Created by an act of Congress in 1894, Labor Day is one of the nation’s oldest holidays, older than Veterans Day (1938) but not as old as Memorial Day (1888). Democrats like to associate the day with labor unions , but the law establishing the holiday makes clear it was intended to honor all workers, not just those organized in the way the blue party most likes.
“The use of national holidays is to emphasize some great event or principle in the minds of the people by giving them a day of rest and recreation, a day of enjoyment, in commemoration of it,” the legislation reads. “So long as the laboring man can feel that he holds an honorable as well as a useful place in the body politic, so long will he be a loyal and faithful citizen.”
The 53rd Congress of the United States was right: One does not need to be a member of a union to be a “loyal and faithful citizen.” Being gainfully employed in any capacity helps incorporate people into civil society, strengthening our democracy.
Much of Vice President Kamala Harris’s agenda will achieve the opposite of this desirable outcome by making jobs for native-born Americans harder to come by, weakening the nation as a whole.
Harris conveniently dropped the phrase “climate change” from her convention speech last week, but her legislative record as senator and her support for President Joe Biden’s regulatory agenda speak for themselves.
Not only did Harris co-sponsor the Green New Deal with socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), but she also pledged to end the Senate’s filibuster to pass it. This radical legislation would end most fossil fuel extraction and production in the U.S., delivering the gift of that industry to foreign enemies and sending energy prices soaring. Not only would millions of jobs be lost in the carbon energy sectors, but millions more jobs would be lost in manufacturing and other sectors as companies cut costs to make up for rising energy prices.
Even without the Green New Deal, Biden’s radical regulatory agenda has already driven energy prices 30% higher during his presidency. His climate mandates on power plants are forcing many coal and natural gas power plants out of business knocking gigawatts of production offline. The Environmental Protection Agency’s electric vehicle mandates are similarly bankrupting domestic automakers that are forced to make cars no one wants. Thousands of jobs have been lost as expanded EV production has been cut back.
As bad as Harris’s energy policies are, her permitting and construction policies are worse. Instead of reforming federal permitting by limiting the power and scope of the National Environmental Policy Act, Harris wants to go in the opposite direction. As senator, she introduced the Climate Equity Act, which instead of removing layers of waste from permitting would add new ones. Every federal agency would be required to create reports assessing the “environmental justice” impact of its decisions. This means every federal infrastructure project, or even local residential construction projects that need clearance from the EPA under the Clean Water Act, would need to complete lengthy new “environmental justice” reviews. The result would be higher construction costs and fewer jobs.
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Then there are Harris’s immigration policies. Under the Biden and Harris regime, the illegal immigration population has grown by more than 4 million. Harris has said, through spokespeople, that she acknowledges that “unauthorized border crossings are illegal,” but she has not said whether she believes they should be. What we do know is that the Democratic Party platform contains the biggest amnesty for illegal immigrants ever. The presence of millions of lawbreaking migrants in the U.S. drives down wages for Americans, costing them tens of billions of dollars in lower pay every year.
The Biden-Harris administration has been a disaster for workers, and a Harris-Walz administration would be worse. An administration committed to securing the border, unleashing American energy production, and reforming permitting so we can builds things again would be the best way to celebrate Labor Day.
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