Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Explainer: What you should know about the Democratic Party platform (Part II)
Explainer: What you should know about the Democratic Party platform (Part II)
Aug 26, 2026 1:37 AM

Note: This second article in a two-part series on the Democratic Party Platform. Part I can be foundhere.

In the previous articlewe looked atsummary outline of the Democratic platform as it relates to several non-economic issues covered by the Acton Institute. Today, we’ll look at the party’s economic agenda as laid out in the platform. Because the document is lengthy (55 pages) and covers an extensive variety of economic-related areas (agriculture, energy) this list won’t be exhaustive. But it does cover the primary economic positions that are being supported or opposed bythe Democratic Party.

(Last week, after the Republican National Convention, we examined their platform’s stance on the same and related issues.)

Federal Budget and Debt

Supports ensuring that “new spending and tax cuts are offset so that they do not add to the nation’s debt over time.”

The Federal Reserve

Supports reforming the Federal Reserve to “make it more representative of America as a whole, and we will fight to enhance its independence by ensuring that executives of financial institutions are not allowed to serve on the boards of regional Federal Reserve banks or to select members of those boards.”

Financial Markets

Supports prohibitions that would prevent “Wall Street from picking and choosing which credit agency will rate its products as well as from imposing excessive fees on consumers.”

Support stronger criminal laws and civil penalties for Wall Street criminals who prey on the public trust.

Support extending the statute of limitations for prosecuting major financial fraud, and providing the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission more resources to prosecute wrongdoing.

Supports the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

Opposes payday lending and supports “implementing strong new regulations” to limit it.

Supports a financial transactions tax on Wall Street.

Supports an “updated and modernized version of Glass-Steagall.”

Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Opposes “contracting, outsourcing, or privatizing work that is inherently governmental in nature.”

Labor and Wages

Supports raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and indexing it to inflation.

Supports the rights of all workers to form and join a union.

Supports ending the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers and people with disabilities.

Supports leveraging “federal dollars to support employers who provide their workers with a living wage, good benefits, and the opportunity to form a union without reprisal.”

Supports passing laws that direct the National Labor Relations Board to certify a union if a simple majority of eligible workers sign valid authorization cards, as well as laws that panies to the negotiating table.

Supports binding arbitration to help workers who have voted to join a union reach a first contract.

Opposes right to work laws.

Opposes laws that eliminate union “dues check-off procedures, roll-back prevailing wage standards, abolish fair share requirements, restrict the use of voluntary membership payments for political purposes, attack seniority, restrict due process protections, and require annual recertification efforts.”

Opposes legislation and lawsuits that “would strike down laws protecting the rights of teachers and other public employees.”

Supports President Obama’s overtime rule.

Supports efforts to limit the use of forced arbitration clauses in employment and service contracts.

Supports national paid family and medical leave that would provide all workers at least 12 weeks of paid leave to care for a new child or address a personal or family member’s serious health issue.

Supports workers “right to earn at least seven days of paid sick leave.”

Encourages employers to provide paid vacation.

Supports increased investments to “increase investments to make quality childcare more affordable, boost wages for childcare workers, and support the millions of people paying for, coordinating, or providing care for aging relatives or those with disabilities.”

Supports panies to share profits with their employees on top of wages and pay increases.

Supports direct federal funding for a “range of local programs that will put young people to work and create new career opportunities.”

Postal Service

Opposes efforts to privative the Post Office.

Private Property and Intellectual Property Rights

Supports protecting the intellectual property rights of “artists, creators, and inventors at home and abroad.”

Regulations

Supports a ban on “golden parachutes for those taking government jobs.”

Supports requiring bank and corporate regulators to recuse themselves from official work on particular matters that would directly benefit their former employers.

Supports requirement to bar financial service regulators from lobbying their former colleagues for at least two years.

Supports enhancing the antitrust enforcement arms of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and encouraging other agencies to police petitive practices in their areas of jurisdiction.”

Social Security

Opposes attempts to raise the retirement age, cut cost-of-living or adjustments, or reduce earned benefits.

Supports taxing some of the e of people above $250,000 to pay for Social Security increases.

Opposes quotas, discriminatory measures, and data localization requirements for intellectual property and other digital trade.

Supports increased funding of NASA.

Taxation

Supports tax relief and tax simplification for small businesses.

Opposes tax breaks panies that “ship jobs overseas.

Supports eliminating tax breaks for “big oil and panies.”

Supports a “crack down” on inversions and other panies use to “dodge their tax responsibilities.”

Supports ending deferrals so that American corporations pay United States taxes immediately on foreign profits.

Supports establishing a multimillionaire surtax.

Technology and Electricity

Supports public and private investments in science, technology, and research.

