Americans are a polite and considerate people. Most of us do not riot when we want to protest an injustice. We usually keep go along with policies even when we do not like them. How else to explain that we will send our kids to schools wearing masks even though all the research tells us that kids are less affected by Covid than by the flu, that they are unlikely to transmit the disease and that wearing masks hampers their learning. If this were a policy to which that left were opposed, all hell would be raised. Its hard to imagine the 180 degree turn taken by the country in only one year. Here are some of the harmful – for most of us – policies of the current administration that bear the imprimatur of the left.
- Climate change: no new pipelines, restrictions on drilling, encouraging financial institutions not to lend to gas and oil producers, cited climate change as an essential element of national security and foreign policy
- Expansion of the welfare state: proposed dramatic increased in spending on Pell Grants, low income K-12 schools, low income housing assistance, equity plans for all federal agencies, changing funding formula to Obama Care.
- Open borders: ended funding for the border wall, rescind the “Stay in Mexico” policy
- $1.9 trillion Covid “relief” bill: Only 9% allocated to public health issues
- $2.2 trillion “infrastructure” bill
- Support for teaching of Critical Race Theory
- Opposition of Florida bill limiting teaching of gender identity to K-3 students
- Raising the corporate income tax, a millionaires tax, a wealth tax, an excise tax on pharmaceuticals, increasing the excise tax.
- Mask mandates on federal property
- Ending ban on transgenders in military
- Raised minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 an hour
- Established a White House gender policy council
- Stops withdrawal from World Health Organization
- Restart Iran nuclear agreement
- Pauses student loan repayments
- Extends foreclosure moratorium
- Rejoins Paris climate accord
- Rescinds Trump’s 1776 Commission that was established as a counter to the New York Times 1619 Project
- Required noncitizens to be included in the Census
- “Build Back Better” progressive wish list
- Soft on crime
- Attempts at rescinding the Second Amendment
- Federal takeover of elections
- Commission to study the packing of the Supreme Court
- Universal pre-K, free community college, expansion of child tax credit
- Increased regulatory burdens at a cost of $100 billion annually
Did I miss anything? But if you think that all this is not enough, the progressive democrat caucus has given Biden a list of 55 items that they want imposed by executive action. Note that Biden has issued more executive orders than any previous president by a large margin. The progressives want him to issue even more.
Many pundits are telling us that the Republicans taking control of the House and the Senate in the midterm elections will derail the progressive agenda. Well it won’t. Virtually all of the items above came via executive orders. Republicans can derail legislative initiatives and can control fiscal expenditures. But any effort to derail executive orders will fail because there will not be 60 senators that will vote to override the president’s orders.
haroldblackphd.com 