{UAH} THAT LOOKS LIKE SMOKE OUT OF JOE BIDEN'S HOUSE

Joe Biden fumbling on policies as divisiveness within Democratic Party grows

By Emily Jacobs

September 9, 2020 | 12:58pm

Joe BidenGetty Images

 

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is running on a platform of unifying a divided nation, but the 2020 hopeful will first have to quell party infighting and finalize his positions on some fluctuating policy stances.

Progressives and moderates have sparred over the Democratic policy agenda since long before President Trump ascended to the White House in 2016, but the Biden campaign has found itself stoking the concerns of one wing of the party every time it tries to appease the other.

In early July, the former vice president’s campaign released the recommendations made by the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Forces, which were created to combine the platforms of Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the two Democratic primary front-runners.

While Sanders’ most progressive ambitions, including “Medicare for all,” tuition-free public college and the Green New Deal, were not included in the task forces’ list of policy recommendations, some far-left ideas did make the cut.

The task forces agreed to back eliminating carbon emissions for power plants by 2035, implementing new use-of-force guidelines for police, banning for-profit charter schools, blocking the federal government from approving contracts to companies that pay below the $15 minimum wage, allowing banking at the post office, having the Federal Reserve guarantee all Americans a bank account as well as a myriad of extremely progressive immigration policies.

Despite the task forces and the Democratic Party platform being in favor of eliminating carbon emissions, a person familiar with the Biden campaign’s thinking told Axios last month that a Biden administration would not pursue a carbon tax.

“I don’t think the campaign is going to push this. I think it’s almost always the right policy except in a recession or coming out of a recession,” the source said.

Regardless of Biden’s shift, Democratic National Committee officials added an amendment to the party platform in July that said, “Democrats support eliminating tax breaks and subsidies for fossil fuels, and will fight to defend and extend tax incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy.”

Banking at the post office and pushing the Fed are two major policy wins for those like Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) who are looking to score progressive wins under a moderate president.

In private calls with Wall Street leaders, however, the Biden campaign downplayed those proposals, according to the Washington Post.

“They basically said, ‘Listen, this is just an exercise to keep the Warren people happy, and don’t read too much into it,’” one investment banker told the paper, referring to the Massachusetts senator.

The banker, who spoke to the paper on condition of anonymity, alleged that the campaign conveyed this message on multiple occasions.

Biden is known for having evolving positions over his decades in political life, a result of his years navigating the Senate as more of a dealmaker who reached across the aisle than a partisan figure.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren Getty Images

 

Reached for comment by the paper, Biden’s campaign said the recommendations made by the unity task forces were not meant to be taken as official policy.

Instead, they said, “The Biden-Sanders task forces made recommendations to Vice President Biden and to the [Democratic] platform drafting committee. This anonymous source appears to be confused and uninformed about this very basic distinction.”

Asked Wednesday while speaking to reporters in Michigan if he would be able to pay for all of the progressive proposals without raising taxes on middle-class families, Biden reneged on what his campaign allegedly told Wall Street.

“I can actually cut taxes for middle-class people, anybody making less than $400,000 wouldn’t pay a penny. But guess what? The super-wealthy will start to pay what they should pay,” the 2020 Democrat answered.

Sen. Bernie Sanders Getty Images

 

“I’m going to increase the tax rate to back to what it was under George Bush, 36.9 percent, that would raise close to a trillion dollars. We can also make sure that the tax rate goes down not to 20 percent for corporate America, but to 28 percent from 38 percent. That raises a considerable amount of money as well. Make sure that people in fact, who are in a situation where they are paid no taxes, major corporations — they pay a minimum of 50 percent tax. We have 19 corporations making billions of dollars paying zero tax.

“I’d pay for every single thing that I plan on doing, for education, for health care, for all the things that matter in terms of people being employed and ordinary middle-class people having a fighting chance,” he continued.

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