Lower Costs

“When my family came to the United States, eight of us shared a single bedroom in my aunt's house. At one point, more than twenty of us were living under one roof because it was the only way any of us could afford to survive. We were fortunate that no one got seriously sick. A medical emergency could have pushed us into a crisis.

I carry those memories with me every day because millions of families are still making impossible choices just to get by.” - Ruth Fortune

Congress has the power to change that by lowering the costs that matter most. We can increase the housing supply to make homes more affordable, expand access to affordable healthcare, reduce the cost of childcare, invest in public education and workforce training, strengthen competition to bring down prices, modernize infrastructure to lower energy and transportation costs, and reform tax laws so they reward work and wealth-building instead of speculation.

The goal isn't simply to make things cost less. It's to make upward mobility possible. Hardworking families shouldn't have to crowd into one bedroom, skip medical care, or sacrifice their children's future just to stay afloat. If you work hard, you should be able to build a stable, middle-class life. That's the American Dream Congress should be fighting to protect.

A federal living wage that grows with the cost of living

“The single biggest reason I escaped poverty and joined the middle class was simple: I started earning more. Opportunity begins with a paycheck that lets you build a life, not just survive. That's why I believe every hardworking American deserves a living wage that keeps pace with the cost of living.” - Ruth Fortune

The federal minimum wage must be a living wage that covers the minimum cost of living. Ruth will fight to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $25 an hour and tie wages to inflation, meaning when prices go up, people’s paychecks will go up. 

So many of our challenges, like the shrinking middle class and food insecurity, are all actually one problem. Wages have not kept up with rising costs. With a $25 minimum wage tied to inflation, every person who works full time will earn at least $50,000 annually AND their pay will go up annually to keep up with inflation. 

It’s time to restore balance and fairness to our economy by ensuring every worker earns a true living wage that covers the real cost of living and keeps pace with inflation.

Ruth’s Plan

A. Raise the Federal Minimum Wage to $25 per Hour Immediately

The minimum wage must be a living wage that reflects the cost of housing, food, transportation, and healthcare in today’s economy. Raising the wage to $25 an hour ensures that a full-time worker earns at least $50,000 annually. The increase must take effect immediately because working families cannot afford to wait another decade while corporate profits soar.

B. Tie the Minimum Wage to Inflation

Wages should automatically rise when prices rise. By indexing the minimum wage to inflation, workers’ paychecks will maintain their real value over time.

This is not a novel concept. For example, the estate tax exemption, the annual gift tax exclusion amount, and social security benefits are all tied to inflation.

C. Support for Small Businesses
Ruth recognizes that small businesses are the backbone of our local economies and must be supported through this adjustment. Her plan includes (1) tax credits for small businesses to offset initial labor cost increases, and federal transition grants and zero-interest loans to help with payroll adjustments.

These supports ensure that small businesses can thrive while paying fair wages and competing on a level playing field with large corporations.

Why this matters

Lowering costs and raising the federal minimum wage to a living wage are not just economic reforms. It’s a moral and practical commitment to rebuilding the American middle class.

Calling what we currently have a healthcare system is an insult to the word “system.” 

Ruth will fight for a universal healthcare system that guarantees every person in America access to high-quality medical care, including primary care, mental healthcare, prescription drugs, dental, vision, reproductive healthcare, and emergency services—regardless of employment, income, or zip code and immigration status. Healthcare is a human right. Diseases do not check passports, and public health does not stop at a border. When people cannot access quality healthcare, everyone pays the price. 

The United States spends more on healthcare than any other country, yet millions remain uninsured or underinsured. Too many people delay care, ration medication, or avoid seeing a doctor because they fear the cost.

Healthcare should travel with you throughout your life, not disappear when you change jobs or face financial hardship.

A universal healthcare system would reduce wasteful administrative costs, strengthen our bargaining power to lower prescription drug prices, and make healthcare more affordable for families and businesses. It would also prioritize preventive care so people can see a doctor before small health issues become life-threatening and expensive emergencies.

Healthcare should be about keeping people healthy, not protecting insurance company profits. Ruth believes no one should have to choose between paying a medical bill and paying their rent, and no one should lose access to care because they lost a job.

“As an estate planning attorney, I have seen how our broken long-term care system forces seniors , people with disabilities and their families into impossible choices.

I have had elderly clients who, trying to protect their life savings and become financially eligible for Medicaid in the future, gifted their homes to their adult children. In one case, the adult child passed away, leaving the home to his spouse, and my client could no longer remain in the place where she had spent her life. In another case, the adult child’s divorce left the family home tied up in legal uncertainty while my client was still living there. 

