Go left young man ( et. al.) and align with the country.
Monday was the start of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The convention normally serves as the official nomination of the party’s Presidential candidate, however, due to several state’s early qualifying times to get on the ballot in November, the official delegate vote to nominate Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate took place by virtual roll call about a month ago. The convention this week will instead be a ceremonial nomination.
At the end of last week, prior to the start of the convention, Harris gave her first major policy speech laying out some of her vision for America's future if Democrats win the election. Much like with her pick of Tim Walz as her VP candidate, this first foray into policy has some surprisingly good elements! Harris focused on bread-and-butter issues, like the high costs of housing, groceries, and the back braking expense of raising children in America. To address these costs for people, Harris has proposed a child tax credit of up to $6,000 for low- and middle-income families, as well as restoring the pandemic era tax credit program giving $3,600 per child. This program had cut childhood poverty in half in a year, before it was summarily killed by Senate Republicans, and Joe Manchin.
For her housing policy Harris is proposing using tax breaks to stimulate the development of 3 million new housing units, as well as giving first-time homeowners $25,000 towards a down payment on their first home, which could help millions in this country. She’s also paying attention to the corporate investors who’ve helped accelerate the housing crisis by buying up huge swaths of the market, saying she would back legislation to restrict tax breaks for these corporate investors.
The positive policies continue with suggestions about working with states to ban the use of medical debt being used in people's credit scores, banning hidden bank fees, and working to of course increase the minimum wage. She's also supported more controversial measures, like a ban on taxes for tips for service and hospitality workers, supported by several powerful service unions in Arizona. The policy is popular among workers in the sector, however some analyses suggest that few workers make enough to actually benefit from the policy, and that focusing on the minimum wage hike would help out more working Americans, including those in tax and tip Industries.
Of course, it's not all sunshine and rainbows, on immigration Harris says she backs “comprehensive immigration reform” but the details on her earned pathway to citizenship remain vague, and is contrasted with the much firmer promise to hire thousands more of border agents and further militarize the Southern border. Distressingly, this includes supporting a bipartisan border security bill that gives the President the power to shut the border to migrants and establish changes to the Asylum process.
In addition, while Harris has touted the $35 insulin price cap negotiated by the Biden Administration, the Democrats at large have noticeably backed off a full-throated support for single-payer healthcare through a Medicare- or Medicaid-for-all system, and even discussion around the expansion of Medicare to people younger than 65. This is disappointing, to say the least, given the continued crisis Americans face with medical debt, medical bankruptcies and not to mention the increasingly common lack of accessible care.
So, all-in-all these first policies aren’t everything one would hope for, but it's surprisingly good, and to the left of what we've seen from much of the standard Democratic Party fare. More importantly, these policies still suggest an openness to going further and pursuing bolder policy if pushed. And that is the key here: these policies are a step in the right direction, but they are steps that cannot be solely championed by even the most enthusiastic president. The President, powerful though they may be, is but one individual working in a system designed to resist radical change, especially when that change favors of the people. Creating lasting change will take not just the election of a Democratic president, and the support of a Democratic House and Senate, but an equally active and militant labor and community groups to provide the continued vocal and public pressure under which it is politically savvy and advantageous to go to bat for the people.
Don't Shop on Tuesday. #DSOT
Comentarios