On Wednesday, the Joe Biden-Bernie Sanders Unity Task Forces released their policy recommendations for the former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. The task forces, which were announced after the senator from Vermont suspended his campaign and endorsed Biden, were intended to craft climate, criminal justice, economic, education, health care, and immigration policy for him, and were made up of political figures from both the moderate and progressive wings of the party. However, in many ways, the policy recommendations the task force finalized fell significantly short of the latter wing's goals. As summarized by Jen Perelman, a Democratic congressional candidate in Florida:
Regarding climate change, as Beatrice Peterson, Averi Harper, John Verhovek, and Molly Nagle of ABC News write, "popular proposals such as rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement on day one of the Biden administration made it into the recommendations to the DNC. However the New York congresswoman’s [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] bid for a Green New Deal didn’t make the cut." On criminal justice reform, the task force put for a policy to "invest in community policing and hav[e] a police force representative of the communities they serve; increas[e] Department of Justice Pattern-or-Practice investigations of police misconduct; and institut[e] national use of force standard, which would permit deadly force only as a last resort." However, their recommendation "does not include a call to legalize marijuana, but mirrors Biden’s previous policy of decriminalizing the drug, and expunging the records of those previously charged with cannabis use, among other recommendations." Finally, the health care "task force calls for the establishment of a 'high-quality public option plan' that is administered by the government and not private companies, but steered clear of mentioning Medicare for All, a hot-button issue during the primaries and a policy Biden has firmly said he does not support."
As for why Biden won't support the Green New Deal, legalizing marijuana, and Medicare For All, the answer may lie within who his campaign donors are. One of his top lobbyist donors is Brian McKeon, who has contributed $3,650 to the former vice president's campaign, a lobbyist for the oil and gas, private prison, health service, and pharmaceutical industries. Others among his top 50 lobbyist donors include oil and gas lobbyist C. Kyle Simpson ($1,000, and by the way, this is in violation of the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge, which Biden signed last June), health service lobbyist John M. Prible ($1,500), pharmaceutical lobbyists Vic Fazio ($5,600), Michael D. Boyd ($1,000), James H. Davidson ($1,000), and Robert Raben ($1,000), and private prison lobbyist Kathleen A. Leonard ($2,800).
Again, these are only among the 50 lobbyists that have given the most to Biden this election cycle, so there are likely to be more from these industries that he has taken money from.
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