The most painful situations are when widows and widowers are forced to sell their home, then spend down every dollar of the proceeds on nursing home care, and only then qualify for Medicaid. 

I once spoke with a 98-year-old client who told me she felt ashamed for living so long because she worried she would leave nothing behind for her children, who were already in their 70s. No one should feel guilty for growing old.” - Ruth Fortune

Ruth’s Plan

Ruth will fight to reform Medicare so it fully covers long-term care at home or in an institution like a nursing home or group home. A system, like Medicaid, that requires people to become impoverished before they can receive care is not protecting our seniors and siblings with disabilities. It is stripping them of independence, community, and dignity.

Long-term care is not a luxury. It is healthcare. Medicare should cover long-term care because people need this care not because they failed, but because they aged or became disabled. 

A society should be judged by how it treats people when they are most vulnerable. We should build a system that allows seniors and people with disabilities to age with dignity, remain connected to their communities, and receive the care they need without first losing everything they have worked for

If you work hard, contribute to the system, and play by the rules, you’ve earned the security and dignity that Social Security provides.

But the current system does not work equally for everyone. Women, caregivers, and workers who spent their lives in lower-wage jobs often receive smaller benefits, even though they worked just as hard and contributed for decades. Many seniors are forced to make impossible choices between housing, medication, and basic necessities.

Ruth will fight to strengthen Social Security and make it more equitable so that the people who worked hard and earned the least can retire with dignity. That means protecting benefits, ensuring the system keeps pace with the realities of today’s economy, and recognizing the unpaid caregiving work that has historically limited many women's earnings.

Social Security represents a lifetime of contributions, not a favor from the government. Ruth will fight to ensure every American who earned their benefits can rely on them to live with security, independence, and dignity.

“Every child in America deserves a great public school no matter their zip code.”

“I would not be here today without a great public school education.

When I came to the United States from Haiti at age 12, I didn't speak English. I enrolled in the public schools in Westbury, New York. Within a year, I had exited the English as a Second Language (ESL) program. Before long, I was taking honors, then Advanced Placement classes.

The defining moment came the summer before my senior year of high school, when I attended a summer college program at Syracuse University. It was the first (and only) time I had lived on a college campus. I did well academically, and from that moment on, college was no longer a dream, it was an expectation. It didn't matter that my family had no money, that I was undocumented, or that I would be the first in my family to graduate high school. I had seen what was possible, and I was determined to make it back.

That's the power of good public education. It doesn't just teach children. It changes the trajectory of their lives. Every child deserves teachers who believe in them, schools that challenge them, and opportunities that convince them their future is bigger than their circumstances. I know because that's exactly what public education did for me.” - Ruth Fortune

Ruth’s plan 

Ruth will fight for more federal money to fund our public schools. For decades, we’ve been gutting our public schools while underinvesting in our children. Too many public schools are underfunded, understaffed, and in disrepair. Teachers are expected to do more with less, while the federal government spends billions elsewhere, including $50k hiring bonuses for ICE agents and billions on border security. Some students are not reaching their full potential because we’ve failed to give them the tools, teachers, and facilities they deserve.

• Increase federal investment in K–12 education to ensure schools can hire and retain qualified teachers, maintain safe facilities, and offer enriching programs.

• Close funding gaps between districts so that rural, suburban, and urban schools all have the same access to quality resources.

• Build stronger ties between schools, local employers, trade unions, and universities.

Why This Matters

Education is the foundation of opportunity. A great public school opens doors for every child, not just the privileged few.

Teachers deserve respect and fair pay. They shape our future and should be treated as professionals, not as afterthoughts in the federal budget.

A well-educated workforce drives economic growth. An investment in education is an investment in America’s prosperity.

“As a mom of three young children (ages 9, 7 and 4), I know childcare isn't a luxury. It's the foundation that allows parents to work, build careers, and provide for their families.

My husband, Dave, and I were fortunate to find a solution that works for us. We helped my parents retire and move in with us, creating a multigenerational home where our children have what is essentially a third parent. Knowing my mom—and my dad, when he's not watching YouTube or the news—is there for our kids has allowed us both to work full-time and pursue our careers with peace of mind.

For my parents, it made financial sense too. My mom was earning minimum wage, and the cost of full-time childcare for our children would have exceeded what she was bringing home. Instead of paying someone else to care for our kids while my mom did backbreaking work for less than the cost of childcare, we chose to invest in our family.

