Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein campaigned in Miami on Friday night, laying out plans for a "Green New Deal" to combat climate change and spur job growth.
"Business as usual means Florida’s going underwater," Stein said, calling for a "wartime mobilization" against climate change.
Stein said her Green New Deal would create 20 million jobs in renewable energy and green transportation. It would require about $500 billion dollars in government grants and low-interest loans. And she’d pay for those in a couple different ways: by raising taxes on top earners, starting a financial transaction tax, reducing military spending and streamlining health care to cut administration costs.
"This would be -- again -- an incredible stimulus package for the real economy," she said. "We would begin again to actually make things."
Another key to Stein’s platform is eliminating student loan debt. She says 43 million students nationwide bear that burden, and that if she can win their votes, she’ll win the election.
Right now Stein’s polling at 2 to 4 percent. But she told about 400 people at the rally that a vote for her is a vote for the greater good -- as opposed to what she calls the “lesser evil” candidates.
That message resonated with Miami Dade College student Carlos Santana.
"The point of voting for Jill Stein -- you know, beyond everything she stands for -- is also to say that you don’t agree with the system that they have in place," he said.
Santana says Jill Stein has his vote in November.
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