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)
May 16, 2026 7:38 PM

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
The truth about Cuba’s health care system
When Fidel Castro died last week many on the political left embarrassed themselves by praising the despot. A prime example is Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who was excoriated for saying that Castro was a “legendary revolutionary and orator” who made “significant improvements” to the healthcare system of his country. There are few modern myths the have been debunked as frequently yet have been accepted as incredulously as the idea that Cuba has a superior (or even adequate) health care...
Defending fundamental rights
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are fundamental rights “asserted in the face of oppression and paid for in blood,” argues Declan Ganley. They “have been the cornerstone not only of American democracy but of western civilization.” In a new article for Prospect Magazine, the chairman & CEO of Rivada Networks says that the West “needs to defend [these] shared values.” He argues that these fundamental rights are now under attack: We live in an age where universal values...
Global elites put Christianity in the crosshairs
Global governance ideology is the intellectual stepchild of Marxist materialist thought, says Robert F. Gorman in this week’s Acton Commentary. The term global governance refers to the political dimension of globalization. Here the question is to what degree governance will be centralized and controlled by international institutions in ways that threaten to diminish national and local governmental capacity. Global governance advocates tend to prefer both transnational regulation of markets and the creation of new human rights norms marked by increased...
Are Christians stuck with 3 approaches to cultural engagement?
How are we to be in the world but not of it? How are Christians to live and engage, create and exchange, cultivate and steward our gifts and relationships and resources here on earth? Beyond getting a “free ticket to heaven,” what is our salvation actually for? These questions are at the center of Acton’s film series, For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles, whichbeginswith a critique of mon approaches to Christian cultural engagement: fortification (“hide! hunker...
Financial deregulation expands opportunity
The Dodd-Frank Act became law in 2010, adding more regulation to a banking industry that was already heavily regulated. The main purpose of this 2,300 page act was to give consumers protection against big profit seeking banks but the unintended consequences prove to be much greater. The regulation was supposed to help the little guy but as Acton Director of Research Samuel Gregg writes at The Stream, it actually hurts the little guy. President-elect Donald Trump claims that he wants...
Lessons from Poverty, Inc.
“An underlying theme in basic economics says, ‘offering a product for free can destroy the local economy’” writes Luis Miranda. Miranda recently watched Poverty, Inc and since seeing the award winning Acton Institute documentary he has shared some of its lessons in an article at The Indian Economist. He begins by explaining how often times aid can harm its recipient more than help them. A farmer in Rwanda goes out of business because he pete against an American church sending...
Kyriarchy and Kuyper
Courtesy Adrian Vermeule at Mirror of Justice, I ran across a word new to me: Kyriarchy. Given the context and my admittedly limited Greek-language skills, I was able to work out the gist of the idea. As Vermeule puts it, “On November 20, the Feast of Christ the King, a coronation ceremony took place at the Church of Divine Mercy in Krakow. The President of Poland and the Catholic Bishops officially crowned Jesus Christ the King of Poland.” Vermeule goes...
Who pays the tax?
Note: This is the eleventhpost in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. Who bears the burden of a tax, the buyer or the seller? Or what about the health insurance mandate in Obamacare—does the employer or the worker pay the tax? In this video, Marginal Revolution University examines these questions and explains why the more elastic side of the market tends to pay a smaller share of a tax. (If you find the pace of the videos too slow,...
Vouchers: the progressive policy loved by the right and hated by the left
Growing up, I attended a private, Christian school until 4th grade, when my mother couldn’t afford it any more and my brothers and I switched to a blue collar, suburban public school. Academically, I experienced a clear difference. The worst contrast was in math, where I learned basically nothing for three years. The only subject that was probably better at the public school was science, but I’m not even certain about that. Class sizes were larger too. None of this...
An 89-year-old’s plea for a job shows the dignity of work
Joe Bartley An 89-year-old Englishman has taken out an ad seeking a part-time job, so that he can experience the dignity and independence of work – and get off of public assistance. Joe Bartley, a World War II veteran, caught the UK’s attention after he placed the following advertisement in his hometown newspaper, the Herald Express: Senior citizen 89 seeks employment in Paignton area. 20hrs+ per week. Still able to clean, light gardening, DIY and anything. I have references. Old...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved