‘Voters will see through it…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Fans of “The Simpsons” may delight in recalling a classic episode (itself a “Music Man” parody) in which a con-artist whips the fictional town of Springfield into a frenzy with promises of a monorail.
Now, the long-running cartoon, which famously anticipated the election of President Donald Trump, may once again prove prescient.
Democratic front-runner Joe Biden unveiled a recent proposal on his website that he said broadly addressed his climate policy, with its centerpiece being an end-to-end high-speed-rail system funded by repealing Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
In addition to the roll-back, the plan also would entail a tax-hike $1.7 trillion, said a release from Americans for Tax Reform.
The plan is structured on that originally proposed by the Green New Deal, according to the website. That plan—which organizers including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, D-NY, were unable to put a specific price tag on—was estimated to total around $93 trillion.
Among the plans Biden specifically outlined were halving the travel time between New York and Washington—a boon for liberal coastal elites who have a regular need for commuting between the two.
Biden also promised to “make progress” toward completing California’s high-speed-rail boondoggle, a plan that Trump recently threatened to defund after Gov. Gavin Newsom backpedaled on the scope and deadlines of the project that was slated originally to connect San Francisco with Los Angeles.
While many Southerners already feel, at best, ambivalent about the encroachment of the northeast corridor expanding upon their “fast growing” region, Biden promised to do more of precisely that.
And “[a]cross the Midwest and the Great West, he will begin the construction of an end-to-end high speed rail system that will connect the coasts, unlocking new, affordable access for every American,” said the plan, which also outlined additional spending for green-friendly freight rail.
In an op-ed for The Hill, Adam Sabes, a communications associate at Americans for Tax Reform, noted that the lofty spending promises may seem like a good idea now, but they ultimately would not win over the majority of Americans who prefer to keep their money in their pockets.
“Running on a repeal of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act may be convenient for Biden during a Democratic primary where he can gain a lot of support for the idea,” Sabes said. “But this is not a winning strategy in the general election and he could more than likely attempt to backtrack. Voters will see through it.”
Noting the tremendous damage that the Biden plan would have on the booming economy, Sabes likened the former Obama vice president to Walter Mondale, the Jimmy Carter administration veep who attempted unsuccessfully to oust the incumbent Ronald Reagan in 1984.
“Joe Biden opened his much hyped 2020 presidential campaign last month by proclaiming the ‘first thing’ he would do if elected is to repeal the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. That means the middle class would see a tax increase,” Sabes said.
“Does that sound eerily familiar?,” he continued. “It is because Walter Mondale made a similar promise when he ran for president against Ronald Reagan.”
The group also compiled a video of Biden’s calls to repeal the Trump tax cuts in order to underscore its centrality to his message.
Like the conman in “The Simpsons,” Biden has misleadingly attempted to miscast himself as an empathic everyman with a deep concern for the needs of blue-collar middle America.
But as his policies reveal, he remains a swindler at heart.