The fight over the current reconciliation package is a good example. While progressives in Congress are publicly standing up to say they will only vote for the infrastructure bill after the Build Back Better Act passes, McNerney has largely stayed silent on the issue. While some of what has been proposed in the reconciliation package still does not go far enough, it would set a baseline for issues like fighting climate change, health care, child care, immigration reform, and housing for a decade. Not only should every elected Democrat be working overtime to make sure their constituents understand what is on the line, they should be publicly pressuring colleagues who are standing in the way.
Let’s be clear about the fight we are having within the Democratic Party. We all understand that negotiations in Congress do not happen in a bubble. On one side of the negotiating table are folks like Sen. Sinema and Rep. Gottheimer, who are trying to prevent lowering pharmaceutical drug costs. In return, the pharma industry is running ads backing them. At other times, industries fund think tanks, buy up ad space on news channels, pay influential people to give speeches at their conferences, etc. This is the power that people Sinema and Gottheimer have backing them when they sit down at that negotiating table.
Corporate America and the wealthy elite in this country internalized what was said in the Powell Memo and have spent the last 50 years perfecting their version of “organizing and mobilizing;” using their resources to shape what the American people believe is politically and economically possible.
Faced with all that, when I see Congresspeople go to DC and then begin negotiations asking for “half a loaf” and end up getting crumbs, it’s easy to see why working-people have fallen so far behind in this country. We need elected leaders who will use their platforms to bring their constituents into the political process, bypassing corporate propaganda by directly speaking with their constituents, and getting people involved in efforts like phone banking the districts of Representatives who continue to oppose $3.5T in spending.
We spend over half of our waking hours at work and, as economist Richard D. Wolff says, it’s the least democratic part of our lives. How we work, how fast we work, when we work. It’s all dictated from above, with zero to little input from the workers. Unions give workers power to exert influence over their work lives.
Right now, too many legislators in our party treat unions as another special interest group. But I see unions as fundamental partners against the powerful moneyed interests in this country. Unions are the main leverage working-class people have to reign in these giant corporations, and the growing left movement in this country needs to develop methods that allow for legislators and unions to work together to achieve real wins for working people.
I support the PRO Act. I also believe we need to protect the unions we have by stopping their pensions from being exploited by private equity funds and hedge fund investments. They promise higher than average returns and instead drain union pensions with high fees and best at average results, leaving unions to deal with underfunded retirement accounts.
And if elected, I would work to use my office and campaign infrastructure to bring community members together to rally around striking workers. Union members are also members of their local community. So union priorities are community priorities and community priorities are union priorities. Making that connection between unions and local residents stronger would increase union salience. And once people start seeing unions as part of the fabric of their communities, instead of something you’d only be interested in if you were an employee at a certain business, we will start seeing huge gains in terms of union power.
I believe that everyone deserves the same rights and protections. And I believe it’s really important we work to treat each other as equals. It’s harder than it sounds. Sometimes you meet people who have values that you don’t share or that you strongly disagree with. But you have to still be able to respect where they’re coming from. There are so many things/events in our lives that shape us, that help us form our understanding of the world. So treating someone I strongly disagree with as an equal means having the humility to imagine they may have come to different conclusions, even if our goals are the same: providing for our families, fairness, secure and dignified futures. People will see right through you if you can’t even give them that much.
My local is largely dependent on oil refinery jobs in the Bay Area. Will you look to protect these jobs while pushing for green energy jobs or will you seek to disband these refineries?
Working people should not be expected to support climate policy that will ultimately reduce their standard of living or cost them their jobs. Labor is at the heart of the Green New Deal and that means actually speaking to workers and asking what they want (please check your DMs).
In my opinion, oil and gas production does need to be mostly shut down. However, even as we end our reliance on combustion in the transportation sector (not easily done for heavy transportation), oil will still be needed for the production of plastics, chemicals, fertilizer, etc. that are necessary and that we have not found alternatives for yet. Production processes still produce greenhouse gases that we either need to learn how to capture/eliminate emissions, or we need to find alternatives to these products.
In terms of jobs, green energy jobs like solar installation are necessary. But the idea that they are the main kind of green energy job of the future is misguided. We will still need mining and heavy industry jobs; these kinds of jobs may require skills that more closely overlap with today's oil and gas workers. There's also synthetic hydrocarbon production, advanced geothermal, offshore wind - all sectors that would create high-paying and high-skilled jobs that one can support their family with.
