drop from the race ahead of the Iowa Caucuses, one

non-traditional one is still in it, and still

growing his followers online.

We sit down with democratic presidential

candidate Andrew Yang on this edition of Iowa

Press.

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For decades Iowa Press has brought you

politicians and newsmakers from across Iowa and

beyond.

Celebrating nearly 50 years of broadcast

excellence on statewide Iowa PBS, this is the

Friday, January 10 edition of Iowa Press.

Here is David Yepsen.

♪♪

Yepsen: Only months since an enormous

field of presidential candidates descended on

the Iowa State Fair, the field has dwindled, almost

a dozen candidates have left the race since

August.

But one unlikely contender is still in it.

And this entrepreneur is still growing his

following online in what he calls the "Yang Gang".

Andrew Yang is pursuing the democratic nomination

for President and he joins us for the first time here

at the Iowa Press table.

Mr. Yang, welcome to the show.

Yang: It's great to be here.

Thank you for having me, David.

Yepsen: And I want our viewers to know that to

accommodate your schedule and ours we're taping this

program on January 3rd.

Journalists joining us across the table today are

Caroline Cummings, Reporter for Sinclair

Broadcast Group and Kay Henderson, News Director

at Radio Iowa.

Henderson: Let's begin with this question, what

is your reaction to the U.S.

drone strike that killed Iran's top general?

Yang: To me it was a disproportionate response

and it's dangerously pushing us towards full on

armed conflict with Iran, which is not the will of

the American people.

So to me we need to pull back, we need to

deescalate tensions in the region, protect our bases

and embassies in the area.

But bigger picture this could have been avoided if

we had stayed in the multilateral.

nuclear agreement with Iran that President Trump

pulled us out of, which ended up leading to this

series of provocations.

We need to go back to first principles.

In our Constitution it says that it is an act of

Congress to declare war and that has not been the

case since 2001.

We have been in a constant state of armed conflict

since 2001 and we need to push the power to declare

war back to Congress where it belongs.

Henderson: If voters are undone by this, how do you

argue that your experience is better in the Oval

Office than someone like Vice President Joe Biden

with his foreign policy portfolio, or someone like

Pete Buttigieg who has a military background?

Yang: As Commander in Chief I will be focused on

the greatest threats of the 21st century which

include state actors, like Iran yes, but also climate

change, artificial intelligence, cyber

security.

These are issues that frankly an extra aircraft

carrier may not help secure us against.

To me those are the real challenges of this time

and that is where I would lead us as President.

Cummings: Why would you be a good wartime President?

Yang: When I talk to Iowans and people around

the country what they're looking for in a Commander

in Chief is a sense of judgment and values and I

would approach these life and death decisions with

the values of the American people in mind.

When I talk to Americans around the country they do

not want us to be putting our brave men and women

into harm's way in foreign theaters that are not core

to our national interests.

Cummings: You recently said on Twitter in

response to this that you have signed a pledge to

end "forever wars".

Is there ever a time though that there is no

choice?

Yang: I have a three part test for when I would

intervene militarily.

The first is that there needs to be a vital

national interest at stake or the ability to avert a

clear humanitarian catastrophe.

Number two, there needs to be a well-defined timeline

where we can bring our troops home.

And number three, we need to have partners and

allies that are willing to join us in the mission.

If these three conditions are satisfied then I would

consider engaging our troops but it needs to be

a very high threshold.

I speak to veterans here in Iowa and across the

country and many of them are still struggling.

To me the investment has to be when you recruit men

and women into the Armed Forces, but then it has to

persist after they come home.

Our resources right now are heading to things that

are not making our people stronger or more secure.

Yepsen: Let's talk about your campaign.

The hallmark of your campaign is something

called a universal basic income.

Would you explain that to us?

Yang: The freedom dividend is a policy where every

American adult gets $1000 a month from the age 18

until you expire.

That seems very dramatic but this is a deeply

American idea that has been with us since our

founding.

