By blacksalmon @Adobe Stock
Jumping into the Unknown
No surprise: Kamala Harris is pretty unknown, yet Kamala is the Democrats’s nominee for President of the United States. Perhaps, as the WSJ notes, a nominating contest with raucous disagreement on the convention floor in Chicago in August is too much political drama for them to take.
Democrats: Provide a Transparent Democratic Process
The best place for Democrats to start would be to stage a genuinely open competition for who should oppose Donald Trump in the presidential race. Voters deserve a say in who represents them, advises Yascha Mounk in Spectator US.
Kamala Harris was not on primary ballots in either 2020 or 2024. So let’s now take a look at her record:
According to Harris, President Biden’s first term has “surpassed the legacy” of most Presidents who have served two. So mark her down, agrees the editors of the WSJ, as endorsing the spending blowouts that caused:
- Inflation
- The Green New Deal
- Entitlement expansions
- Student loan forgiveness
Until Harris says otherwise, the WSJ assumes she’s in favor of Joe Biden’s $5 trillion tax increase in 2025.
Four Years as a California Senator
- Harris sponsored a bill to create a $6,000 guaranteed income for families making up to $100,000. Another Harris proposal: A refundable tax credit that would effectively cap rents and utility payments at 30% of income. Liberal economists panned the subsidy because it would drive up rents.
And More Bernie
- Harris co-sponsored legislation with Bernie Sanders that would pay tuition at four-year public colleges for students from families making up to $125,000. This is more honest than the Administration’s back-end student loan cancellation. But it would cost $700 billion over a decade and encourage colleges to increase tuition.
A Bernie Mind-Meld
- Single-payer healthcare. Ms. Harris co-sponsored his Medicare for All legislation paid for by higher income taxes. She tweaked Bernie’s plan when running for President in 2019 by extending the phase-in to 10 years from four and exempting households making less than $100,000 from the “income-based premium.” But it would still put government in charge of all American healthcare over time.
Hostility to Fossil Fuels
- Harris, as a Sun Francisco Democrat, shares the state’s hostility to fossil fuels.
- Harris used her power as California Attorney General to launch an investigation into Exxon Mobilover its carbon emissions.
- Harris endorsed a nationwide ban on oil and gas fracking in 2019, which would cost tens of thousands of jobs and cause power outages like those that often occur in her home state. Expect this to be a GOP talking point in Pennsylvania.
Restructuring the Supreme Court
- Harris said in 2019 she was “open” to adding more Justices, but that idea doesn’t poll well. Does she agree with Mr. Biden’s mooted plan to endorse “reforms” to the High Court that would make the Justices subject to Congressional supervision?
What Border?
- President Joe Biden famously put Ms. Harris in charge of border policy, and we know how that has turned out. Rather than push for border policy changes, her first instinct was to blame the rush of migrants on “root causes” in developing countries, including corruption, violence, poverty and “lack of climate adaptation and climate resilience.”
Climate change makes the U.S. border a sieve? Apparently so. “In Honduras, in the wake of hurricanes, we must deliver food, shelter, water and sanitation to the people,” Ms. Harris declared. “And in Guatemala, as farmers endure continuous droughts, we must work with them to plant drought-resistant crops.” These “root causes” take decades to address, and in the meantime she had nothing to say about actual border security.
Apart from promoting Joe Biden’s policies, what does Kamala Harris support? Does she have the skills to be president?
While she has backed the Administration’s military assistance to Ukraine, she has equivocated about support for Israel. In March she chastised Israel for not doing enough to ease a “humanitarian catastrophe.” Leaks to the press say officials at the National Security Council toned down her speech’s criticism of Israel.
Swing States for A Cackling California Democrat Clone
Will the press scrutinize Ms. Harris? Or will the servile press be afraid she will not be able to handle the scrutiny? Concludes the WSJ, Ms. Harris is a standard California progressive on most issues, often to the left of Mr. Biden.
Perhaps as she reintroduces herself to the public in the coming weeks, she will modify some of those views. She would be wise to do so if she wants to win.
Given the rush by Democrats to anoint Ms. Harris as their nominee, the press has a particular obligation to tell the public about who she is and what she really thinks.
One Easy Question:
Does (Harris) believe California is a model for the country?
