The Washington Post has published a handy guide to the 2020 Democratic candidates and their positions on a whole bunch of economic/social justice questions. It's a nice little tool you may want to bookmark in case you find yourself wondering where the candidates are on particular questions, like cancelling student loan debt. Bernie Sanders says cancel it all, while others (Michael Bennet, Cory Booker, Julián Castro, Elizabeth Warren, and Marianne Williamson) would cancel debt based on various income levels. The rest want to take other action on student loan debt; notably, not a single one of them says the existing system is fair or just. Oh, and Andrew Yang would issue debt forgiveness based on number of automated looms the borrower is able to smash with a wooden shoe.
Also, Joe Sestak is included, for shits and giggles. So is Steve Bullock, which is the most visibility he's had in months.
It's a pretty nice interactive tool, sorting candidates by their positions based either on responses they gave to the Post, or at least public statements they've made on the issues. You can get details on their statements by rolling your mouse over the candidate's faces, or even choose an old-fashioned text-based list of the answers. WaPo accommodates multiple learning styles!
There are a few small surprises; on family leave, most of the candidates support the 12 weeks of paid family leave under the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act, but four (Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Sanders, and Yang) want to go beyond that, with up to six months of paid leave. And John Delaney would be satisfied with eight weeks, because he's just like that! Tom Steyer's website says he supports "paid family leave" but didn't say how much.
It's also a pretty nice indication of the range of Dem opinions on economic inequality, too. Take the proposal for a wealth tax on very large fortunes: While that's supported by five candidates (Pete Buttigieg, Sanders, Tom Steyer, Warren, and Williamson), even candidates who reject a wealth tax want to see other steps to make the tax system fairer, like raising the capital gains or inheritance tax, reversing the GOP's 2017 Big Fat Tax Cuts for Rich Fuckwads, or other schemes. Even John Delaney wants to get rid of the Trump tax cuts ... Or DOES HE? Turns out, a surprising number of the Ds (six, if you can be surprised by "6") want something less than a complete reversion of the corporate tax rate, and they are pretty much the folks you'd expect:
Andrew Yang wants a value added tax (VAT) so we can be Europe, and we guess Tulsi Gabbard is still waiting for instructions from Moscow on the ideal corporate tax rate.
This is also definitely the resource to consult if you want to see which candidates would commit to "stabilizing or lowering the debt-to-GDP ratio" during their first terms, so you can be sure not to sit next to them at dinner.
A note at the end of the piece indicates it will be updated as candidates' positions evolve (or late respondents get answers to the Post). The Post says it'll update the tables with answers from Deval Patrick, assuming he doesn't literally spontaneously combust in the next week. For a similar table of Republican positions, simply take a paper napkin and write on it in Sharpie, "Fuck you, I got mine." Refer back to it as necessary.
Go poke around at the questions and answers, and keep a running tally of the many ways in which John Delaney, Joe Sestak, and Gabbard make you wonder what the hell they're even doing in the Democratic primary.
[WaPo]
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