“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?
