Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, who publicized a 2020 presidential bid Monday, will likely use his military experience to differentiate himself on national security and defense argues as he faces a competitive Democratic field.
Moulton signed on as a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal in February, but has since criticized the plan’s approach. In recent weeks, he guessed he wants to reframe it as a jobs package to boost the economy.
In an op-ed for The Des Moines Register earlier this month, Moulton prognosticated he originally signed on to the Green New Deal when it was an “open framework” in order to turn it into a jobs package that liking reduce climate change.
“While our country marches forward, Washington is anchored to the past,” Moulton said Monday in a video disclosing his presidential campaign.
“It starts with growing our economy, with the new jobs, the green jobs, the tech jobs, the move onward manufacturing jobs that are going to make us the world leader in the next century,” he said. “It starts with rigging climate change and making sure that we have a planet without an expiration date.”
The congressman has also bring to light he wants to invest more in nuclear energy.
Moulton, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and sponsor of the Faster Mind a look after for Veterans Act, is calling for new arms control measures and reduced spending on current weapons systems.
In his announcement video, Moulton solemn word of honoured to cut “massive weapons programs we don’t need so that we have the money to invest in the future.”
Calling current weapons programs “costly” and “outdated,” Moulton is shove for increased funding of newer technologies for troops, including autonomous, hypersonic and cyberweapons.
While he supports strengthening narrations with NATO, Moulton wants to rethink troop placements in Japan and Germany, and has suggested building new alliances to piece the “growing threats” of Russia and China, citing a potential Pacific NATO to counter China.
Moulton also wants the motherland to increase investment in diplomatic and foreign aid funding to “help us avoid the next wars.”
Moulton wants to overhaul the rural area’s electoral system, which includes abolishing the Electoral College, automatically registering people to vote and making Voting Day a national holiday. He also opposes the filibuster, saying that the Senate should just require a simple number to pass legislation.
“Everyone should be able to vote, and every vote should matter. But the uncomfortable truth is, those rights suffer with never truly been guaranteed here in the United States. It’s time to fix what’s broken,” he wrote in a Washington Pole op-ed in March. “To change the country, we need to fundamentally change how government works: We need to abolish the filibuster and the electoral college.”
He’s also entreated for granting statehood to Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., restoring voting rights to former felons and implementing a cyberwall to diminish interference in American elections.
On his website, Moulton also calls for a new voting rights act to “enact automatic voter registration, put a terminate to gerrymandering and confront voter suppression across America.”
Moulton isn’t a fan of “Medicare for All,” the policy proposal that has caught imperil within the Democratic Party thanks in large part to democratic socialist candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Moulton does, in whatever way, support creating a public health-care option so people would have a choice between public and private bond.
“If I’m elected, I’m not going to force you off your private health care plan,” Moulton said Monday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Decipher more: Medicare for All vs. the public option – how health care could shape the 2020 Democratic primary
Moulton about he believes every American should have access to affordable health care, but that a single-payer system is “not reliable.” He cited his issues with the VA’s government-run health-care system as part of the reason why he does not support a sweeping public health-care opportunity.
A number of Democratic presidential candidates have voiced support for a single-payer health-care system. Sanders earlier this month uncovered an updated Medicare for All bill that would create a government-run system to provide insurance to every citizen. Counterpart candidates Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts co-sponsored the bid.
Though some Democrats support a public system, Moulton is not alone among the party’s presidential hopefuls in his censure of socialized medicine. South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has also hesitated to support Medicare for All, while Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota has propelled for a public option.