Justin Haskins: Joe Biden’s Electoral College win is a big deal, so is his scary ‘Great Reset’ agenda
On Monday, a majority of presidential electors, 306 to 232 cast their votes for Joe Biden, formally making the 78-year-old the new president-elect of the United States.
Although Biden campaigned as a “moderate” who would unify the country, his various progressive policy proposals and numerous efforts to appease the Democratic Party’s far-left base suggest strongly that Biden could very likely end up becoming — in the words of comrade Bernie Sanders — the “most progressive president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”
What, exactly, will Joe Biden’s presidency look like? The answer to that question depends almost entirely on the outcome of the two Senate runoff elections in Georgia.
If Republicans win just one of the two Senate seats in contention, Democrats would likely be incapable of passing any legislation without the consent of several Republicans and, in many cases, the blessing of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. That would severely handicap the ability of congressional Democrats and Biden to pass many of the sweeping reforms they called for throughout the 2020 campaign.
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However, if Democrats manage to win both races, they would control 50 seats in the Senate plus benefit from the tiebreaking vote of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, giving them the power to enact expansive new government programs and regulatory schemes that would stifle economic growth, drive up the national debt and limit individual freedom.
At a November virtual event hosted by the World Economic Forum promoting the far-left “Great Reset” movement, John Kerry — who was recently named Biden’s “climate czar” — provided insight into what the incoming Biden administration has planned for the American people.
At panel discussion about the Great Reset led by WEF President Borge Brende, Brende asked Kerry whether those calling for a “great reset” of global capitalism and dramatic changes to society and national economies are “expecting too much too soon from the new president, or is he going to deliver first day on this [sic] topics?”
After a few brief introductory statements and greetings, Kerry responded, “And yes, it [the Great Reset] will happen. And I think it will happen with greater speed and with greater intensity than a lot of people might imagine.”
How does the incoming Biden administration plan to usher in this promised Great Reset, and what would it mean for you and your family?
Biden’s platform includes several major Great Reset policy reforms covering three important public policy areas: the economy, energy and climate change.
The Economy
Although Biden’s economics plan includes numerous proposed changes — including tax increases for individuals earning more than $400,000, enhancing “buy American” rules for government agencies and expanding the power of public-sector unions — the core parts of Biden’s platform are large tax increases on businesses and increasing regulations so that government has greater control over economic activity.
AFTER THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTE, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Biden’s tax plan would raise corporate tax rates by 33%, from 21% to 28%, as well as create a new 15% minimum tax on corporations that earn $100 million or more. Biden has also proposed doubling the tax rate of income earned overseas by U.S. corporations, to 21%, and creating a Social Security payroll tax for those earning more than $400,000.
Together, these reforms would impose one of the largest tax increases on corporations in American history, encouraging businesses to flee the country in droves, driving down economic growth.
According to the non-partisan Tax Foundation, Biden’s plan would reduce capital stock by 3.75%, damaging retirement accounts; slow total economic growth, reducing the long-term GDP by 1.62%; lower wages by 1.15%, hurting tens of millions of working families; and reduce the number of projected jobs by 542,000.
Biden has also signaled that he will significantly increase regulations on corporations, warning businesses in July that he plans to put an “end to the era of shareholder capitalism.”
Although Biden spends most of his time talking about taxes and regulations aimed at large corporations, some of his proposals would cause significant damage to small businesses too. For instance, perhaps Biden’s most important regulatory change would be to increase the national minimum wage to $15 per hour.
Although a national minimum wage increase would undoubtedly benefit some workers, the $15 wage mandate would cause a lot more harm than good.
The Congressional Budget Office noted in a 2019 analysis that a $15 minimum wage would eliminate 1.3 million jobs nationwide, although CBO analysts also stated the number of lost jobs could be millions higher.
CBO further estimated the total gains made by families from the wage increases would be outweighed by economic losses. According to CBO, “the $15 option would reduce total real (inflation-adjusted) family income in 2025 by $9 billion, or 0.1 percent.”
Climate and Energy
Some of Biden’s most radical proposals are those that align with the Great Reset’s goal of stopping the so-called “climate crisis” by transforming the world’s energy industries and infrastructure systems.
For example, Biden has repeatedly promised to push the United States back into the Paris Climate Agreement, which would require the United States by 2030 to reduce its carbon-dioxide emissions by nearly 30 percent below 2005 levels. This move alone would force the entire country to depend significantly more on much less reliable, much more expensive wind and solar energy.
Nick Loris at The Heritage Foundation estimates that meeting the Paris targets would cost the average American family of four $30,000 in higher energy costs and 400,000 jobs, about half of which would be in manufacturing. Loris also projects it would cause an aggregate U.S. GDP loss of over $2.5 trillion.
But that’s just the beginning.
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Biden’s radical climate plan would spend at least $2 trillion in his first term trying to put the country on the path toward having the entire U.S. electric grid be 100 percent carbon-dioxide-neutral by 2035, an extremely expensive plan that could potentially leave millions of Americans in the dark.
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In the pursuit of less-stringent goals, California suffered rolling blackouts in August because the solar panels they depend on to power the state do not work when the sun goes down. Adding insult to injury, Californians already pay some of the highest costs for the privilege of having unreliable energy.
If America were to pay the same price for electricity as the residents of California do now, total national electricity costs would increase by $295 billion annually.
Even more stunning, if 80% of electricity were to come from wind and sources, a projection more closely aligned with Biden’s plan, total electricity costs would increase by more than $1.8 trillion per year, according to estimates by Isaac Orr at the Center of the American Experiment.
Biden has also called for a global trade war with any nation that refuses to adopt similar energy policies, including China.
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“As the U.S. takes steps to make domestic polluters bear the full cost of their carbon pollution, the Biden Administration will impose carbon adjustment fees or quotas on carbon-intensive goods from countries that are failing to meet their climate and environmental obligations,” Biden’s climate plan says.
When coupled with Biden’s proposed corporate tax increases and the rising energy costs associated with his renewable energy requirements, Biden’s proposed trade war would crush countless businesses across the United States, especially energy-intensive industries like manufacturing. Hundreds of thousands of additional jobs, if not millions of jobs, would almost certainly be lost over the next two decades.
In June, just as the World Economic Forum was launching its Great Reset initiative, the head of WEF, Klaus Schwab, wrote an article about the reset in which he said “the world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions. Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed. In short, we need a ‘Great Reset’ of capitalism.”
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Based on Biden’s far-left policies and the comments made by the incoming climate czar, John Kerry, it seems pretty clear the Biden administration is committed to doing their part to bring about the Great Reset.
Those of us who support free markets and personal liberty must be equally committed to stopping it.
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