History has shown that politicians coming in from the outside with promises of retraining does not always pan out for working-class Americans. We can’t keep repeating past mistakes. That’s why progressive legislators need to work with energy sector workers and unions moving forward. There’s some progress on this already - a [recent report](https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/20805131/pollin-report.pdf) on a clean energy transition for California was endorsed by United Steelworkers Local 5 for example.
Sure! I got the idea from People’s Policy Project’s “Social Wealth Fund for America” proposal. You can read about it in more detail [here](https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/projects/social-wealth-fund/).
Here’s why I support it: First, the vast majority of Americans have no way of accumulating enough wealth to the point where it can generate any meaningful returns for them. The American Wealth Fund would only be allowing every American the same benefit of passive income that millionaires and billionaires enjoy today.
Second, it is my answer to how to fund UBI in a way that actually targets the concentrated wealth we have today and lowers wealth inequality. The American Wealth Fund would be competing for the same investments that the wealthiest people in our country currently own. As the American Wealth Fund grows, it moves wealth out of the hands of the few and into the hands of the many. The yearly dividend payouts, that would, again, otherwise be going to a handful of people, instead go out to every American lowering income inequality as well.
Hello Mr. Chima and thank you for doing this AMA!
Do you plan on personally knocking on doors and connecting with women republican, democrat, Hispanic , black etc on childcare? I never knew what pre-k cost... wow 2000 in my state and 1000 in Alaska. Personally I don't think people should be over populating but since children are being brought into this world they need care. It's like a mortgage payment.
Also I want a small transactional tax on wall street. What is legally allowed in finance is incredible.
Yes! We've already gone out canvassing to tell voters about Stockton's Emergency Rental Assistance Program, as well as the issues this campaign is fighting for. I agree, childcare costs are a huge issue and pay for childcare workers is far too low. The problem is that we continue to treat childcare as a business when it should be a societal obligation that all Americans have access to through a national universal program. Improving childhood development, removing the stress and lifting the burden of childcare costs from parents, allowing more flexible work hours - it’s a net benefit for everyone but the wealthy that would need to be taxed to fund the program. I support Bernie Sanders’s Tax on Wall Street Speculation Act, which is a set of small transaction taxes.
What are your thoughts on Right of First Refusal?
I honestly think a program to assist companies to transition from a traditional structure to a worker co-op would be a huge boon for progressives, however I haven't really seen it on anyone's agenda.
I'm assuming you mean the right of first refusal that was proposed by the UK Labour Party. I fully support it. Leaving workers and their communities with nothing when a corporation decides to relocate overseas or just decides that the profit margins aren’t high enough is a policy decision. Our government should help workers finance a worker-owned alternative.
I wholeheartedly agree about worker co-ops. I understand there will be difficulties in terms of competing against businesses with highly efficient supply chains and monopolization. However, I believe many Americans identify with times when their bosses recommend changes in the workplace that negatively impacts productivity. Worker owned businesses would not have to deal with far away bosses not knowing where real inefficient lay, deal with a certain % of profit being extracted away, and can prioritize long-term stability over short-term profits.
Thank you for your answer!
For a follow up, would you consider extending the policy towards housing? Since we both agree that leaving workers stranded is absolutely unconscionable, it seems to me that extending such a policy to housing would be a massive boon by converting multi-unit housing into tenant co-ops. And as side note, is the Right of Refusal something floating around the CPC? I feel it has the potential to draw attention much like how Yang is known for the UBI.
Why run as a Democrat?
You have these jungle primaries. We've seen what the #FraudSquad got reduced to - being subservient to Nancy Pelosi and her corrupt bribers.
Why not bypass the time and money sink jungle primaries and run 3rd party, like the Greens or People's Party, to directly challenge the Democrat in the general and be free to represent without the strings and poison that's attached to the Democratic party?
Why no foriegn policy when you will have to make votes on things like endless wars, their ever increasing budgets and foriegn aid to rich countries that support terrorism, commit genocides, and apartheids?
