Buttigieg Proposes AmeriCorps-Like Service Programs To Help Address Mental Health Care Shortages, Opioid Crisis
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a Democratic candidate for 2020, proposed national service organizations as part of a broader plan to address some of the problems in the country. Buttigieg, who has faced pressure in recent weeks over a police shooting in his town, also focused on what he would do for African-Americans, including addressing systemic racism in the health care industry.
The New York Times:
Buttigieg Proposes National Service Programs For Climate Change And Mental Health
Pete Buttigieg, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination in part on his experience with national service as a Navy Reserve officer who deployed to Afghanistan, on Wednesday proposed a major expansion of voluntary public service programs that aims to attract 250,000 Americans in the near term and potentially grow to one million a year by 2026. His plan calls for expanding existing national service organizations like AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps and also adding new ones focused on combating climate change, treating mental health and addiction, and providing caregiving for elderly people. The new programs would prioritize bringing volunteers into predominantly minority communities and rural areas. (Ismay, 7/3)
The Associated Press:
2020 Hopeful Buttigieg Pitches Plan To Fight Systemic Racism
Looking to improve his standing with black voters, Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg pitched a plan Tuesday to tackle "systemic racism" he said exists in housing, health care, education, policing and other aspects of American life. The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, told a predominantly black audience at a Chicago meeting of Rainbow PUSH, the Rev. Jesse Jackson's civil rights organization, that his plan includes providing more opportunity for minority businesses, strengthening voting rights and reforming the criminal justice system. (7/2)
Chicago Tribune:
'This Is An American Problem’: Presidential Hopeful Pete Buttigieg Addresses Systemic Racism In Chicago Speech
Buttigieg said the nation’s policing, health care, housing and school systems all are “burdened by racism," a condition he said threatens to undermine the nation’s future. “All of American life takes place under these shadows, not some distant historical artifact but as burning present reality that hurts everyone and everything it touches. If we do not tackle the problem of racial inequality in my lifetime, I am convinced it will upend the American project in my lifetime,” Buttigieg said. “It brought our country to its knees once, and if we do not act, it could again. I believe this is not only a matter of justice, but a matter of national survival.” (Ruthhart, 7/2)
NPR:
Pete Buttigieg Tries To Woo Black Voters Amid South Bend Shooting Controversy
At the Rainbow PUSH event on Tuesday, Buttigieg proposed a 50% reduction in incarceration rates in the country by legalizing marijuana and eliminating incarceration for certain petty drug crimes; to hold police accountable to professionalization standards with an empowered civil rights division of the Department of Justice; and increased support for minority-owned businesses, including pledging 25% of federal contracts to go to minority- and women-owned firms. (Montanaro, 7/2)
