Democrats' Full Circle "Pivot"

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• After failing to jam through the first iterations of their radical schemes to “transform” the nation, Democrats have gone back to the drawing board.
• Americans want policymakers to focus on skyrocketing inflation, rising crime, porous borders, and ongoing disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, Democrats are pivoting right back to their tax and spend spree, hoping to rebrand their plans without changing the pieces of their reckless policy agenda.

Democrats spent 2021 determined to take advantage of the slimmest of governing majorities to “transform” the country. They ignored real crises and fixated on their $4.9 trillion reckless tax and spending spree. When that stalled, they focused on a failed attempt to break the Senate and take over the country’s elections. Unsuccessful in these schemes, they have gone back to the drawing board.

Democrats “Pivot” …

Americans want policymakers to focus on the pressing problems around them: skyrocketing inflation that took an extra $3,500 from their pockets last year; increasing lawlessness in their communities and at our borders; and ongoing disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instead, Democrats are pivoting right back to their reckless tax and spend scheme. In an apparent recognition that their plans suffer from a popularity deficit, they are trying to rebrand; but the policy pieces have not changed. 

… To the Same Reckless Policies

Democrats are still determined to enact their sweeping Green New Deal agenda, including policies that will drive already soaring energy prices even higher. Their half-trillion dollar grab bag of bad ideas ranges from an onerous natural gas tax to a “Civilian Climate Corps” modeled after a Depression-era program.

They are committed to their “toddler takeover,” a complex federalization of the nation’s child care system that even liberal analysts conclude will dramatically raise child care costs for millions of middle class families. Their costly scheme to separate welfare from work with a partisan repurposing of the Child Tax Credit remains a top priority. They have declared they will not enact anything without ensuring it includes a $230 billion handout for the wealthy.

Other progressive priorities also are still in the mix, like a supercharged Internal Revenue Service to go after more Americans with tax audits – even as the agency can’t perform its most basic functions – and government drug price controls that would stifle medical innovation and threaten the pipeline for future cures. Of course, their devotion to trillions of dollars in reckless tax hikes on job creators and middle class families is unrelenting.

Democrats should shift focus to the crises that are actually harming the lives of Americans. Instead, they plan a full-circle pivot back to their failing tax and spend agenda, hoping Americans won’t see how the pieces fit together. But you don’t get a better picture with the same bad design.