Jill Stein on issues

<p><em>PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA.ORG</em></p>

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Stein is currently on the ballet in 23 states, not including Indiana. However, voters will be able to write her in.

You can read more about Stein’s campaign on her website.

The Democratic and Republican parties are announcing their respective official presidential candidates this month, but they aren’t the only parties, and some are hoping to make a change in America's election system.

Along with Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, the Green Party is hopeful it can move in on Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton by disrupting the two-party system. 

The Green Party will hold its convention in Houston from August 4 to 7, and Jill Stein is its presumptive nominee.

Steina previous presidential candidate, physician, activist, Harvard graduate and musician, hopes to garner support from people who are tired of the two-party system.

The Green Party's four pillars include peace, ecology, social justice and democracy, with focus on cutting the military’s budget, addressing climate change by using renewable energy, demanding a living wage and stronger safety net and reform in the election process.

Stein is currently polling at 2 percent in a four-way poll between Clinton, Trump and Johnson, according to an Associated Press-GFK poll. In order to debate with the major party candidates, she will need at least 15 percent in five mainstream polls.

A Green New Deal, wages and taxes

Stein proposes “A Green New Deal” that would put the U.S. on track to use 100 percent clean and renewable energy by 2030. She's said she believes this would create millions of living-wage jobs for any American that needs work. The program would invest in public transit, sustainable agriculture and infrastructure.

The candidate compares the “Green New Deal” to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and hopes the program will launch a WWII-like mobilization of the workforce.

Stein also supports a $15 an hour minimum wage and a guaranteed minimum income. The candidate plans to simplify the tax code and cut taxes for the poor and middle class and raise taxes for rich Americans.

Health care

The physician wants there to be a list of economic human rights that include access to food, water, housing and utilities, along with “Medicare For All,” which is a single-payer health insurance program.

The program would put emphasis on preventative care like physical activity and eating healthy diets. Label requirements on food products, like the contents of the food and where it was produced, would also be expanded.

Stein believes expanding access to contraceptives and sex education would cut down the number of abortions in the country, but she still thinks it’s the woman’s right to have an abortion.

Having more community health centers in low-income communities is also a goal of the Green Party candidate.

Military and foreign policy

Stein wants to cut military spending by at least 50 percent and close more than 700 military bases around the world to save money. She would also cease financial and military support to countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel. The candidate cites human rights abuse as the reason to remove support from these countries.

Countries that support terrorism would have freezes on their bank accounts. Stein includes the Saudi royal family under this policy.

If the candidate obtains the presidency, she would try to end the supply of arms coming out of the country as well as enacting a policy to further reduce America’s nuclear arsenal.

She plans to withdraw the military in Iraq and Afghanistan and end U.S. military involvement in those countries.

Criminal justice

The presidential candidate supports programs that address police brutality, the justice system and mass incarceration.

Stein wants to end the war on drugs and replace it with programs that treat addiction as a health problem. She also believes marijuana should be legal.

Education

When it comes to education, she wants schooling from pre-school to college to be tuition-free and believes in a bailout program for students with college debt. 

On her Twitter page, Stein tweeted, “If we can bail out the crooks on Wall Street we can certainly afford to bail out our students. It's time to abolish student debt."

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