How Joe Biden Defanged the Left

On June 28, over 500 members of the Sunrise Movement, D.C.’s most vocal youth climate group, blockaded the entrance to the White House for hours. Their demands included a fully funded Civilian Climate Corps, a New Deal–style jobs program, as part of the administration’s infrastructure package. A modest $10 billion CCC, less than one-tenth of Sunrise’s initial vision, was part of President Biden’s American Jobs Plan proposal when it was first unveiled months earlier; in the emaciated bipartisan infrastructure framework Biden agreed to in June, not one dollar remained. In fact, nearly all of the major climate commitments, save some money (a fraction of what was proposed) for electric vehicles and public transit, were similarly absent from the $579 billion revision. Read Full Article »