We were fortunate to have that option. Most families don't. That's why I want to fight for families who don't have a grandparent down the hall or the financial flexibility to create the support system we have. Every family deserves access to affordable, high-quality childcare so parents can work, children can thrive, and no one has to choose between earning a paycheck and raising a family.” - Ruth Fortune

Ruth will fight for universal access to affordable, high-quality childcare and early learning. 

Ruth will fight to make trade schools and public colleges tuition-free for students from families earning less than $250,000 annually indexed for inflation.

“When I enrolled at Baruch College in Manhattan in 2006, the tuition was $2,160 per semester. I was fortunate to get a waitressing job that helped me cover most of my tuition, rent, monthly subway pass and other living expenses. I worked hard, balanced classes and shifts, and earned a degree without going into crushing debt.” - Ruth Fortune

But today, the narrow path to a debt-free higher education that was available to Ruth is shrinking. The cost of living—from tuition, rent, and food—has skyrocketed. Students are forced to take on mountains of debt to pursue their education. 

Students who want to work their way through school are finding that even full-time jobs can’t keep up with the price of a degree. For many, the math just doesn’t work, and that reality deters too many talented students from even enrolling.

The fear of lifelong debt keeps young people from chasing their potential. Those who do take on loans often spend decades paying them off. Instead of building a life, they’re trying to dig out from under it. Student debt delays homeownership, makes it harder to start a family, and forces people to postpone dreams of entrepreneurship or community leadership.

This burden doesn’t just hurt individuals. It holds our entire economy back. When an entire generation is shackled by debt, fewer people can buy homes, open small businesses, or invest in their futures.

That’s why Ruth will fight to make trade schools and public colleges tuition-free for students from families earning less than $250,000 a year, indexed to inflation. This ensures that as costs rise, opportunity doesn’t shrink. Every student, regardless of background or income, deserves the chance to pursue education or skilled training without being buried in debt.

“I came to the United States as a child and spent a decade (ages 12 to 21) living as an undocumented immigrant. When I first arrived from Haiti, eight of us shared one bedroom in my aunt’s house in New York. I know what it means to grow up with potential but without papers, to dream big while feeling invisible. I know what it’s like to live with a constant fear of deportation.

When the Obama Administration granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitians after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, it changed my life. For the first time, I could step out of the shadows, work legally and live without fear of deportation. 

That experience also forced me to confront something deeper. For years, I had internalized the shame of being undocumented and thought my family hadn’t planned well enough, that somehow they had failed. It took time and perspective to understand that what I carried wasn’t personal failure. It was the weight of systemic barriers designed to keep people like me excluded, invisible, and afraid.

That experience also taught me something profound: government can be a force for good when the people in power choose to remove barriers and create opportunity. Good governing can liberate lives, not just regulate them.” - Ruth Fortune

Ruth’s Plan

America’s immigration system should reflect our values, not our fears. 

Ruth’s plan will provide a path to citizenship to all hardworking immigrants. Dreamers, their parents, and immigrants of all ages who have built their lives here, contributed to our communities, and followed the law deserve the opportunity to earn citizenship. Immigration enforcement is a civil matter, not a criminal matter. All law abiding immigrants deserve the chance to fully participate in the country they already call home. 

Ruth’s plan would abolish ICE. ICE is a relatively new agency. It was created in 2003 as part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which itself was created after horrific 9/11 attacks. For decades before DHS or ICE existed, our country had immigration enforcement functions through other agencies. The idea that ICE is the only possible way to manage immigration enforcement is simply not true.

We need an immigration system that protects families, respects due process, and creates a workable path for people who have built their lives here. When government works for the people, it can transform and uplift even the most marginalized among us, just like it did for me.

The rule of law means no one is above the law.

Public office is a public trust, not a path to personal enrichment. When elected or appointed officials abuse their power for personal gain, they betray the people they were sworn to serve and undermine faith in our democracy.

Congress must strengthen ethics and anti-corruption laws, ensure credible allegations of public corruption are investigated, and demand that our justice system enforce the law fairly and consistently, regardless of a person's title, wealth, or political party. Accountability cannot depend on who you are or who you know.

Just as importantly, Congress must hold itself accountable. Members of Congress who ignore corruption, refuse to exercise oversight, or surrender their constitutional responsibilities should answer to the voters. The oath of office is not simply to hold power, it is to use it to defend the Constitution and protect the public interest.

Our democracy depends on one simple principle: no one is above the law, and no one is beneath its protection.

I am committed to serving no more than five terms in Congress because I believe leadership should be renewed, not entrenched.

I support a constitutional amendment for congressional term limits: five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (total of 10 years) and two terms in the Senate (total of 12 years). Fresh perspectives make for better laws, stronger oversight, and a Congress that stays connected to the people it represents. 

