“If you wish to be a success in the world,
promise everything, deliver nothing.” – Napoleon
Bonaparte
I have been watching the candidates for President of the
United States of America. We know where President Trump stands on issues. We
are learning more and more about the Democratic Party candidates policy
positions as each day passes.
It appears that each candidate is outdoing the other by
making promises.
Question: Can, or will, Democrats
deliver on those promises?
Here is a list of promises made by candidates that could
directly impact Americans, and non-Americans, to date:
- Medicare
For All. Democratic Socialist Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezstated,
“I reject the idea that single payer is impossible.” At least five of the
announced Democratic Party candidates are making the same promise.
Medicare for All is also part of the Green New Deal (GND).
- Green
New Deal H.R. 109. A number of Democrats,
including Kamala Harris, have endorsed H.R. 109 the Green New Deal. The proposal
requires America stop using fossil fuels and those means of transportation
that use fossil fuels. The GND plan requires,
“meeting 100 percent of the power demand in the United States through
clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources” via a “10-year
national mobilization.”
- Ending
“Systematic Injustices”. The GND states,
“Whereas climate change, pollution, and environmental destruction have
exacerbated systemic racial, regional, social, environmental, and economic
injustices (referred to in this preamble as ‘‘systemic injustices’’)
by disproportionately affecting indigenous peoples, communities
of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities,
depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the
elderly, the unhoused, people
with disabilities, and youth (referred to in this preamble as ‘‘frontline and vulnerable communities’’) - Unionize
American Workers. The Green New Deal requires,
“strengthening and protecting the right of all workers to organize,
unionize, and collectively bargain free of coercion, intimidation,
and harassment.” All workers means every worker.
- Livable
Wage for All Citizens and Non-Citizens. The GND
states, ” guaranteeing a job with a family-sustaining wage, adequate
family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security
to all people of the United States.” All people of the United states
includes illegal aliens.
- Guaranteeing
a National $15 Minimum Wage. Corey Booker has pledged to
enact a national $15 minimum wage in 15 test areas. The current minimum
wage is $7.25 per hour. The minimum wage was first introduced under
the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA).
Passed under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, this act called for the
first national minimum wage of 25 cents an hour (the equivalent of $4.00
today).
- Wealth
Tax. Senator Elizabeth Warren has
proposed a, “‘wealth tax’ of 2% on net worth over $50 million and 3% over
$1 billion designed to raise
$2.75 trillion over a decade.”
- Free
Public College Tuition. Socialist Bernie
Sanders has proposed a College For All Act. The
act would, “Eliminate Undergraduate Tuition at 4-year Public Colleges and
Universities. This legislation would provide $47 billion per year to
states to eliminate undergraduate tuition and fees at public colleges
and universities.”
- Pay
Reparations for Slavery. Several
Democratic candidates have suggested paying reparations. Of note is the
proposal by Marianne
Williamson to annually pay $10 billion in
slavery reparations for a period of 10 years to the African American
communities. Cost $100 billion.
- Cancel
All Student Loan Debt. There are approximately 44 million students who have $1.5 trillion of
student load debt. Democratic Presidential candidate
Wayne Messam has proposed student loan forgiveness.
- Give
Every Child Born in America a U.S. Treasury Bond (Baby Bond). Corey
Booker in 2018 introduced a bill that would
provide an account with $1,000 to every baby born in the U.S. The accounts,
dubbed baby bonds, would be eligible for an up to $2,000 deposit each year
depending on family income. This Baby Bond would include anchor babies of
illegal aliens.
- Social
Security For All. The Daily Caller reported,
“Democratic New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a 2020 hopeful, said social
security and a pathway to citizenship should be rights for immigrants “in
the country now” Tuesday at a campaign event in Iowa. “I have a lot of
ideas,” Gillibrand said. “First, we need comprehensive
immigration reform. If you are in this country now, you must have the
right to pay into social security, to pay your taxes, to pay into the
local school system, and to have a pathway to citizenship.”
We are sure that some, if not all, of these proposals
will be debated during the Democratic Presidential primary. The question is how
many of these, and perhaps other policy proposals, will be added to the
Democratic Party platform?
As American politician John Fleming wrote, “I think
always, when you have a candidate promising free stuff, and another promising
less stuff or nothing, the one who promises more is always going to have the
advantage.”
Joseph Goebbels wrote:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it,
people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for
such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic
and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for
the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal
enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the
State.”
Free stuff is the “big lie” because eventually the
political, economic and military consequences will appear as they have in
Venezuela.
The Democratic Party candidates are rushing to promise
free everything to voters, but can they deliver anything?
