OPINION:
A whisper’s going around the Washington, D.C. media and political worlds that suggests Bernie Sanders may be a candidate for Labor secretary under a Joe Biden administration — that Bernie Sanders may in fact have forged a backdoor deal that traded his campaign support for Biden for the leadership slot at the Department of Labor.
God forbid. There would go America.
A socialist in charge of America’s workplace policy? Now there’s a free market in rapid slide toward disintegration.
“Bernie Sanders makes a play for Biden Labor secretary,” Politico first reported.
“Bernie Sanders for Labor secretary? He’s reportedly interested,” The Week then reported.
“Bernie Sanders Vying for Labor Secretary in Biden Administration: Report,” National Review wrote soon after.
And Fox News on Friday included a Bill Hemmer segment where the same idea was tossed out and debated with none other than a former Team Sanders official.
This is how Labor describes the secretary’s role: “[The secretary] … oversees the enforcement and administration of more than 180 federal employment laws covering more than 150 million workers and 10 million workplaces.”
Labor decides things like Occupational and Safety and Health Administration guidelines, and federal minimum wage levels, and anti-discrimination laws — for federal workers and government contractors. Labor also fiddles with government pension plans and Social Security and Medicare.
In other words: Wherever there’s money to be made, so sits the Department of Labor.
Now imagine that power in the hands of a socialist like Sanders.
His whole economic plan on the presidential campaign trail focused on social justice, not free market.
He supported — and ostensibly still supports — taxpayer funded health care for all, taxpayer funded child care for all, taxpayer funded pre-kindergarten schooling for all, a Green New Deal that promises “100% renewable energy for electricity and transportation by 2030 and complete decarbonization by 2050 at latest,” Investopedia wrote. He supported — and ostensibly still supports — the cancellation of all student debt for the college-age crowd, free public college and trade schools for all, Medicare for all.
His 21st Century Economic Bill of Rights “guarantees all of our people the right to the basic necessities of life — and guarantees those rights regardless of Americans’ income, race, religion, gender, country of origin or sexual orientation.”
And given the free market and capitalistic system already provides Americans those rights — but in terms of pursuits, in terms of guaranteeing the rights of citizens to pursue them and earn or achieve them on their own — what Sanders is really saying with his Economic Bill of Rights is that he wants taxpayers to provide all these “necessities of life” for all citizens.
It’s a redistribution of income he wants.
It’s a socialist take-over of free market capitalism he seeks.
He just calls it a “Bill of Rights” so as to disguise his redistributing, socialist ways.
As head of Labor, Sanders could enact all these socialist provisions, and more. Simply put, businesses that don’t comply, would face punitive fees and lawsuits.
Just as Barack Obama used the Environmental Protection Agency to rcontrol business growth and production via costly Green Czar mandates — so Sanders would do through the Labor Department.
Sanders, at Labor, would be the force that put the stop to America’s economy.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
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