During the 2020 election cycle, proponents of the Green New Deal and certain members of the Left won support for a federal employment guarantee; Vice President Kamala Harris withdrew her support from this plan.
The presumed Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, has modified her stance on the policy plan, according to a campaign official who talked with the Washington Examiner on Wednesday. The declaration is the most recent in a string of concessions made by Harris on significant policy issues in recent days.
A federal jobs guarantee would be an extremely expensive idea that would resemble the New Deal programs of the 1930s, in which the federal government would offer employment to anybody who requested it.
A 2019 resolution acknowledging the federal government’s need to enact a Green New Deal was the result of the campaign. The resolution, which called for the creation of “millions of excellent, high-wage employment,” included Harris, a senator from California at the time, as one of its 14 co-sponsors. The bill was a message piece that would not have changed the law, and it was supported by several Democratic presidential candidates. The House had more than a hundred co-sponsors of a similar resolution.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), among other liberal lawmakers, have advocated for a Green New Deal, which would implement extensive new programs similar to former President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, with the goal of reducing climate change and constructing clean energy projects.
A crucial component of the settlement was a federal job guarantee. “Guaranteeing a job with family-sustaining pay, enough family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security to all residents of the United States.” was one of its mandated objectives, as stated in the text.
In light of the turnaround on Wednesday, a Harris official told the Washington Examiner that the campaign is attempting to look ahead rather than back. Harris is thrilled to continue advancing the advancement of climate measures started by the Biden administration, according to the source, and is quite pleased with its record.
Harris also endorsed a 2018 measure that would mandate the Labor Department to launch a pilot program to fund initiatives that would provide jobs for residents living in the places such organizations serve, such as tribal entities with high unemployment rates. The funding would go to qualifying entities for job guarantee programs.
An employment guarantee would represent a significant shift in economic strategy. The idea is not strongly supported by mainstream economists. Proponents of “modern monetary theory,” an unconventional school of economic thinking that rejects the premise that the United States should care about how spending impacts the national debt, are among those who promote it.
Such a large-scale job guarantee scheme would come at a very hefty cost. According to 2018 research, the annual cost may range from $654 billion to $2.1 trillion. For perspective, the projected budget deficit for this year is $1.9 trillion.
Since President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 race and backed Harris’s presidential run, Harris has retracted her endorsement of many liberal policy proposals in an effort to align herself more closely with the center of the political spectrum.
She has retracted, for instance, from her support of doing away with commercial health insurance as part of a Medicare for All plan. Additionally, her team informed Hill that should she win, she would not pursue a fracking prohibition. That came after declaring to CNN during a previous presidential campaign, “There’s no question I’m in support of stopping fracking.”
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