By Sam Stone
Can you name a single Democrat policy that is working? I can’t. I’ve asked this question of Democrats, and even then I only get one of two answers. They either point to things like Medicare and Social Security that were created almost a hundred years ago. Or they point to good intentions. But intentions are not results. Modern Democrats don’t have any of those to fall back on.
Homelessness? Housing First, the approach championed by Democrats, is an utter failure. Los Angeles and San Francisco are both spending more than $100,000 per homeless person per year, and neither is getting any kind of handle on the problem, unless by “getting a handle” you mean, “massively increasing government spending”. They’re certainly doing that. What they aren’t doing is getting homeless people off the streets. Chronic street homeless in the Bay Area has increased by 9% in the last three years, in L.A. it’s up almost 13%.
Housing? Government agencies across the country are spending vastly more per unit to build low-income housing on land the government already owns than private developers are spending to build better units, in better areas, on land they have to buy. Phoenix’s latest low-income housing project is currently coming in at more than $350,000 per unit in total cost. The most expensive apartments ever built on Camelback Rd (Phoenix’s swankiest real estate) cost $270,000 per unit. Housing advocates estimate that the Phoenix needs something like 30,000 additional low-income housing units immediately. At current costs, that would mean spending upwards of $10 billion. Phoenix’s general fund discretionary budget is less than $2 billion, total.
Transportation? Democrats are currently engaged in a war on cars, particularly gas-powered ones. It’s not going well, for anyone. Boston has always had terrible traffic, but – bad as it was – you could still get around the city, especially if you knew the side streets. Enter Democrats and their ridiculous “Vision Zero” action plan and demand for “walkable urban codes” and “complete streets”. Now Boston has the worst traffic in the world, worse than even any city in India, the average speed of travel is down to 11mph citywide. It’s total gridlock – by design – and these programs are being rolled out and expanded in every major city across the country. The goal is simple, even if they go out of their way to avoid admitting it: drive everyone out of their cars and onto public transport (or better yet, keep them home on a government check). It’s about control, not livability, and it’s a failure. Across the country, use of public transportation ridership decreased 7.3% between 2015 and 2019. Since then? 2020, of course, saw an enormous dip, and some riders have returned in 2021 and 2022, but total ridership is still down almost 30% since the pandemic, and the recovery appears to have stalled.
Crime? Nationwide, violent crime exploded 28.64% in 2020, and has continued to creep up ever since. The only real change? Pro-criminal Soros Democrats used 2020’s Summer of Love to expand their reach into dozens of new prosecutorial offices around the country, and stopped prosecuting crime.
Energy? In 2019 the U.S. was a net exporter of energy. Now, thanks to Joe Biden, we’re back at the mercy of those stalwarts of human rights and pro-America sentiment, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. California’s power grid is teetering on the edge of complete breakdown, and the green mandates causing their now annual rolling blackouts are being championed across the country.
Economy? Inflation is out of control, banks are failing, and the Federal government is gearing up an all-out assault on crypto-currency to make way for the new digital dollar – which Democrats are already talking about using as a way to ensure compliance with the radical ideology by threatening people with immediate financial ruin for stepping out of the leftist line.
Education? Student achievement is falling, costs are rising, and Democrats are freaking out about being told they can’t share their sex lives with 3rd graders.
Ok, maybe I should have said, “tax, fail, and bail.” Because the only thing Democrats are managing to achieve is bailing out their green tech friends with your money. At that, they’re masters.
Sam Stone is the co-host of Breaking Battlegrounds
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