I just read the draft platform that was put together by the Platform Committee of the Democrat Party. The final platform will be adopted at the convention, but there are unlikely to be any changes to the draft. The focus of my review was on economic issues, specifically what plans do the Democrats propose to get the economy growing again. The platform amazed me; it had essentially no ideas on the subject. Let me explain:
1. The platform calls for creation of a National Infrastructure Bank. Supposedly, this would encourage growth. Creation of such a government "bank" is not a new idea. It has been rejected by Congress on a number of occasions. The so-called bank, if created, would be an agency to fund infrastructure improvements. The bank would replace the appropriations passed by Congress itself. There would be no more or less money spent on infrastructure work; the difference is that bureaucrats at the bank would make the decision as to what gets funded rather than Congress making that decision. It would not lead to any economic growth. It would, however, deprive the American people of the ability to influence the process and would give that instead to special interests and the super-rich. If there were an infrastructure proposal that the American people did not support, they could not write to Congress; they would be stuck trying to convince the staff of the National Infrastructure Bank that they were making a mistake. The average person would not even know how to try to do that. Only the very rich and powerful interests who could afford high powered lawyers and lobbyists would be able to have influence. Once again, we would see the Democrats creating a new federal body of supposed "experts" who would be coopted by the special interests to the detriment of the average American.
2. The platform calls for the USA to produce more jobs in green energy with additional investments in that field. That may sound familiar because it is the same plan pushed by the Obama administration since 2009. America spent something over 100 billion dollars on promotion of green energy jobs. As a result, we got scandals like Solyndra where friends and contributors of the Democrats got over half a billion dollars from the government but the scheme collapsed once the government money ran out. The friends and donors of the Democrats got rich and no one got any lasting jobs-- green or otherwise. We now know that green energy jobs is a promise that sounds nice but does not mean anything.
That's it as far as items in the Democrat platform for promoting economic growth. Oh, they have tax increases for funding Social Security or for punishing businesses that invest overseas, but nothing else for economic growth.
The key to remember is that the lack of economic growth is the greatest problem that this country faces at the moment. If we cannot get America moving again, everyone will suffer. And here's one of our two parties demonstrating that it has no ideas on what to do. NOTHING! How can they ever hope to govern successfully. They make clear that a vote for them is a vote for watching the country go down the drain.
1. The platform calls for creation of a National Infrastructure Bank. Supposedly, this would encourage growth. Creation of such a government "bank" is not a new idea. It has been rejected by Congress on a number of occasions. The so-called bank, if created, would be an agency to fund infrastructure improvements. The bank would replace the appropriations passed by Congress itself. There would be no more or less money spent on infrastructure work; the difference is that bureaucrats at the bank would make the decision as to what gets funded rather than Congress making that decision. It would not lead to any economic growth. It would, however, deprive the American people of the ability to influence the process and would give that instead to special interests and the super-rich. If there were an infrastructure proposal that the American people did not support, they could not write to Congress; they would be stuck trying to convince the staff of the National Infrastructure Bank that they were making a mistake. The average person would not even know how to try to do that. Only the very rich and powerful interests who could afford high powered lawyers and lobbyists would be able to have influence. Once again, we would see the Democrats creating a new federal body of supposed "experts" who would be coopted by the special interests to the detriment of the average American.
2. The platform calls for the USA to produce more jobs in green energy with additional investments in that field. That may sound familiar because it is the same plan pushed by the Obama administration since 2009. America spent something over 100 billion dollars on promotion of green energy jobs. As a result, we got scandals like Solyndra where friends and contributors of the Democrats got over half a billion dollars from the government but the scheme collapsed once the government money ran out. The friends and donors of the Democrats got rich and no one got any lasting jobs-- green or otherwise. We now know that green energy jobs is a promise that sounds nice but does not mean anything.
That's it as far as items in the Democrat platform for promoting economic growth. Oh, they have tax increases for funding Social Security or for punishing businesses that invest overseas, but nothing else for economic growth.
The key to remember is that the lack of economic growth is the greatest problem that this country faces at the moment. If we cannot get America moving again, everyone will suffer. And here's one of our two parties demonstrating that it has no ideas on what to do. NOTHING! How can they ever hope to govern successfully. They make clear that a vote for them is a vote for watching the country go down the drain.
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