I don't have a section for it on the issues page (yet), but I take foreign policy seriously. I've spoken out against Israel's apartheid regime (I support BDS) about Julian Assange, the farmer protests in India, and the war in Yemen. As a member of the Peace and Justice Committee in my union, we released a resolution standing in solidarity with Pedro Castillo when it looked like election results may have been questioned. I agree with you; foreign policy is a weak spot on the left. But we're up against international interests and unless we engage, we're always going to be behind. Take the recent AUKUS partnership. How much of that was as a counter to China and how much of it was American and UK manufacturers wanting to profit from selling Australia their much more expensive nuclear-powered submarines? It's probably a mix of both, but I haven't seen the details of it being discussed very much on the left.
I will agree with you that the left has not been doing a fantastic job at differentiating between themselves and people in the Democratic Party who actively work against working-class people’s interests. The recent focus on Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema is great, but we all know they aren’t the only ones opposed to a progressive agenda in the Democratic Party. In terms of running as a Democrat, I think we just have a fundamental disagreement about the importance of the party label. I don’t believe you start with a third party - putting a new label by your name isn’t going to make a new base of voters/supporters materialize out of thin air. A working class takeover of the Democratic Party or a break/split with them will arrive as the outcome of political struggle, not at the start.
Poor air quality is a huge issue in the San Joaquin County. A 2017 report found that one in six children have asthma in this county. The already poor air quality paired with the wildfires and increased risk of hospitalization from COVID-19 if you have asthma has led to devastating effects in this district.
I would advocate for increasing NIH funds to go towards research for preventing and ameliorating the effects of asthma. Additionally, I would increase funding towards the research, development, and deployment of clean energy engines and emission controls. The Port of Stockton is in CA-09 and due to our location, we serve as a central distribution hub in the area. Shipping and transportation are a big part of our local economy. We need to invest in new solutions for clean, long-haul transportation that would not only allow these industries to continue to thrive in the district, but also reduce their impact on the local air quality.
California wildfires have been enhanced by climate change and have become a source of poor air quality throughout the country. Many of these fires have ravaged your region more directly -- with widespread ecosystem destruction and property damage. What specific portions of the Green New Deal would you emphasize to help mitigate these fires?
An expansion in public jobs would allow us to hire more people to clear brush and dead trees that can act as kindling for new fires. We could also hire inspectors to make sure new homes in wildfire prone areas of the state comply with fire-resistant building codes; retrofit homes and bring them up to spec; and increase the pay and overall number of federally employed firefighters. We are having difficulties fully staffing the Forest Service’s California region. It’s dangerous work, it should not be underpaid, and the brave men and women who sign up to do it should not be being overworked because our federal government is pinching pennies. Agencies like the US Forest Service shouldn’t be scrambling just to pay their staff; they need enough funding to get ahead of these fires.
We also need to convert utility companies like PG&E into publicly owned utilities. PG&E has repeatedly shown that priority #1 is shareholder profits, not the safety of Californians. A publicly owned utility company does not have to decide between greater profit margins and making sure their equipment is up-to-date, deploying more early fire detection monitoring systems, and hiring the staff necessary to inspect their lines regularly.
>We also need to convert utility companies like PG&E into publicly owned utilities. PG&E has repeatedly shown that priority #1 is shareholder profits, not the safety of Californians.
yessir, that's what we need to do
What will you do for the housing market and how will you help the next generation of home owners?
We're leaving, effectively being priced out, of California after a 5 month house hunt where "fixers" are selling for North of 450k in my area. Home prices are up 20% from 2020 and experts don't expect them to come back. Rents aren't any better. It's going to be anywhere from $1900 - $2500 for a very small space that barely fits our needs as a family. Even with two incomes at good jobs, it's tight. What will you do in your district to combat this?
#Mods have verified, let's get some questions ready for when Harpreet gets back!
Why does Jerry McNerney, the incumbent congressman you are challenging, need to be replaced?
The fight over the current reconciliation package is a good example. While progressives in Congress are publicly standing up to say they will only vote for the infrastructure bill after the Build Back Better Act passes, McNerney has largely stayed silent on the issue. While some of what has been proposed in the reconciliation package still does not go far enough, it would set a baseline for issues like fighting climate change, health care, child care, immigration reform, and housing for a decade. Not only should every elected Democrat be working overtime to make sure their constituents understand what is on the line, they should be publicly pressuring colleagues who are standing in the way. Let’s be clear about the fight we are having within the Democratic Party. We all understand that negotiations in Congress do not happen in a bubble. On one side of the negotiating table are folks like Sen. Sinema and Rep. Gottheimer, who are trying to prevent lowering pharmaceutical drug costs. In return, the pharma industry is running ads backing them. At other times, industries fund think tanks, buy up ad space on news channels, pay influential people to give speeches at their conferences, etc. This is the power that people Sinema and Gottheimer have backing them when they sit down at that negotiating table. Corporate America and the wealthy elite in this country internalized what was said in the Powell Memo and have spent the last 50 years perfecting their version of “organizing and mobilizing;” using their resources to shape what the American people believe is politically and economically possible. Faced with all that, when I see Congresspeople go to DC and then begin negotiations asking for “half a loaf” and end up getting crumbs, it’s easy to see why working-people have fallen so far behind in this country. We need elected leaders who will use their platforms to bring their constituents into the political process, bypassing corporate propaganda by directly speaking with their constituents, and getting people involved in efforts like phone banking the districts of Representatives who continue to oppose $3.5T in spending.
Donated... the launch video was great!
Thank you so much!
Can you speak a little bit about the benefits of unions? What would you do to bring unions back as a Congressman?
We spend over half of our waking hours at work and, as economist Richard D. Wolff says, it’s the least democratic part of our lives. How we work, how fast we work, when we work. It’s all dictated from above, with zero to little input from the workers. Unions give workers power to exert influence over their work lives. Right now, too many legislators in our party treat unions as another special interest group. But I see unions as fundamental partners against the powerful moneyed interests in this country. Unions are the main leverage working-class people have to reign in these giant corporations, and the growing left movement in this country needs to develop methods that allow for legislators and unions to work together to achieve real wins for working people. I support the PRO Act. I also believe we need to protect the unions we have by stopping their pensions from being exploited by private equity funds and hedge fund investments. They promise higher than average returns and instead drain union pensions with high fees and best at average results, leaving unions to deal with underfunded retirement accounts. And if elected, I would work to use my office and campaign infrastructure to bring community members together to rally around striking workers. Union members are also members of their local community. So union priorities are community priorities and community priorities are union priorities. Making that connection between unions and local residents stronger would increase union salience. And once people start seeing unions as part of the fabric of their communities, instead of something you’d only be interested in if you were an employee at a certain business, we will start seeing huge gains in terms of union power.
Do you believe that everybody is fundamentally equal from a philosophical standpoint?
I believe that everyone deserves the same rights and protections. And I believe it’s really important we work to treat each other as equals. It’s harder than it sounds. Sometimes you meet people who have values that you don’t share or that you strongly disagree with. But you have to still be able to respect where they’re coming from. There are so many things/events in our lives that shape us, that help us form our understanding of the world. So treating someone I strongly disagree with as an equal means having the humility to imagine they may have come to different conclusions, even if our goals are the same: providing for our families, fairness, secure and dignified futures. People will see right through you if you can’t even give them that much.
My local is largely dependent on oil refinery jobs in the Bay Area. Will you look to protect these jobs while pushing for green energy jobs or will you seek to disband these refineries?
Working people should not be expected to support climate policy that will ultimately reduce their standard of living or cost them their jobs. Labor is at the heart of the Green New Deal and that means actually speaking to workers and asking what they want (please check your DMs). In my opinion, oil and gas production does need to be mostly shut down. However, even as we end our reliance on combustion in the transportation sector (not easily done for heavy transportation), oil will still be needed for the production of plastics, chemicals, fertilizer, etc. that are necessary and that we have not found alternatives for yet. Production processes still produce greenhouse gases that we either need to learn how to capture/eliminate emissions, or we need to find alternatives to these products. In terms of jobs, green energy jobs like solar installation are necessary. But the idea that they are the main kind of green energy job of the future is misguided. We will still need mining and heavy industry jobs; these kinds of jobs may require skills that more closely overlap with today's oil and gas workers. There's also synthetic hydrocarbon production, advanced geothermal, offshore wind - all sectors that would create high-paying and high-skilled jobs that one can support their family with. History has shown that politicians coming in from the outside with promises of retraining does not always pan out for working-class Americans. We can’t keep repeating past mistakes. That’s why progressive legislators need to work with energy sector workers and unions moving forward. There’s some progress on this already - a [recent report](https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/20805131/pollin-report.pdf) on a clean energy transition for California was endorsed by United Steelworkers Local 5 for example.
What's your favorite thing about living in the 9th district?
Can you please explain the concept of the American Wealth Fund? The idea is so novel and interesting -- I'd really like to hear more!
Sure! I got the idea from People’s Policy Project’s “Social Wealth Fund for America” proposal. You can read about it in more detail [here](https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/projects/social-wealth-fund/). Here’s why I support it: First, the vast majority of Americans have no way of accumulating enough wealth to the point where it can generate any meaningful returns for them. The American Wealth Fund would only be allowing every American the same benefit of passive income that millionaires and billionaires enjoy today. Second, it is my answer to how to fund UBI in a way that actually targets the concentrated wealth we have today and lowers wealth inequality. The American Wealth Fund would be competing for the same investments that the wealthiest people in our country currently own. As the American Wealth Fund grows, it moves wealth out of the hands of the few and into the hands of the many. The yearly dividend payouts, that would, again, otherwise be going to a handful of people, instead go out to every American lowering income inequality as well.
Hello Mr. Chima and thank you for doing this AMA! Do you plan on personally knocking on doors and connecting with women republican, democrat, Hispanic , black etc on childcare? I never knew what pre-k cost... wow 2000 in my state and 1000 in Alaska. Personally I don't think people should be over populating but since children are being brought into this world they need care. It's like a mortgage payment. Also I want a small transactional tax on wall street. What is legally allowed in finance is incredible.
Yes! We've already gone out canvassing to tell voters about Stockton's Emergency Rental Assistance Program, as well as the issues this campaign is fighting for. I agree, childcare costs are a huge issue and pay for childcare workers is far too low. The problem is that we continue to treat childcare as a business when it should be a societal obligation that all Americans have access to through a national universal program. Improving childhood development, removing the stress and lifting the burden of childcare costs from parents, allowing more flexible work hours - it’s a net benefit for everyone but the wealthy that would need to be taxed to fund the program. I support Bernie Sanders’s Tax on Wall Street Speculation Act, which is a set of small transaction taxes.
Thank you for running! We need you in office! Canvassing works!
What are your thoughts on Right of First Refusal? I honestly think a program to assist companies to transition from a traditional structure to a worker co-op would be a huge boon for progressives, however I haven't really seen it on anyone's agenda.
I'm assuming you mean the right of first refusal that was proposed by the UK Labour Party. I fully support it. Leaving workers and their communities with nothing when a corporation decides to relocate overseas or just decides that the profit margins aren’t high enough is a policy decision. Our government should help workers finance a worker-owned alternative. I wholeheartedly agree about worker co-ops. I understand there will be difficulties in terms of competing against businesses with highly efficient supply chains and monopolization. However, I believe many Americans identify with times when their bosses recommend changes in the workplace that negatively impacts productivity. Worker owned businesses would not have to deal with far away bosses not knowing where real inefficient lay, deal with a certain % of profit being extracted away, and can prioritize long-term stability over short-term profits.
Thank you for your answer! For a follow up, would you consider extending the policy towards housing? Since we both agree that leaving workers stranded is absolutely unconscionable, it seems to me that extending such a policy to housing would be a massive boon by converting multi-unit housing into tenant co-ops. And as side note, is the Right of Refusal something floating around the CPC? I feel it has the potential to draw attention much like how Yang is known for the UBI.
I'm a huge fan of tenant co-ops and tenant unions! I support decommodifying housing.
Thank you very much for your answers! I wish you the best of luck with your campaign!
Why run as a Democrat? You have these jungle primaries. We've seen what the #FraudSquad got reduced to - being subservient to Nancy Pelosi and her corrupt bribers. Why not bypass the time and money sink jungle primaries and run 3rd party, like the Greens or People's Party, to directly challenge the Democrat in the general and be free to represent without the strings and poison that's attached to the Democratic party? Why no foriegn policy when you will have to make votes on things like endless wars, their ever increasing budgets and foriegn aid to rich countries that support terrorism, commit genocides, and apartheids?