I also support establishing term limits for Supreme Court justices. No one should wield extraordinary power for life simply because they were appointed at the right political moment. Regular, predictable appointments would strengthen the Court's legitimacy while preserving judicial independence.

But term limits alone won't fix an electoral system flooded with money. 

I support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and create a public funding program for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives elections. 

Today, a billionaire can legally give an unlimited amount to Super PACs and max out donations to every PAC, presidential, Senate, and House candidate who shares their political views, giving a small number of wealthy donors outsized influence. An annual aggregate contribution cap would ensure that no one person has unlimited influence simply because they have an unlimited amount of money to spend. Democracy should amplify the voices of millions of voters, not the checkbooks of a handful of megadonors.

1.Responsible AI Infrastructure

Ruth supports a 1–2 year moratorium on the construction of new AI data centers to give Congress, state governments, utilities, and local communities time to establish thoughtful guardrails. AI is advancing faster than our laws, and communities deserve a voice before massive facilities reshape their electric grids, water supplies, land use, and local economies. 

Artificial intelligence should not come at the expense of our communities.

Ruth believes no new AI data center should be approved unless it can demonstrate that it will not harm the environment or create adverse health outcomes for the people who live nearby. Communities should not be forced to trade clean air, clean water, or public health for private profits.

The companies that build and operate data centers, not taxpayers or local residents, must bear the full cost. That includes the costs of construction, electricity, water usage, environmental mitigation, infrastructure upgrades, public safety, and any health or environmental impacts their facilities create. 

Technology companies should not be allowed to privatize profits while socializing the costs. If a data center cannot operate without shifting its environmental, energy, or health burdens onto the public, then it should not be built.

2.AI’s Values

AI systems must also be designed to reduce, not reinforce, the biases of the people who build them. The technology industry remains far less representative than the country it serves. When AI is trained on biased historical data or developed by teams with limited lived experiences, those biases can become automated at scale.

For example, an AI system used to screen job applicants may learn from decades of hiring decisions that favored men for engineering roles. Unless those biases are identified and corrected, the AI can continue disadvantaging equally qualified women, not because they are less capable, but because it has learned from an unfair past. Similar problems have been documented in areas such as healthcare, lending, housing, and criminal justice. 

3.Worker Protections

Ruth believes workers deserve protections as AI changes the workplace. Technology should increase productivity without stripping people of their livelihoods or exploiting their creative work.

The 2023 Writers Guild of America agreement offers an important model. Writers successfully negotiated contract protections requiring that AI cannot write or rewrite literary material in a way that undermines writers' credit or compensation, and writers cannot be required to use AI as a condition of employment. Human creators, not algorithms, remain responsible for the creative work, while writers retain the right to choose whether AI is used as a tool.

Congress should build on that approach by establishing clear rules that:

• Protect workers from being replaced without safeguards or a meaningful transition.

• Ensure employees have a voice if AI is introduced into their workplace.

• Require transparency when AI makes decisions affecting employment, credit, housing, healthcare, or education.

• Hold companies accountable when AI systems cause discriminatory or unlawful outcomes.

• Protect creators, journalists, artists, and other knowledge workers from having their work used to train AI systems without meaningful consent or fair compensation.

We are all fearfully and wonderfully made! Everyone deserves to live safely, openly, and with dignity. I support prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, education, healthcare, credit, federally funded programs, and public accommodations.

I will fight to end discrimination in healthcare, protect LGBTQ+ students in our schools, restore protections for transgender service members, and ensure that people fleeing persecution because of their sexual orientation or gender identity have access to asylum.

I am especially committed to addressing the violence, homelessness, and discrimination that disproportionately affect transgender people, particularly transgender women of color, and LGBTQ+ youth. No one should face violence, lose their home, or be denied opportunity simply because of who they are.

Equality is not a special right. It is a human right, and I will fight to ensure every LGBTQ+ person is treated with dignity, safety, and equal protection under the law.

Every woman deserves the freedom to live safely, earn equal pay for equal work, make her own healthcare decisions, and raise a family with dignity. As a working mom, I know firsthand that our economy too often asks women to do more while giving them less.

I will fight for equal pay, paid family leave, affordable childcare, universal healthcare, reproductive freedom, and stronger protections against gender-based violence and discrimination.

I also believe our policies must recognize that women experience inequality differently. Black women, immigrant women, Native women, LGBTQ+ women, women with disabilities, and low-income women often face additional barriers that demand targeted solutions.

A country cannot reach its full potential while half its people are held back. Women's rights are human rights, and building an economy that works for women means building one that works for everyone.