Trade Policy

Supports the Export-Import Bank.

Supports net neutrality.

Supports strengthening enforcement of “existing trade rules and the tools we have, including by holding countries accountable on currency manipulation and significantly expanding enforcement resources.”

Opposes “trade agreements that do not support good American jobs, raise wages, and improve our national security.”

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Video: Samuel Gregg on Pope Francis, Poverty, and the Economy
No one questions the sincerity of Pope Francis when es to his demonstrated concern for the poor and downtrodden of the world. Many, however, have questioned whether the solutions that he has suggested will actually alleviate the poverty that afflicts too many around the world, or whether those solutions will actually exacerbate the problems of the poor. Samuel Gregg, Acton’s Director of Research, addressed this topic in his March 30th Acton Lecture Series address in which he lays out some...
A ‘moral imperative’ or just another exercize in green politicking?
This past Friday, I blogged about the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent decision to allow a vaguely worded proxy resolution proceed to a vote. The resolution was submitted by, among others, members of the religious shareholder activist group the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. The ICCR resolution calls upon ExxonMobil Corporation to take action intended to mitigate climate change. ExxonMobil requested the SEC deny the ICCR resolution on the grounds it was based mainly on nonspecific greenhouse-gas reduction targets...
Love, Community, and The Walking Dead
The sixth season finale ofThe Walking Dead aired last night and sets up an anxious off-season of waiting and deliberation about what will happen next. I may have some more to say about the larger dynamics of the show as the survivors in this most recent season have really transitioned from concerns about mere survival to actually munity with longer-term plans. But for now I want to focus briefly on the path Carol has walked over the last few episodes...
Samuel Gregg: Catholicism and the Enlightenment
Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg reviews a new book at the Library of Law and Liberty that demolishes the canard that religious figure were “somehow opposed holus bolus to Enlightenment ideas is one that has been steadily discredited over the last 50 years.” In his review of The Catholic Enlightenment: The Forgotten History of a Global Movement by by Ulrich L. Lehner, Gregg points out that the new book shows how “the Enlightenment argument for freedom was embraced by many...
Payday lending is a debt trap. But regulatory ‘solutions’ may be even worse.
What’s the biggest problem with payday loans? The obvious answer would seem to be “high interest rates.” But interest rates are often tied to credit risk, and so charging high interest rates is not always wrong. Another answer may be that the loans appear to be targeted toward minorities. But research shows that the industry appeals to those with financial problems regardless of race or ethnicity. No, the problem with payday loans —what makes them a debt trap — is...
Why Edmund Burke Supported Free Trade
The Republican Party is fracturing on the topic of trade. Alas, in the same corners where free and open exchange was once embraced as a propeller for economic growth and dynamism, protectionism is starting to stick. In response, free traders are pushing the typical arguments about growth, innovation, and prosperity. Others, such as myself, are noting that the trend has less to do with economic illiteracy than it does with a protectionism of the heart — a self-seeking ethos that...
SEC Allows Activist Nuns’ Climate-Change Resolution
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission determined March 22 that ExxonMobil Corporation must for the first time ever allow a vote to proceed on a proxy shareholder resolution submitted by members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. ExxonMobil had attempted to block the resolution with the SEC on the grounds it was vaguely written, pany’s current business practices already aligned with the ICCR resolution and current U.S. regulations. Because any plans for climate-change mitigation in the near future inherently...
Explainer: What You Should Know About the Panama Papers Scandal
What are the Panama Papers? The Panama Papers refers to the 11 million leaked files from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonsecathat shows how some of the richest, most powerful people on the globe use tax havens to hide their wealth. According to the BBC, this is the biggest document leak in history — dwarfing the size of those released by the Wikileaks organization —and includes details on 214,000 entities, panies, trusts and foundations. The documents covered day-to-day business at...
The Disabled Deserve the Dignity of Work
Last week, Hillary Clinton became the first major presidential candidate to ever mend paying all disabled workers the minimum wage. While its seems like a reasonable proposal, I explained why the effect would be to put workers with severe disabilities, such as those with Down syndrome, out of work. Clinton isn’t the only one pushing such measures, though. As Anne Schieber of the Mackinac Center notes, government regulators at the Department of Labor are also considering mandating “integrated work settings,”...
Losing faith in reason
A lack of reason may lead to violence and an inability to respond to crises, but that didn’t stop the West from abandoning it. In a new article for the Catholic World Report, Acton’s Samuel Gregg reflects on Pope Benedict XVI and his 2006 address near Regensburg, Germany. “Ten years later,” Gregg laments, the West is “still in denial.” On September 12, 2006 Benedict made global news with his lecture–his words enraged, gained support, and were analyzed countless times. The...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved