Recent articles have been presented to me outlining the agendas for both parties in the upcoming election, so I thought it might be helpful to have the positions on the various subjects in one place to provide for easier comparison (as if I thought it’s really needed). Please, forgive the over-the-top colorization, but there is so much lip service being given these days to Red vs Blue, I couldn't help myself.
President Trump’s second term agenda:
JOBS
· Create 10 Million New Jobs in 10 Months
· Create 1 Million New Small Businesses
· Cut Taxes to Boost Take-Home Pay and Keep Jobs in America
· Enact Fair Trade Deals that Protect American Jobs
· “Made in America” Tax Credits
· Expand Opportunity Zones
· Continue Deregulatory Agenda for Energy Independence
ERADICATE COVID-19
· Develop a Vaccine by The End Of 2020
· Return to Normal in 2021
· Make All Critical Medicines and Supplies for Healthcare Workers in The United States
· Refill Stockpiles and Prepare for Future Pandemics
END OUR RELIANCE ON CHINA
· Bring Back 1 Million Manufacturing Jobs from China
· Tax Credits for Companies that Bring Back Jobs from China
· Allow 100% Expensing Deductions for Essential Industries like Pharmaceuticals and Robotics who Bring Back their Manufacturing to the United States
· No Federal Contracts for Companies who Outsource to China
· Hold China Fully Accountable for Allowing the Virus to Spread around the World
HEALTHCARE
· Cut Prescription Drug Prices
· Put Patients and Doctors Back in Charge of our Healthcare System
· Lower Healthcare Insurance Premiums
· End Surprise Billing
· Cover All Pre-Existing Conditions
· Protect Social Security and Medicare
· Protect Our Veterans and Provide World-Class Healthcare and Services
EDUCATION
· Provide School Choice to Every Child in America
· Teach American Exceptionalism
DRAIN THE SWAMP
· Pass Congressional Term Limits
· End Bureaucratic Government Bullying of U.S. Citizens and Small Businesses
· Expose Washington’s Money Trail and Delegate Powers Back to People and States
· Drain the Globalist Swamp by Taking on International Organizations That Hurt American Citizens
DEFEND OUR POLICE
· Fully Fund and Hire More Police and Law Enforcement Officers
· Increase Criminal Penalties for Assaults on Law Enforcement Officers
· Prosecute Drive-By Shootings as Acts of Domestic Terrorism
· Bring Violent Extremist Groups Like ANTIFA to Justice
· End Cashless Bail and Keep Dangerous Criminals Locked Up until Trial
END ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND PROTECT AMERICAN WORKERS
· Block Illegal Immigrants from Becoming Eligible for Taxpayer-Funded Welfare, Healthcare, and Free College Tuition
· Mandatory Deportation for Non-Citizen Gang Members
· Dismantle Human Trafficking Networks
· End Sanctuary Cities to Restore our Neighborhoods and Protect our Families
· Prohibit American Companies from Replacing United States Citizens with Lower-Cost Foreign Workers
· Require New Immigrants to Be Able to Support Themselves Financially
INNOVATE FOR THE FUTURE
· Launch Space Force, Establish Permanent Manned Presence on The Moon and Send the First Manned Mission to Mars
· Build the World’s Greatest Infrastructure System
· Win the Race to 5G and Establish a National High-Speed Wireless Internet Network
· Continue to Lead the World in Access to the Cleanest Drinking Water and Cleanest Air
· Partner with Other Nations to Clean Up our Planet’s Oceans
AMERICA FIRST FOREIGN POLICY
· Stop Endless Wars and Bring Our Troops Home
· Get Allies to Pay their Fair Share
· Maintain and Expand America’s Unrivaled Military Strength
· Wipe Out Global Terrorists Who Threaten to Harm Americans
· Build a Great Cybersecurity Defense System and Missile Defense System
A summary of the official Democratic platform, including what Kamala Harris has proposed in her career:
REPARATIONS:
-Platform calls for a Federal Commission on reparations.
-Harris continuously called for reparations.
CRIME:
-Platform: Eliminate minimum sentencing, and all private prisons.
-Harris openly supported LA's Mayor slashing the police budget by $150 million.
-Harris supports eliminating, or lowering, cash bail for criminal arrests.
-Harris strongly supports Sanctuary Cities for Illegals even in the event of crimes:
ANTIFA/BLM:
-Platform, no mention of either.
-Harris helped raise bail for rioters arrested for looting and violence.
IMMIGRATION:
-Platform: [exact quote] "Increase the number of refugees we welcome into the Country. With more than 70 million displaced people in the world today, this is a moment that demands American leadership. Offering hope and safe haven to refugees is part of who we are as a country.”
-Platform: Shut down the wall. Eliminate the “public charge rule” which limits immigrants’ rights to taxpayer funded public services such as Food Stamps and Medicaid.
-Harris had consistently called for open borders and free education and health care for all immigrants. She called for repealing the Illegal Entry Statute, and during a hearing on Capitol Hill she compared ICE (our Immigration law officers) to the KKK
-Harris strongly supports sanctuary cities for illegals even in the face of horrific crimes
EDUCATION:
-Platform: Shut down Charter Schools and not allow federal funds for school choice.
-Platform: forgive student debt ($1.4 TRILLION)
-Platform: Taxpayers to pay for 2 years free college for those eligible.
