A group of left-wing and far-left members of the U.S. House released a policy agenda Thursday partly aimed at boosting support for President Joe Biden in November.
NBC News reported that the new agenda from the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) “doubles as a blueprint of political advice for how it believes President Joe Biden can win over progressives and young voters who are uninspired by his re-election bid.”
The CPC’s “seven-point agenda is heavily focused on economics and lighter on cultural issues,” NBC added.
Still, one of its planks emphasizes “advancing justice” through pro-abortion, pro-LGBTQ, and pro-illegal migrant policies – as well as support for “national policing standards.”
CPC Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal, D-WA, stated: “The way we came to this agenda is to say that we were going to put into this agenda things that were populist and possible … and affected a huge number of people.”
Jayapal underscored that left-wing voters are crucial for Biden’s chances of securing a second term this year.
“If the progressive base is not excited and enthusiastic — and if they don’t feel like we are trying to earn their votes and that they are important — then I think the horrific idea of a second Donald Trump presidency could become reality,” the leftist lawmaker told NBC.
“We have to excite our base,” she continued. “We have to show them what the path forward is — not just say, ‘This is the most important election of your life, and we expect you to vote.”
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Also in her comments to NBC, Jayapal seemed to acknowledge the fact that Biden has been trailing Trump in most recent polls.
“We are not seeing the momentum that we would like to see,” she pointed out. “We’re going to have a tough election.”
An Emerson College poll released Thursday showed Trump three points ahead of Biden nationally.
The Hill indicated: “Trump leads Biden 46 percent to 43 percent, according to the poll.”
“Support for Biden dropped 2 percentage points since the previous Emerson College poll in early April, while Trump’s polling stayed at 46 percent,” The Hill added.
However, the incumbent president particularly seems to be struggling with attracting the support of younger voters in his re-election campaign – compared with his initial race against Trump four years ago.
Per POLITICO, “Biden leads Trump, 45 percent to 37 percent, among people ages 18 to 29 in a Harvard Youth Poll released Thursday, with 16 percent undecided.”
“That 8 percentage point margin is much smaller than at this point in the 2020 election,” POLITICO noted.
Many observers agree that this relatively dismal showing among young voters for a Democrat jeopardizes Biden’s chances of remaining in office.
NBC stated that much of the CPC’s ambitious “agenda will have no realistic chance of passage unless Democrats sweep control of the White House, the House and the Senate this fall.”
“[I]n addition, Democrats would need 50 senators ready to pierce the 60-vote filibuster rule to get around likely GOP opposition,” NBC’s report pointed out. “That would be a herculean task, as Democrats face a daunting map in 2024 Senate races, defending a slew of seats in purple and red states.”
CatholicVote Director of Governmental Affairs Tom McClusky explained that the new CPC agenda provides American voters with insight into where the current Democratic Party stands on issues they emphasize less frequently than abortion.
“As Joe Biden only talks about his targeting of children for elimination it is helpful that the second-largest Democratic Caucus in Congress lays out the rest of his agenda,” McClusky said.
“It is an anti-business, anti-family, anti-parents, anti-US agenda that only Karl Marx could love,” he added. “When they state what they are FOR, it is also telling: pro-abortion, pro-crime and pro-illegal immigration.”
“The message is clear, ‘elect us and we will destroy America,’” McClusky stressed.
The over 30-year-old CPC currently boasts 96 House members – all Democrats.
One of its founders was socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT – who is currently the caucus’ only Senate member.
Some of the more notable CPC members include deeply controversial far-left Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-MN, Rashida Tlaib, D-MI, and Cori Bush, D-MO.
Tlaib made headlines last week when she declined to answer a reporter’s question over whether she supported “Death to America” chants in her district.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-NY – best known for pulling a fire alarm on Capitol Hill last October – is also a CPC member.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, a self-professed Catholic and socialist, is perhaps the most high-profile House member of the caucus.
All five of the aforementioned lawmakers are members of “the Squad” an informal grouping of far-left members of the House who hold controversial views on a variety of domestic and foreign policy issues.
“The Squad” is entirely within the CPC.
One former longtime member of the caucus was Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-AZ, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for the 2024 U.S. Senate Election in Arizona. According to the Associated Press (AP) “as [Gallego] prepared for a Senate run, he quietly left the group.”
LifeNews Note: Joshua Mercer writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
