Left: Vice President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the 2016 Chief of Missions Conference in Washington, D.C., on March 14, 2016. [State Department Photo/Public Domain] Right: Sen. Bernard Sanders, Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
Sanders Owns the Democratic Party Direction
More than any recent nominee of either party, Mr. Biden has no clearly defined agenda of his own. Can you think of a single idea or proposal that is distinctively his? He has absorbed what his party wants, and the Biden-Sanders manifesto reflects that.
When Mr. Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton in 2016, HRC saw no need to make concessions. This year was different. Joe Biden made the “unprecedented decision to move left after winning the nomination and adopt much of the Vermont Senator’s platform.”
Mr. Biden went so far as to invite the socialist’s policy team to join his own teams on platform task forces.
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez co-chaired the task force on climate change.
- Stephanie Kelton, the evangelist for Modern Monetary Theory or cost-free money printing, sat on the economy panel.
- Pramila Jayapal, the Seattle proponent of Medicare for All, co-chaired the health-care group.
Leaping to the Left of Obama
Bernie’s 110-page manifesto is “the most radical policy document of either major party in our lifetimes. It leaps to the left of the Obama Administration on nearly every policy area, from education to taxes to climate change.”
- Purging the U.S. of Carbon Based Fuels (Democrats will spend what it takes to “retrofit” four million buildings and two million households in five years. All new American buildings will be “net-zero” in carbon emissions by 2030, and the government will replace all 500,000 school buses nationwide with “zero-emission alternatives” within five years. )
- Repeal Right to Work Laws to Favor Unions
- Write Off Student Loans
- Free Public College (for families making less than $125,000/year)
- Medicare for All via the Installment Plan (Medicare would expand to cover anyone age 60 or older, Medicaid would expand even more in the states, and for those in between a new “public option” would replace private insurance.)
- Public Policy based on Race Theory and Political Identity (It would create a new public credit facility at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, for example, “to provide consumers with a government option that seeks to minimize racial disparities.” The Federal Reserve will have a third political mandate for redressing racial injustice, in addition to low inflation and full employment.)
A GOP Senate could block most of this. A Democratic Senate, however, as the WSJ points out, would break the 60-vote filibuster rule for legislation and pass much of it.
Bernie Sanders may not sit in the Oval Office next year, but Mr. Biden will be implementing Bernie’s dreams.
