Increased abortion funding. Stimulus checks for illegals. Permanent housing guarantees. Mail-in voting for elections. Minimum wage hikes and more union access. The large-scale release of imprisoned criminals. An extensive national disease surveillance program.
These are just some of the far-left, Big Government proposals being peddled by influential progressive organizations for Democrats to include in the next round of emergency stimulus funding, which the groups say should be at least as large as the $2.2 trillion CARES Act.
The Center for American Progress (CAP), which functions as an idea factory for the Democratic Party, compiled its wish list for the next round of recovery legislation during the Chinese coronavirus crisis.
Reprising the repurposed progressive anthem of never letting a crisis go to waste, the CAP’s list of recommendations for the next stimulus package clearly seeks to use the coronavirus crisis to achieve many longstanding progressive policy aims.
The CAP tells lawmakers that the pandemic “requires Congress to significantly expand the measures included in the CARES Act and other COVID-19 packages to reflect the expected magnitude and duration of the disruption.”
The CAP recommends the construction of a robust surveillance program, including the following (below are direct quotes from the CAP plan):
- Surveillance testing (including training volunteers) and to build tracing teams.
- App development (or funding for state licensing of the technology if privately developed) that will be necessary for instantaneous contact tracing.
- Additional funding for developing a national disease surveillance program going forward.
CAP wants to use the pandemic to fundamentally transform the voting system, requiring all states to “significantly expand vote-by-mail opportunities; implement at least 14 days of early voting; adopt online and same day voter registration.”
Here, CAP, which is funded by billionaire activist George Soros, joins a slew of other Soros-funded progressive groups seeking the expanded use of mail-in balloting for elections by citing fears that coronavirus makes it too dangerous to vote in person.
Republicans specifically fear the prospect of voter fraud, since mail-in voting would be harder to authenticate.
Stimulus payments in the next round of legislation must also include “undocumented individuals and mixed-status families where even just one parent is filing their taxes with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number and the other parent and all children have an SSN,” CAP writes.
Instead of turning off extra unemployment insurance benefits after the coronavirus pandemic is over, CAP advocates that unemployment insurance “and other stabilizers” – ostensibly stimulus checks — “should be automatically tied to economic conditions, so that continuing and future crises don’t require ad hoc action.”
The next stimulus package must ensure that “permanent stable housing must be connected to wraparound services or a continuum of care that is flexible and tailored to the individual or household’s needs.”
CAP adds: “In addition to permanent protections for renters to ensure that they aren’t pushed out of housing once it is obtained, rental and deposit assistance must also be targeted to currently unhoused people to guarantee their successful transition into longstanding housing.”
For the next stimulus bill, CAP wants those defined as essential workers to get paid minimum wages of at least $15 dollars and they must have the ability to join a union.
Progressives have long pushed minimum wage hikes despite warnings that such proposals could lead to disastrous economic consequences.
The federal minimum wage hike is a progressive plan that in the past was marketed as a “living wage.” The living wage scheme, deployed in the past locally, has a history of hurting small businesses, negatively impacting local economies and decreasing employment opportunities for low income workers. Indeed, the living wage has monumentally failed during numerous high profile trials.
CAP, in the meantime, wants to use any upcoming coronavirus legislation to “protect and expand access to reproductive health care,” singling out abortion.
The progressive group states:
Reproductive health care is essential health care. Congress must act to expand access to reproductive health services, including abortion and contraception, especially given the unknowns about how pregnancy intersects with the coronavirus.
CAP joins other Soros-funded groups by advocating the release of “low-risk and elderly incarcerated persons.”
It also wants pandemic legislation to “secure additional resources and funding for currently and formerly incarcerated persons.”
Earlier this week, Breitbart News reported the Soros-funded Brennan Center for Justice submitted a letter to the governors of all fifty states urging them to use executive action to “release as many people as possible from incarceration” due to coronavirus fears “provided they do not pose serious public safety threats.”
The letter cited concerns that the U.S. prison population could face greater risk of illness and death than the general public due to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
CAP’s wish list for the next stimulus bill advocates for funding so “limited English proficient” patients can “access care in their preferred language.”
The pandemic legislation should also ensure “enhance[d] funding for agencies’ enforcement of civil rights and anti-discrimination protections,” CAP argues.
Besides the recommendation document, CAP President Neera Tanden was one of 14 signatories to a “statement of principles” by progressive groups urging Congressional leaders to ensure the government massively intervenes to stabilize the U.S. economy.
“It is clearer than ever that we need major government intervention to stabilize the economy and put us on a long-term path to resiliency,” the progressive leaders wrote in their missive.
Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow.
Joshua Klein contributed research to this article. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein_
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