Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) is rolling out a new economic plan meant to help rebuild the middle class as he eyes a potential White House run in 2028.
In an interview, Gallego said he is putting out the plan to help shape his party’s agenda if Democrats retake the Senate next month in the midterm elections. But he acknowledged that it also lays out some of the policies he would champion if he runs for president.
“We want to make sure people kind of have a viewpoint of where my position is, where my heart is when it comes to where working-class America is,” Gallego said.
Gallego has said for months that he is considering running for president in 2028. He traveled earlier this year to South Carolina and Nevada, which are set to hold the first two Democratic presidential contests.
Gallego’s plan involves dozens of ideas, including raising the federal minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2030, requiring employers pay twice a worker’s usual wage for overtime work instead of time-and-a-half, mandating that companies offer paid sick leave and vacation and steps to strengthen unions.
Gallego calls for raising taxes on capital gains, stock buybacks and corporate profits earned abroad. He also proposes “reversing favorable tax treatment for millionaires, billionaires, corporations and large pass-through businesses” to help reduce the enormous federal deficit. And he proposes policies to help workers deal with the artificial intelligence, including expanding unemployment insurance and creating a “‘robot’ tax to discourage job dislocation and maintain company payroll contributions for automated-away jobs.”
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