“The Crown has made it clear. The climate must be perfect all the year.” –
– Oscar Hammerstein
Like the fictional Camelot, home of King Arthur and his mighty knights, Kamala Harris’s Democratic presidential campaign has a gauzy, fairy tale aura about it.
After Harris’ nearly four years of service under the Biden administration, a magic wand has created a new set of clothes. Harris has repeatedly stated that her values have not changed, there is no daylight between President Joe Biden’s policies and her own. A champion of the Green New Deal, Harris believes this policy is the way forward.
The Green New Deal, a reference to President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal during the Great Depression, was first discussed by Thomas Friedman in 2007, suggesting a departure from “dirty coal and oil energy” into renewables. U.S. House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) proposed a resolution to create a Green New Deal in 2019. It failed an initial procedural vote. Even the late Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) expressed skepticism about this idea. Consider how the Green New Deal would be realized in our communities.
First on the list of 10 tenets is “guaranteeing a job with a family-sustaining wage … family and medical leave, vacations and retirement security to all people of the United States.” Fantastic.
Unfortunately, under the Biden-Harris administration, the hourly wage is rapidly decreasing due to the influx of undocumented immigrants flooding the labor force. They are willing to work for anything, they are paid in cash and they avoid taxes. This displaces the entry-level job seeker who must report his earnings and pay taxes. Additionally, this person is denied the benefit of early, on-the-job experience.
McDonald’s cites many successful people, including Harris, as members of the 12.5% of Americans who got their start slinging burgers. Considering the tax-free status of the undocumented worker, one must acknowledge that his “retirement security” is funded by your Social Security contribution.
Second on the Green New Deal list is “high quality health care … affordable, safe and adequate housing … access to clean water, clean air … healthy and affordable food.” Too good to be true?
The Biden-Harris Health and Human Services Department squandered Americans’ trust trying to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. Each bad decision fostered by the Fauci fraternity — mask up, lock down — was countered by a stimulus check, obscuring the damage caused by those reckless measures. The receipts are in and generations will pay for the damage to our culture.
“Affordable, safe and adequate housing” is touted as the American Dream. Harris has suggested giving a $25,000 subsidy to certain first-time home buyers to get on board the Polar Express. The real American dream would provide housing and services to our veterans, our sick and disabled. On a single night in January 2023, the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported more than 650,000 men, women and children on the street, homeless and hopeless. This is an American disgrace.
Third on the list of 10 principles of the Green New Deal is “providing resources, training and high-quality education … to all people of the United States.” This is fantasy.
We are experiencing a massive shortage of teachers, day care providers and staff employees. Public schools are captured by the Department of Education and hostage to the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association. In a controlled burn, this trifecta has managed to achieve the following results: 50% of adults in this country cannot read above eighth grade level, 3 of 4 people on welfare cannot read at all and 50% of unemployed people aged 16-21 are functionally illiterate.
Bolstering these averages is the charter school concept, which bypasses the union control and foregoes some regulatory requirements. The success of the charter model has been rewarded by having their budget reduced by millions in the Biden-Harris 2025 proposal.
Teachers are at the mercy of burdensome regulations, low pay and students socially unprepared for the rigors of institutional learning. Working parents, challenged with financial obligations and inflationary expenses, cannot find or afford quality day care. Some have waited two years to enroll a child in a facility, allowing the parent to return to employment. The real new deal would prioritize our child development initiatives and education beginning at infancy. We must implement a culture where children are valued, educated, socialized and incentivized to take on the challenges of America’s future.
The remaining seven tenets of the Green New Deal aspire to sweep the Earth clean of pollutants, cleanse the cattle and power up the electrical grid. All very aspirational. The price to accomplish these magnificent seven is estimated at $8.1 trillion by the American Action Forum. Sustaining these goals is inestimable.
The script for the Harris-Walz campaign production for the presidency requires you to suspend reality and close the curtain on the disastrous Biden-Harris administration. The cost of the ticket to watch this play is unaffordable.
Connie Lovell lives in Southern Pines.
