A.G. Gancarski
Patrick Murphy released his “roadmap for the middle class” Thursday.
“Florida’s middle-class families are feeling constantly squeezed, month after month,” claims the 12-page plan. “Floridians who work hard and play by the rules are still finding it hard to get ahead.”
To that end, Murphy’s plan. Primary among the issues: “creating a fairer economy.”
Murphy, candidate in Florida’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, suggests such measures as “equal pay for equal work and fair leave policies” and “raising the minimum wage … gradually to $15 an hour” on that front.
As well, “building a 21st-century economy” is central to the pitch, including “education, technology, and innovation” to create jobs and “achieve a 21st-century economy by tapping into what makes Florida great.”
Strategies on that front include “embracing bipartisan cooperation” to “create a climate of predictability and reliability that allows small businesses and entrepreneurs to thrive,” while expanding tourism and real estate industries and supporting in-state agriculture, by working to remove barriers to export markets.
Strengthening middle-class families is another platform plank. To that end he supports strategies for “expanding educational opportunity, making college more affordable, easing the strain on parents’ budgets, ending the Social Security parent penalty, and passing comprehensive immigration reform.”
Also in the plan is improving the tax code to “ease the burden on middle-class families,” which includes “closing loopholes.” And infrastructural renewal, addressing issues ranging from roads to broadband access.
The fourth major part of Murphy’s plan involves making homeownership more accessible and sustainable for the middle class. “Patrick believes we can achieve these goals by fighting housing discrimination, preserving affordable mortgages, supporting community banks, and promoting flood insurance choice and competition,” said the campaign release.
Promoting college affordability is central, as is “comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship.”
