach:

1. Raise wages and improve benefits: Increase union membership and let unions negotiate with entire industries at once while raising the minimum wage to $20-per-hour. Require companies to pay double for overtime work, not time-and-a-half. And create a new Office of Worker Empowerment and Office of Worker Advocacy while cracking down on corporations falsely claiming their employees are “independent contractors” to avoid paying minimum wage or providing quality benefits.

2. Create and protect quality blue-collar jobs: Grow job opportunity by creating a trade policy for the working class and an office in the Executive Office of the President dedicated to bringing back industries previously shipped overseas. And crack down on giant corporations trying to get even bigger through mergers.
   

3. Protect workers in the AI economy: Create a New–Deal-style public service jobs program, require industry and workers to negotiate over AI, and create a corporate “robot” tax to discourage corporations from taking away jobs from workers and replacing them with robots and machines.
   

4. Grow entrepreneurship outside “superstar cities”: Good ideas don’t just happen in California and New York. Put an extra tax on data centers and remove data center tax breaks to fund small community development. Focus on protecting small businesses from giant corporations by improving and enforcing anti-monopoly laws.
   

5. Make it easier to find a job: Crack down on companies posting fake “ghost” job advertisements that waste applicants’ time. Give workers a 120-day notice in the event of a mass layoff or closure so they have more time to find a new job. Currently, the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act only requires companies to give employees 60-day notice.

Families who used to live comfortably are now struggling just to get by. Enough is enough.

It’s time to stop allowing corporations and elites to write the rules. It’s time to give our middle-class the power to fight for higher pay, better benefits, and a more fulfilling life.

Let’s roll up our sleeves and make sure the opportunity to live the American dream is available to all.

Read my full middle class economic plan HERE.