Civic Alliance for a Prosperous Economy (CAPE) 2022 Candidate Questionnaire
ABOUT
CAPE is a political organization founded by Civic Ventures, Working Washington, and OneAmerica Votes, created to support candidates who are devoted to reducing economic inequality and increasing broad economic prosperity for everyone.
We are dedicated to the principle that the only way to grow our economy is from the middle out, by delivering broad-based prosperity to middle-class and working families. The economy is people, and that means that when workers and families thrive, businesses and our economy thrive too. CAPE seeks to upend and replace 45 years of failed trickle-down economics aimed at enriching the few with policies that benefit the majority — strengthening both our economy and our democracy.
Unprecedented levels of inequality have shattered the economic security of most Washingtonians and caused historic levels of political polarization and declining trust for American institutions. Proponents of trickle-down economics — by which we mean tax cuts for the rich, deregulation for powerful corporations, and wage suppression for everyone else — told us that these policies would benefit everyone. It was a lie that left us with a fragile economy, pushing millions into precarity and insecurity.
The economic data paint a clear picture:
According to a report from RAND, more than 4 decades of neoliberal economic policymaking led to an upwards redistribution of $50 trillion from the bottom 90 percent of American workers to the top 1 percent. The typical worker earning about $52,000 per year would otherwise make about twice as much if inequality stayed constant.
The Pew Center reports that median Black household income was 61% of median white household income in 2018, up modestly from 56% in 1970. The median Hispanic household earns just 74% of the white median household. And in 2018, women of all races still earned, on average, just 82 cents on every dollar earned by men of all races. The wage gap is largest for Hispanic and Latino women, who make 54 cents to every dollar, American Indian and Alaska Native women (57 cents) and Black women (62 cents).
A groundbreaking report from the Economic Policy Institute put a price tag on trickle-down economics: the typical American worker should be earning about $10/hour more had wages kept up with productivity since 1979. Americans are literally working more and earning less.
Groundwork Collaborative launched a corporate profiteering website to aggregate and track corporate price gouging. Corporate profits are higher than they’ve ever been as families across the country are struggling to afford gas, groceries, and other necessities, and many of the price increases that added to those profits are far above consumer price index levels. Corporations have publicly crowed about the fact that there seems to be no upper limit to prices that Americans can absorb.
How the Economy Really Works
For decades, the super-rich and biggest corporations have seen their wealth increase dramatically, while the people who actually drive our economy and create middle-out economic growth — everyday American families — have seen rising rents, stagnant wages, and dramatic cost increases for housing, healthcare, childcare, and other necessities. But everyday American families are the country’s biggest voting block. Economic policies that directly benefit the majority of citizens will not only grow the economy the fastest, but they are wildly popular.
CAPE will support candidates who reject the discredited trickle-down narrative and demonstrate a strong commitment to middle-out policies that lead to a more just and resilient economy:
High Labor Standards. Washington has proven that when workers have more money through policies like the minimum wage and overtime protections, businesses have more customers and hire more workers. CAPE supports candidates who protect and expand the power of workers, and will fight to build a higher-wage economy for all.
Broader Economic Inclusion. Forty years of trickle-down economics, an unmitigated wealth gap, systemic racism and massive economic inequity has pushed too many people to the margins. That’s why CAPE supports candidates who appropriately call for policy solutions that support marginalized communities — immigrants, native communities, people of color, and women — fully participating in our economy. Diversity drives economic growth, and the more people who participate in our economy, the more we all prosper.
High-Quality Public Services. Our economic competitiveness depends on building a broadly inclusive and strong middle class. That is why CAPE supports candidates that bring new energy and ideas to provide housing, healthcare, childcare, education, broadband, transportation, and climate solutions to all our communities.
Balancing Our Tax Code. Even after the passage of a new capital gains tax in 2021, Washington still has the most upside-down tax code in the nation, and some of the super-rich are trying to roll back even that modest progress. Our lowest-income households still pay six times more of their income in taxes than the richest. That is why CAPE will only support candidates who promise to fight for balancing the tax code at the state and local level and who will support new progressive revenue sources to invest in services and infrastructure that lead to thriving and healthy communities, as well as oppose any attempt to roll back the capital gains tax and other progress.