Joe Biden won the 2020 election by consistently and falsely presenting himself as a political moderate who desperately wants to unify America.
In reality, Biden’s ideology is much further to the left than his campaign was ever willing to admit. Additionally, his policies are designed to impose the ideas of the left on all states, the exact opposite approach a president would take if he or she were truly interested in uniting the country.
But do not take my word for it. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—the face of the modern socialist movement in the United States—has repeatedly suggested Biden could be America’s“most progressive president”in nearly 100 years.
However, that does not mean that President Biden is a Marxist socialist. Rather than support policies designed to usher in absolute wealth equality and common property ownership, Biden aims to control the economy using the strategies outlined by supporters of the “Great Reset,” a far-left movement supported by countless leaders at many of the world’s most influential international institutions and multinational corporations and banks, including the World Economic Forum, United Nations, International Monetary Fund, Bank of America, and Microsoft.
As Klaus Schwab, the head of the World Economic Forum, has explained, the purpose of the Great Reset is to get governments and international corporations to work together to “act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions.”
Supporters of this movement, which includes President Biden and his administration’s “climate czar,”John Kerry, plan to “reset” the global economy using two strategies.
The first is to create or expand large government programs that seek to merge left-wing causes with jobs programs, such as Biden’s $2 trillion energy and infrastructure plan.
The second strategy is to completely transform the way businesses—especially large multinational corporations—operate by coercing them into promoting leftist ideas in exchange for government funding, tax breaks and other special treatment, and by using taxes and regulations to punish businesses that do not support left-wing causes.
When the Biden administration recently shut down the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which was projected to create or support more than 40,000 jobs, many of which would have been union jobs, the move was completely in line with the principles of the Great Reset.
The purpose of stopping the Keystone XL pipeline was not to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. (The Obama-Biden administration admitted in five separate reports that the pipeline expansion would not have a significant impact on greenhouse gasses.) It was meant to punish the oil industry and its many workers for not being sufficiently “green.”
The death of the Keystone XL pipeline is just the beginning, though. The Biden administration is now seeking to institutionalize Great Reset principles throughout the federal government, and in so doing, expanding the ability of the administrative state in Washington, D.C., to control economic activity and push companies to promote left-wing ideas.
One of the ways the Biden administration is planning to exercise greater control over the economy is through the creation of a new agency called theMade in America Office, which will be housed within the Office of Management and Budget.
The primary focus of the Made in America Office will be to ensure that the U.S. government,“whenever possible, procure goods, products, materials, and services from sources that will help American businesses compete in strategic industries and help America’s workers thrive.”
Requiring U.S. federal agencies to rely less on foreign businesses and manufacturers is a noble cause that many on the ideological left and right support, but the Biden administration isn’t stopping there. It also plans to use the Made in America Office to redirect spending toward only those companies willing to promote progressive causes.
According to a January 25 statement by the Biden White House, the executive order creating the Made in America Office “is deeply intertwined with the President’s commitment to invest in American manufacturing, including clean energy and critical supply chains, grow good-paying, union jobs, and advance racial equity.”
In other words, the Made in America Office (MAO) will not only require federal agencies to rely less on foreign business interests and manufacturers, it will also redirect funding so that only those businesses that support “clean energy” and “union jobs” and are working to “advance racial equity” are able to secure a federal contract.
Depending on how seriously the Made in America Office takes these directives from the Biden administration, the MAO agency could have a remarkable impact on the behavior of businesses throughout the economy.
The federal government spends hundreds of billions of dollars per year procuring goods and services. According to the White House, “Contracting alone accounts for nearly $600 billion in federal spending.” If these funds are used as a tool to shape the behavior of U.S. businesses in line with left-wing goals, then the federal government will undoubtedly be taking a major step toward embracing the Great Reset.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with asking businesses to avoid truly harmful pollution and to enact policies that ensure people are not being denied services or job opportunities on the basis of race, religion, gender, etc. But the left has over the past two decades expanded concepts such as “pollution” and “racial equality” to include much more than polluted rivers and fair treatment of minorities.
Will the Made in America Office, for example, be empowered to force government agencies to only do business with companies who have the “right” ratio of Hispanic workers to Asian workers, regardless of whether a better alternative is available? Or the “appropriate” number of electric cars? Or the highest number of union workers, regardless of how much additional taxpayer money it could cost working families?
Based on the vague language provided by the White House, it is certainly possible, and that should trouble all Americans.
Justin Haskins (Jhaskins@heartland.org) is the editorial director of The Heartland Institute and the director of Heartland’s Stopping Socialism Project.
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