It is harder today for most people to get a good job and raise a family than it was 30 years ago. As the costs of housing, child care, higher education, and healthcare rise, the American Dream is increasingly out of reach. We need to make the economy more productive and help people gain skills and opportunities for success.

Many Americans lack the skills to get ahead in a high-tech economy. We need to improve education from the earliest years through higher ed, so students can reach their full potential and meaningfully contribute to their communities and the economy.

In the US, healthcare costs almost twice as much as in other wealthy countries, but we have the worst health outcomes in the developed world. Medicare and Medicaid are a rapidly growing share of the Federal budget and boosting the national debt to unsustainable levels. We need to make healthcare more effective and less costly.

Federal spending has been rising much faster than revenue. If the debt keeps growing as a share of our country’s total output, we will eventually need to make big cuts in critical programs and/or boost taxes to levels that could crush the economy. To have a brighter future, we need to raise revenue, invest in education and research, while spending money in other areas more efficiently.

Extreme weather is hurting the economy, people and the environment. We need to stabilize the climate by transitioning to clean energy in ways that improve the economy for all.

The tax code includes 75,000 pages of confusing rules. It gives the biggest benefits to those with the most money. We need to make it simpler and fairer.