All-American Presidential Forums on PBS" Moderated by Tavis Smiley

FORUM RESPONSES

"Let me say first thank you to the Howard Bison for hosting us here tonight. We're very proud to be here. This is one of the great HBCUs in America which all of us should be proud of. I'm proud of some that we have in my home state of North Carolina. I also want to thank you for hosting this debate where finally we can talk inequality in America, which is at the heart and soul of why I'm running for president of the United States.

The truth is that slavery followed by segregation followed by discrimination has had an impact that still is alive and well in America and it goes through every single part of American life. We still have two public school systems in America. These two Americas that I've talked about in the past? Man, they are out there thriving every single day.

We have two public school systems in America, one for the wealthy and one for everybody else. We have two health care systems in America and we know that race plays an enormous role in the problems that African Americans face and problems that African Americans face with health care every single day. There are huge health care disparities, which is why we need universal health care in this country.

But we have work to do. All of us have work to do. By the way, also making sure that every single American, including people of color, are allowed to vote and that their vote is counted in the election and that we know that their voice is heard in the election. But all of us have a responsibility to build one America that works for everybody across all racial barriers that still exist in this country."

"Let me say first, DeWayne, this issue of poverty in America is the cause of my life. It's the reason I started a poverty center at the University of North Carolina. It's the reason I've been working so hard on this issue. I think the starting place is to understand that there is no one single cause of poverty.

You know, when you have young African American men who are completely convinced that they're either going to die or go to prison and see absolutely no hope in their lives, when they live in an environment where the people around don't earn a decent wage, when they go to schools that are second-class schools compared to the schools in wealthy suburban areas, they don't see anything getting better. There are lots of things we need to do.

I actually agree with what Senator Biden said about early childhood, but I think we should start much earlier than four years of age which is what the focus has been. I think it's also true that we need to pay teachers better. I think we ought to actually provide incentive pay to get our best teachers in the inner city schools and into poor rural areas where they're needed the most, but it goes beyond that.

We also have to make work pay for young men who are graduating from high school, the very group that you're describing, which means we're going to have to do a whole group of things. We need to significantly raise the minimum wage. We need to strengthen the right to organize and we need to help low-income families save so they're not prey to predatory lenders that are taking advantage of them today."

"Thank you very much for the question. African American women are twenty-five times as likely to be infected with AIDS today in America than white women. Over half of the new diagnoses of AIDS in America are African Americans. So this is obviously having a disproportionate effect on people of color and on the African American community.

I was in a medical center in Los Angeles just a few days ago where they're providing treatment and help first to determine whether they have AIDS and, second, to provide them the treatment and the drugs that they need. But we shouldn't be dependent on private funding to do what needs to be done about a scourge that exists in America and particularly exists among African Americans in America.

Here are the three things I think we need to do. First, we need to fully fund finding a cure for AIDS so we can end this scourge once and for all. Second, we need to fully fund the legislation, the law known as Ryan White, to make sure that the treatment is available for anybody who's diagnosed with AIDS. Then finally, we need to ensure that Medicaid covers AIDS drugs and AIDS treatment to make sure that people get the treatment they need, particularly low-income families who are diagnosed with AIDS."

"Well, in fact, I've heard Warren Buffett himself talk about the genetic lottery that we have in America where the family you're born into has an awful lot to do with what happens with your life. What we want to do, I think, is live in an America where, no matter who your family is or what the color of your skin or where you were born, everybody gets the same chance to do well and people who have done well ought to have more responsibility to pay back to the country and to the community and those around them.

I think there are at least a couple things we need to do. First, we need to get rid of George Bush's tax cuts for rich people which have distorted the tax system in America. I would use that money to pay for universal health care to make sure everyone's covered.

But the second problem that he's talking about is, we have a capital gains rate, fifteen percent, which is the rate that most people pay on their investment income like Warren Buffett that's significantly lower than the tax rate that his secretary pays. That's not right. There is a moral disconnect. We ought to honor work in this country and not just wealth."

"Tavis, everything that's been said is correct. Changing mandatory minimum, changing the disparity between crack and powdered cocaine, having a system that's fair. If you're African American, you're more likely to be charged with a crime. If you're charged with a crime, you're more likely to be convicted of the crime. If you're convicted of the crime, you're more likely to get a severe sentence. There is no question that our justice system is not colorblind, but can we also create an infrastructure for success for those who are charged and convicted for the first time so that we help them with drug counseling, job counseling, job training, education? Help them get back into the community with some chance of changing their lives."

"This is an issue I care about personally and deeply. As many of you know, I announced my presidential campaign from the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. We took seven hundred college kids down to help rebuild who gave up their spring break to work with me and others to help rebuild New Orleans. I'm proud of those kids. We have a huge responsibility.

As president, I will make one person, a very high-level competent person in the White House, responsible for reporting to me every day of what he did in New Orleans yesterday. And then I'll say the next day, "What did you do yesterday?" What we should do is allow the people of New Orleans to rebuild their own city. We ought to pay them a decent wage, give them health care coverage, instead of having big multinational corporations get billion dollar contracts with the government."

"Well, let me say first, this is something I don't have to read about in a book. I've seen it up close. I saw what happened when the mill that my dad worked in all his life and I worked in myself when I was young closed and the jobs went somewhere else. It was not just devastating to him and his pride and his dignity. It was devastating to the community.

The same thing has happened all over country. I think a lot of the things that have been said are true. America's got to compete. We have to be the best educated, most innovative workforce on the plant. We also need trade agreements with real environmental labor standards that the president of the United States is willing to enforce. Third, we need to eliminate all tax breaks for companies who are taking their jobs overseas and getting a tax break for doing it."

"I agree on a no-fly zone. We need to get a security force on the ground, sanctions, need to put pressure on the Chinese. But Darfur is part of the bigger question for America, which is how do we reestablish ourselves after Iraq as a force for good in the world again? I think there are lots of things we ought to do.

Instead of spending $500 billion dollars in Iraq, suppose America led an effort to make primary school education available to a hundred million children of the world who have no education, including in Africa? Where would we land on stopping the spread of disease, sanitation, clean drinking water and economic development?"