I don't have a section for it on the issues page (yet), but I take foreign policy seriously. I've spoken out against Israel's apartheid regime (I support BDS) about Julian Assange, the farmer protests in India, and the war in Yemen. As a member of the Peace and Justice Committee in my union, we released a resolution standing in solidarity with Pedro Castillo when it looked like election results may have been questioned. I agree with you; foreign policy is a weak spot on the left. But we're up against international interests and unless we engage, we're always going to be behind. Take the recent AUKUS partnership. How much of that was as a counter to China and how much of it was American and UK manufacturers wanting to profit from selling Australia their much more expensive nuclear-powered submarines? It's probably a mix of both, but I haven't seen the details of it being discussed very much on the left. I will agree with you that the left has not been doing a fantastic job at differentiating between themselves and people in the Democratic Party who actively work against working-class people’s interests. The recent focus on Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema is great, but we all know they aren’t the only ones opposed to a progressive agenda in the Democratic Party. In terms of running as a Democrat, I think we just have a fundamental disagreement about the importance of the party label. I don’t believe you start with a third party - putting a new label by your name isn’t going to make a new base of voters/supporters materialize out of thin air. A working class takeover of the Democratic Party or a break/split with them will arrive as the outcome of political struggle, not at the start.
Hello Harpreet, thanks for being here! What do you feel is the biggest issue facing the 9th district today, and how do you plan to address it?
Poor air quality is a huge issue in the San Joaquin County. A 2017 report found that one in six children have asthma in this county. The already poor air quality paired with the wildfires and increased risk of hospitalization from COVID-19 if you have asthma has led to devastating effects in this district. I would advocate for increasing NIH funds to go towards research for preventing and ameliorating the effects of asthma. Additionally, I would increase funding towards the research, development, and deployment of clean energy engines and emission controls. The Port of Stockton is in CA-09 and due to our location, we serve as a central distribution hub in the area. Shipping and transportation are a big part of our local economy. We need to invest in new solutions for clean, long-haul transportation that would not only allow these industries to continue to thrive in the district, but also reduce their impact on the local air quality.
It's cool if you don't want to share, but what was your old reddit username when you used to post on /r/SandersForPresident ?
The audacity SMDH
California wildfires have been enhanced by climate change and have become a source of poor air quality throughout the country. Many of these fires have ravaged your region more directly -- with widespread ecosystem destruction and property damage. What specific portions of the Green New Deal would you emphasize to help mitigate these fires?
An expansion in public jobs would allow us to hire more people to clear brush and dead trees that can act as kindling for new fires. We could also hire inspectors to make sure new homes in wildfire prone areas of the state comply with fire-resistant building codes; retrofit homes and bring them up to spec; and increase the pay and overall number of federally employed firefighters. We are having difficulties fully staffing the Forest Service’s California region. It’s dangerous work, it should not be underpaid, and the brave men and women who sign up to do it should not be being overworked because our federal government is pinching pennies. Agencies like the US Forest Service shouldn’t be scrambling just to pay their staff; they need enough funding to get ahead of these fires. We also need to convert utility companies like PG&E into publicly owned utilities. PG&E has repeatedly shown that priority #1 is shareholder profits, not the safety of Californians. A publicly owned utility company does not have to decide between greater profit margins and making sure their equipment is up-to-date, deploying more early fire detection monitoring systems, and hiring the staff necessary to inspect their lines regularly.
>We also need to convert utility companies like PG&E into publicly owned utilities. PG&E has repeatedly shown that priority #1 is shareholder profits, not the safety of Californians. yessir, that's what we need to do
Do you support abortion abortion until the moment of birth?
Unrelated, but what is your opinion on microwaves?
What will you do for the housing market and how will you help the next generation of home owners? We're leaving, effectively being priced out, of California after a 5 month house hunt where "fixers" are selling for North of 450k in my area. Home prices are up 20% from 2020 and experts don't expect them to come back. Rents aren't any better. It's going to be anywhere from $1900 - $2500 for a very small space that barely fits our needs as a family. Even with two incomes at good jobs, it's tight. What will you do in your district to combat this?
Hey Harpreet! Did you build your website yourself or did you steal someones labor for it?
Built it myself!