Ep122: Neal Walia: Real policy for CO-01 (with Andrés Bernal)

Welcome to episode 122 of Activist #MMT. Today, guest host Ramona Massachi (Twitter/@RamonaMassachi) talks with Neal Walia, who's running in Colorado's first Congressional district. He's accompanied by his economic advisor Andrés Bernal. This is our second conversation with Neal, the first was six months ago, near the start of his campaign. Today, we dive into Neal's policy platform. (Here's a list of all MMT candidate interviews. A list of audio chapters for this episode can be found at the bottom of this post.) The first policy we discuss is housing the un-housed, and how this can only be successful with an accurate accounting of the homeless population. Not so coincidentally, housing and the homeless was Neal's focus when he was a Congressional staffer for senator John Hickenlooper. This policy is coupled with several others, as it must be, such as for mitigating the looming ecological crisis and reducing industrial pollution. Another policy goal, standing up to the outsized influence of money in politics, is exemplified by two terrible quirks in Colorado state law. The first is an arbitrary limit on government spending to remain at 1990's levels. Today in 2022, when there is a much larger population, the law is needlessly suffocating. The second is a ban on rent caps, making it much more difficult for Coloradans to transition to homeownership. A criticism of rent caps is that it may result in not enough housing units for Colorado residents. The idea that the number of available units can only be increased by allowing property owners to increase costs to their occupants without limit, is highly suspect. (A big thanks to Beyond the Spectrum for the "MMT Candidate" logo.) Neal's primary is coming up on June 28th, and his campaign is on a roll. He's enjoyed big endorsements from people and organizations at all levels, and has appeared more than once on prominent independent media such as The Young Turks. His first in-person debate with his incumbent opponent is this Tuesday evening, May 24th. You can support Neal's candidacy by visiting nealwaliaforcongress.com and NealforCD1 on Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok. You'll also find a link to donate to Neal's campaign in the show notes. Neal's Instagram is @neal_k_walia and his YouTube channel is Neal Walia for Congress And now, onto our conversation with candidate for Colorado's first congressional district, Neal Walia. Enjoy. Audio chapters 4:05 - Andrés in Texas 5:52 - Underestimating the homeless population with the "point in time count" 12:54 - Give the homeless homes! 26:34 - Polluting industries and energy generation 34:41 - Community-owned utilities, false local-macro dichotomy 41:16 - How has the IPCC report impacted your platform? 43:28 - How's the campaign going? 45:46 - Major endorsements and a strong start 47:46 - Getting on the ballot, caucus versus signatures 51:03 - In-person debate 55:42 - Jeff's question- How has an understanding of real economics changed your candidacy? 1:12:00 - How can people support Neal in this final stretch? 1:14:37 - Goodbyes 1:17:51 - Duplicate of intro, with no background music