Statement by John Delaney: I'm Committed to This Campaign Because Someone Has to Tell the Truth

Delaney message focused on 10 truths that are absent from current debate

FRIENDSHIP HEIGHTS, MD – John Delaney releases the following statement:

"While I'm disappointed to have not qualified for the third debate, I remain committed to the campaign for one simple reason: someone has to be consistently telling the truth and in doing so, telling a better story about the future we can share together.

"What has surprised me most about the primary process is the absence of a real debate on so many of the important issues facing the American people, the avoidance of acknowledging certain truths, and the level of mischaracterization of what is truly happening in the world. As a result, I'm going to make sure I keep telling these ten truths.

Number One: The best economic outcomes are achieved when the government, the private sector and the nonprofit sector work well together. Last month we debated the future of our nation in Detroit, a city that has recently seen first-hand the benefits of collaboration. The same can be true for tackling all of America's problems, but we have to stop thinking in silos with "government-only" solutions, or "business only" solutions, and we have to start unleashing our full potential by embracing solutions centered on partnerships between business, government and the nonprofit community. This approach drives innovation and efficiency, it enables investment in people and communities, and it fosters unity, which is the only cure for the true disease affecting our nation – political divisiveness. In addition, it allows us to start focusing on the many issues that most Americans agree on, but never get done - like reforming immigration, building infrastructure, lowering drug prices, protecting digital privacy and national service. Collaboration and common purpose equal progress.

Number Two: We live in an interconnected and interdependent world. Addressing job and political disruption because of technology, climate change, migration, and national security requires the United States to engage globally. This means rejecting isolationism, whether it's Trump's perverted form of nationalism or Democrats' anti-trade policies. For example, U.S. farmers not selling soybeans to China does create an incentive for Brazil to clear cut the Amazon to grow soybeans. The fact that we are not as competitive in Asia as we could be if we were in the TPP does limit the pressure we can apply to China on North Korea while also hurting the U.S. economy. Default on the debt of Italy or Greece will have an effect on the retirements of union workers in California. Entering into trade agreements is directly linked to our ability to shape a world that addresses human rights, national security, climate, migration and creates stable financial markets. Anti-trade positions are directly against progressive goals. Trade agreements also ensure that we compete globally and that markets are open to U.S. companies

Number Three: Health care is indeed complicated. Considering the importance of health care to every American, efforts to reduce health care reform to bumper sticker slogans is disqualifying. Health care is 1/6 of the US economy and consists of thousands of sub-systems of providers, payers and care networks. Contrary to what many candidates will tell you, very few countries have a single-payer system. Most have mixed models of government and private insurance. It is well documented that the federal government does not currently pay the full cost of care to providers, reimbursing at rates that are too low. It is the mix of private insurance and government insurance that provides sufficient reimbursement for the system to operate. Americans deserve a universal health care system. Every American should have essential government health care coverage, including mental health, for free and the federal government, with smart steps, can figure out how to make that happen. But that should not be done with the elimination of private insurance or we risk a system that is massively underfunded with huge disparities in quality between the rich and everyone else.

Number Four: Technology will not displace all the jobs, but it will continue to put pressure on pay. We have a pay problem in the United States more than a jobs problem. People who tell you that technology will displace all the jobs in this country are not being honest. There is no evidence to back up this claim now or at any time in history. What innovation does do is displace jobs from some and create them for others. And recently it has put enormous pressure on pay. People claiming we need Universal Basic Income or guaranteed government jobs are ignoring the facts and putting forth fairytale solutions. What we need to do is raise wages, provide tax credits to workers, build infrastructure, create ways for people to earn a living doing all the jobs that exist in our society that add huge value but for which there is no compensation (like caregiving), improve skills training and generally do things to ensure every American can raise their family with dignity on one job.

Number Five: Education is not delivering for far too many students. In 2017, 71% of 17-24 year-olds were not eligible to join the U.S. military, U.S. high school students ranked 30th in math and 19th in science out of 35 OECD countries, and 65% of college graduates owed student loan debt. Unless we completely reimagine public education - from early childhood education through community college - we will continue to leave huge parts of our country behind. This involves both more resources and education reform. What is does not involve is free four-year college or writing off all the student debt in the country. That is a wildly inappropriate allocation of resources away from the true needs in education.

Number Six: Half of our citizens are suffering economically and falling massively behind. Huge parts of our country– particularly in rural America - have been drained of opportunities, jobs and core services. This America needs solutions, not ideology. They need good jobs, a living wage and the ability to support their family on one job. This struggling America needs us to provide basic solutions such as more affordable housing, an increased earned income and child tax credit, jobs through infrastructure, better public schools, incentives for businesses to invest in their communities, resources to address the addiction crisis and paid family leave. These solutions are big but they are also simple and straightforward. They don't involve the entire upheaval of the economic model of the United States. Progress on these issues will require old-fashioned compromise and bipartisanship. That is the only way we make progress on the kitchen table issues facing hard-working Americans. People who argue against a collaborative and bipartisan approach on these issues ignore all of the lessons of history and are basically arguing for maintaining the status quo and against improving these people's lives.

Number Seven: Climate change can't be solved on the backs of workers. We cannot expect hardworking American families, 40% of whom cannot afford their basic necessities, to experience rapid increases in energy prices to address climate. This is wrong as a matter of policy and it will never happen politically. Any climate solution has to neutral to the worker. That is why the central plank of my climate platform is a Carbon Fee and Dividend which will create the market incentives to speed the transition to renewables and hasten the move away from fossil fuels, but since 100% of the revenues will be going straight back to the American people as a dividend, we won't but hurting working families.

Number Eight: We will not solve climate change without innovation. Climate is a global issue and there are billions of people entering the global middle class who need energy and countries around the world will fundamentally not deny them energy or food as part of solving climate. It is therefore incumbent on the United States, as the leading innovation economy in the world, to develop new energy and agricultural technologies - including battery, transmission, negative emission, carbon capture, and nuclear - to create the advanced energy economy that the world needs. If we don't, we will not solve climate change.

Number Nine: Our national debt will be a problem. One day interest rates will go up. We don't know when and we don't how. But when they do, interest expense as a percentage of our budget will likely triple, crowding out every priority any American cares about and wiping out the next generation. People who say this is not a problem are lying. But people who say we need a "balanced budget" are also lying. We need to reduce deficits to around 2% of the economy, less than the long-term rate of economic growth so that the Debt-to-GDP ratio drops over time, and we will be just fine.

Number Ten: The world gets better every day and we need to bet on our future. Despite rising inequality, hate and tribalism, the condition of the world gets better every day and the facts back it up. Every year fewer and fewer people live in poverty. Why? Because of innovation. Which is why for every issue: curing Alzheimer's and cancer, solving climate change, and eliminating poverty and hunger, we need to make massive investments in research and innovation to harness computing power and big data to solve the world's problems. This is what the United States does best.

"The truth matters."