A coalition of progressive groups, many funded by billionaire George Soros, is sponsoring a “People’s Bailout” community organizing outfit nudging Congress to use the next stimulus package during the coronavirus crisis to enact reforms that would fundamentally transform American society by achieving longtime progressive aims.
In the spirit of the repurposed progressive anthem of never letting a crisis go to waste, the suddenly created People’s Bailout group is demanding that the next stimulus package adhere to “five principles” the group says are endorsed by “nearly 1,000 organizations, unions, and community leaders, and nearly 100 members of Congress.”
Those “principals” encompass such far-left wish list items as government healthcare for illegal immigrants, required $15 per hour minimum wage, enhanced union collective bargaining and government regulation of the board of directors of private companies to ensure “worker representation.”
Also within the “five principles” list are “direct sizable cash payments to every person” and the use of stimulus legislation to push what would amount to a massive “green” new deal.
The “green” section calls for public funds to (below are direct quotes):
- expand wind and solar power
- build clean and affordable public transit
- weatherize our buildings
- manufacture more clean energy goods
- expand public services that support climate resilience,
- [reduce] climate emissions and toxic pollution.
Using progressive key words, the group exclaims that a “people’s bailout should be rooted in justice” and “we demand the bailout provide a just recovery.”
The group is pushing the #PeoplesBailout hashtag and has gone so far as to provide activists with wording to use in social media posts directed at lawmakers. The group’s website also provides exact scripting for people to read when calling their lawmakers to demand the “five principles” be incorporated in stimulus legislation.
The People’s Bailout held an online May Day rally and now wants activists to get further involved by displaying banners and forming car caravans.
The website promotes a “helpful slideshow and handout on key tactics to use” to push promote the transformative agenda.
The “helpful slideshow” and “tactics” linked on the site are from the Ruckus Society, which specializes in the disruption tactic of so-called direct action.
Ruckus provided training and resources to the Occupy movement. It’s been funded by the Soros-financed Tides Foundation.
Ruckus leaders infamously helped to spark the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle that turned violent.
The Occupy-Ruckus link is instructive. Besides Ruckus, Occupy was also backed by groups like MoveOn.org and the Working Families Party.
The Soros-funded MoveOn.org and the Working Families Party are two of 13 listed “sponsors” of the People’s Bailout group.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, one People’s Bailout sponsor is the Sunrise Movement which helped craft the socialist utopian Green New Deal blueprint introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Sunrise was in part inspired by the activism of Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter and the radical immigration group United We Dream.
Another sponsor is the Indivisible Project, which has partnered with Organizing for Action, the activist group that morphed from Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign. Breitbart News extensively reported that Indivisible leaders are openly associated with groups financed by Soros.
Indivisible yesterday endorsed Joe Biden for president. The group’s leaders say they are engaged with Biden’s campaign on such policies as universal voting by mail.
The other 13 sponsors of the People’s Bailout include the Center for Popular Democracy, Climate Justice Alliance, Greenpeace and the Soros-funded Sierra Club.
The People’s Bailout also boasts over 1,000 “signatories” which reads like a who’s who of far-left activist groups, including a large number of groups funded by Soros as well as the Soros-financed Tides Foundation.
The People’s Bailout is not alone. Many of the same far-left, Big Government proposals are also being peddled by other 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 own wish list for the next round of recovery legislation.
Like the People’s Bailout, 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.
Increased abortion funding, stimulus checks for illegals, permanent housing guarantees, mail-in voting for elections and more union access also make their way into the CAP proposals.
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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