-Harris: Taxpayers to pay for free education for illegal immigrants
TAXES:
-Platform: Revolutionary new capital gains taxes at death, doubling of capital gains tax from 20 to 39.6% and unrealized gains taxed at death with no step-up-in-basis), slash deductibility of contributions to IRAs and 401ks, increase employer tax by 1/3rd (Harris wants 2/3rds increase), amongst others.
-Platform: Raise the corporate tax rate by 1/3rd from 21% to 28%. Raise individual top rate to 39.6%.
-Platform: End 1031 Exchanges. (The lifeblood of commercial real estate.)
-Platform: Lower the estate tax exemption from $11.58 million to $5.49 million.
-Harris has called for it to be rolled back to $3.5 million. (Estates over the exemption pay 40% federal tax)
-Platform: Double the capital gains rate from 20% to 39.6% for income over $1 million, and, upon death, any income, including unrealized capital gains over $1 million to be taxed at 39.6%.
-Platform: End Capital Gains step-up-in-basis at death. (If you have no records on old cost basis, IRS says cost basis is zero.)
-Platform: Tax all unrealized gains at death. To illustrate for California: Let’s say your home and stocks cost you $400,000 total, but at death are now worth $2.5 million. $2.1 million gain will push your income over $1 million and then taxed at 39.6% + 3.8% ObamaCare + 13.3% CA State tax = 56.7% new tax due at death. Add 40% estate tax for any assets over $5.49 million, or with Harris as President over $3.5 million.
-Platform: Add a new 12.4% FICA (social security & medicare) tax for earnings over $400,000. (Top Fed rate then: 39.6% +12.4%= 52% + State income tax)
-Platform: Slash deductibility of retirement plans
-Platform: limit deductions to 28% of income.
-Harris has called for business taxes to be raised 2/3rds to 35%.
CLIMATE AND ENERGY:
-Platform: “The Green New Deal”, co-sponsored in the Senate by Harris: End all fossil fuels by 2050 (originally it was by 2030). AOC was co-chair of Harris/Biden Climate Committee.
-Platform: No fracking on Federal lands.
-Harris: shut down all fracking
TRADE & BUSINESS:
-Platform: Require 12 weeks paid leave from all employers
-Harris has pushed up to 6 months paid leave.
-Platform: Pass the “Protecting Right to Organize Act" (PRO). Will do away with 70 years of labor laws to force unionization via abandoning voting rights for workers substituting “card-check”, and slash rights to be an independent contractor.
-Harris voted against the Canada/Mexico trade pact: USMCA, which Trump secured to succeed the North America Free Trade Agreement.
SECOND AMENDMENT:
-Platform: National firearm registry and National background check for firearms
-Harris signed a friend-of-the-court brief in the landmark 2nd Amendment case, Heller vs. D.C., arguing a private citizen has no right to possess arms, that the 2nd Amendment right was for militias, not for individuals.
ELECTORAL COLLEGE/SUPREME COURT:
-Biden and Harris continue to refuse to answer whether they will pack the Supreme Court from 9 to 12 or 15. Biden later offered, “Voters don’t deserve to know.”
-Harris calls for an end to the Electoral College, the only avenue for rural states to have a voice on the National stage. Without the Electoral College, the large urban cities swallow the power of the rest of the Country.
Meanwhile, Obama, Schumer, and the Democrat leadership are calling openly for eliminating the Senate's minority Party protection via filibuster, and adding two new states: Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico (4 new permanent Democrat Senate seats, and thus a permanent Senate majority). Without the filibuster which requires 60 votes to pass key votes, a simple majority vote can pack the 9-member Supreme Court by adding 3-5 new members, and add two more states.
HEALTH CARE:
-Platform: Expand ObamaCare and offer Universal Health Care with no deductibles.
-Harris in the primaries supported Bernie Sanders's single-payer Health Care, eliminating all private health insurance.
DEFENSE:
-Biden says he supports a strong military, in fact, Obama and he slashed our army, air force, and navy forces. Robert Gates, former Defense Secretary to Bush and Obama, said, ”Biden voted against every single arms [modernization] program."
-Harris has consistently called for slashing Defense spending.
SPENDING:
- In 2008, the Federal Government spent $2.98 Trillion with a $459 billion deficit. In 2019 the Federal Government spent $4.448 Trillion (98% increase), with a $984 billion deficit . As of August, 2020, due to Covid, the government has spent an astonishing $6.1 trillion (36% increase in 11 months) with a $3 Trillion deficit. This means that our 11 month deficit is greater than the entire gross budget when Obama assumed office.
-Platform calls for vast new spending for Immigrants’ needs, forgiveness of $1.4 trillion in student loans, universal health care, 2 year’s free college to those eligible, a $2.2 trillion Pelosi proposal for Covid, once again proposing to pay the unemployed more than the private sector paid before Covid, crushing restaurants and small employers who struggle to reopen and are closing by the thousands.
-The Harris/Biden platform calls for $5.4 trillion more spending in the next decade, according to the Penn-Wharton Business Model.
Note: If all income of the top 1% of taxpayers were taxed at 100%, it wouldn’t even wipe out this year's deficit between revenue and spending.
AGAIN, my recommendation of The Stakes by Michael Anton