Thomas Paine was for it, Martin Luther King was for

it, Milton Friedman was for it and one state,

Alaska, has had a dividend in effect for almost 40

years where now everyone in the state gets between

$1000 and $2000 a year no questions asked.

What oil is to the people of Alaska, technology is

to the entire country.

Here in Iowa this state went red in the 2016

election because we blasted away 40,000

manufacturing jobs right here in the state.

And what we did to those jobs we are now doing to

retail jobs throughout the state where 30% of your

stores and malls are closing forever.

It started on your farms and moved to your

factories, now it's on your Main Streets,

eventually it will hit your highways in the form

of self-driving trucks.

We need to have a freedom dividend in place so

everyone here in Iowa actually participates in

the gains of the 21st century economy instead of

being sucked dry, which is what is happening to many

rural areas here in Iowa and around the country.

Yepsen: Why do you call it the freedom dividend?

Yang: It's a dividend on our shared economic

progress and it makes us more free to pursue the

kind of work that we want to do every day.

It also recognizes the kind of work that my wife

does at home with our two boys, one of whom is

autistic.

That work does not get included in our economic

measurements, it is not recognized by our market

as having value, and we know that is the most

valuable and challenging work that anyone is doing.

So the freedom dividend would recognize the work

we're already doing in our families and communities

and it also makes us more free to pursue work that

would meet our own needs and values.

Cummings: You cited Alaska, or you cited it on

this program and you cite it on the trail, but that

is based on oil money and it's also a different

model.

You're talking about $1000 a month for a whole year,

this is $1000 to $2000 a year.

Considering that and Alaska's population is it

a fair test case for a universal basic income for

the country?

And are there things in Alaska's economy that you

can point to, to say this actually really works?

Yang: If you look at the petroleum dividend first

it was passed by a republican Governor in a

deep red state.

It is wildly popular, has created thousands of jobs,

has improved children's health and nutrition and

has decreased income inequality in the state.

If you look up, we have a trillion dollar tech

company, Amazon, that is paying literally zero in

taxes, less than everyone watching this at home

right now.

It's not just Amazon.

Many of our tech giants are paying zero or near

zero in taxes and they're selling and reselling our

data for tens of billions of dollars.

I joke with voters on the trail, if our data is so

valuable why didn't you get a data check in the

mail?

And then they laugh.

But I tell them, the data checks are all flowing

straight to Facebook and Amazon and Google.

So what oil is to Alaska, technology, data, AI,

software, is to the rest of the country.

And the biggest winners in the 21st century economy

are not actually sharing those winnings with the

rest of us.

That is what I'm going to change as President.

Cummings: So how do you actually pay for that

though?

Critics of the idea like the Tax Foundation say the

math just doesn't add up.

Yang: Well, I love math and if you look at our

system, again, if you have the biggest companies in

our society paying zero in taxes then of course it's

going to be hard to pay for much of anything.

But if you put a mechanism in place where we get our

fair share of every Amazon sale, every Google search,

every Facebook ad, eventually every robot

truck mile and AI work unit, it will generate

hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue from

day one.

And then when this thousand dollar dividend

is in the hands of every Iowan the money will go

right back into your communities to car repairs

you've been putting off and daycare expenses and

little league signups and local non-profits and

religious organizations.

This is the trickle up economy from our people,

families and our communities up because the

money doesn't disappear, it circulates right

through our Main Streets every single day.

Yepsen: Talk about the taxes you would have to

raise to pay for this.

A value added tax?

National sales tax?

Talk about those elements.

Yang: So if you look around the world other

countries have had the same issue that we have

where you have the Amazons paying zero in taxes.

So what they have done is they have passed a value

added tax that takes a tiny toll at the point of

sale and it's impossible for these companies to

escape that kind of transactional tax.

So if you had that kind of tax on the Amazons of our

country it ends up generating hundreds of

billions of dollars of revenue very quickly.

So a value added tax at even half the European

level would generate more than $800 billion in new

revenue with a giant up arrow attached to it

because these companies are producing more value

every day.