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Yang begins Iowa bus tour

Platform of NY entrepreneur includes universal basic income

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
Andrew Yang, Democratic presidential candidate from New York, points to one of his supporters who handed him a MATH hat during a rally for the campaign Tuesday in Des Moines. MATH stands for Make America Think Harder. One of Yang’s signature policies is a universal basic income for all adult Americans.

DES MOINES — Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang believes every American adult over the age of 18 should receive $1,000 a month for life from the federal government.

Yang, an entrepreneur from New York, calls that policy the Freedom Dividend, another name for a universal basic income.

And he said that income will become more necessary as he forecasts that one out of three American workers are at risk of losing their jobs to new technologies during the next 12 years.

“We are going to be talking to people around the state who feel like they are not being heard,” Yang said to dozens of supporters gathered outside the state Capitol Tuesday. “Young people, veterans, moms, families with (children with) autism, religious communities. These are the communities that feel like the 21st century economy is not talking to them, not working for them, is leaving them behind.”

He added, “These are the people that are part of the reason why, even as we have record high corporate profits and GDP in this country, we also have record high levels of stress, anxiety, financial insecurity — even suicides and drug overdoses. These are the problems Washington, D.C., does not want to talk about, but we are going to leave them no choice.”

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
Dozens of Andrew Yang supporters gathered in front of the State Capitol in Des Moines Tuesday. Yang announced his bus tour through Iowa at the event.

Yang’s supporters wear MATH hats, which is an acronym for Make America Think Harder, and shout things like “humanity first.”

Zach Conroy, a student at Drake University in Des Moines, is one of them.

Conroy said when he first heard about Yang’s plan for a universal basic income, he wasn’t sold on the idea.

“I thought it sounded crazy when I first learned about it,” Conroy said. “But then looking at the research and the data that Andrew Yang relies upon, his reasonings for it speaks to where I grew up here in Iowa and Indiana, states with blue collar workers, manufacturers, truck drivers, identifying people who haven’t been heard by government and then addressing that. He’s the only candidate that’s touched on those demographics.”

According to Yang’s website, the Freedom Dividend would be funded in part with a Value Added Tax of 10%. A VAT is a tax on the production of goods and services a business produces. Yang said the tax makes it harder for large corporations like Amazon, to avoid paying their “fair share.”

Under Yang’s plan, welfare programs would be consolidated. In other words, someone who receives disability would have to choose to receive that or the Freedom Dividend, but not both. The program would also rely on new revenue created by the dividend.

Yang announced on Tuesday that he qualified for the upcoming Dec. 19 Democratic debate.

Joining him on stage will be former Vice President Joe Biden, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Bernie Sanders, billionaire investor Tom Steyer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

“I am proud to be the only person of color who will be on that debate stage,” Yang said.

Yang founded the nonprofit organization called Venture For America in 2011. That organization created thousands of jobs in American cities like Cleveland, Detroit and St. Louis.

Yang started his bus tour Tuesday in Des Moines. The tour includes stops in Grinnell, Davenport and Ames.

“We are going around the state to talk about the problems that got Donald Trump elected and the problems that led Iowa to go to Trump by eight points,” Yang said. “If you look at the national press, when they talk about Donald Trump, they make it seem like he is the source for all of our country’s problems, and we know different. The problems existed before Donald Trump got here and it’s up to us to shed light on those problems and solve them to move the country forward. That’s what this bus tour is all about.”

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