FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
May 13, 2020

Biden for President and Friends of Bernie Sanders Announce Leaders of Biden-Sanders Unity Task Forces

Today, Biden for President and Friends of Bernie Sanders released the following statements on the members named to the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Forces.
 
“A united party is key to defeating Donald Trump this November and moving our country forward through an unprecedented crisis. As we work toward our shared goal, it is especially critical that we not lose sight of the pressing issues facing Americans,” said Vice President Joe Biden. “From health care to reforming our justice system to rebuilding a more inclusive and fair economy, the work of the task forces will be essential to identifying ways to build on our progress and not simply turn the clock back to a time before Donald Trump, but transform our country.“
 
“In the midst of the unprecedented economic and pandemic crises we face, the Democratic Party must think big, act boldly, and fight to change the direction of this country,” said Senator Bernie Sanders. “To create an agenda that the working class of this country desperately needs, and moves us toward a more just society, we must solicit the best ideas. I commend Joe Biden for working together with my campaign to assemble a group of leading thinkers and activists who can and will unify our party in a transformational and progressive direction."
 
The full joint announcement is available below.

Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders have named a diverse group of respected leaders and experts to Biden-Sanders Unity Task Forces to explore possible policy initiatives in six areas covering: climate change, criminal justice reform, economy, education, health care, and immigration. Biden and Sanders also appointed Analilia Mejia of Friends of Bernie Sanders and Carmel Martin of Biden for President as representatives of the respective campaigns to coordinate and support the work of the Task Forces.
 
The Task Forces will meet in advance of the Democratic National Convention to make recommendations to the DNC Platform Committee and to Vice President Biden directly. Building upon the work of the Democratic campaigns to date, the ultimate goal of the Unity Task Forces is to develop the most successful possible agenda for Democrats in 2020.
 
Co-Chairs: Chiraag Bains, Rep. Karen Bass, Rep. Marcia Fudge, Dr. Heather Gautney, Marielena Hincapié, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, former Secretary of State John Kerry, former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Sara Nelson, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, and Rep. Bobby Scott.


Climate Change
Rep. Kathy Castor
Kerry Duggan
Catherine Flowers
Former Secretary of State John Kerry, Co-chair
Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy
Rep. Donald McEachin
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Co-chair
Varshini Parkash
 
Criminal Justice Reform
TN State Senator Raumesh Akbari
Chiraag Bains, Co-Chair
SC State Rep. Justin Bamberg
Former Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta
Former Attorney General Eric Holder
Symone Sanders
Rep. Bobby Scott, Co-chair
County Supervisor Stacey Walker
 
Economy
Rep. Karen Bass, Co-chair
Dr. Jared Bernstein
Dr. Darrick Hamilton
Dr. Ben Harris
Stephanie Kelton
Sara Nelson, Co-chair
Lee Saunders
Sonal Shah
 
Education
Professor Alejandro Adler
Rep. Marcia Fudge, Co-chair
Lily Eskelsen Garcia
Dr. Heather Gautney, Co-chair
Maggie Thompson
Christie Vilsack
Randi Weingarten
Professor Hirokazu Yoshikawa
 
Health Care
Dr. Don Berwick
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed
Professor Sherry Glied
Mary Kay Henry
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Co-chair
Chris Jennings
Rep. Robin Kelly
Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Co-chair
 
Immigration
Cristóbal Alex
Rep. Veronica Escobar
Marisa Franco
Juan Gonzalez
Marielena Hincapié, Co-chair
NV Lieutenant Governor Kate Marshall
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, Co-chair
Javier Valdés

COMRADES: Joe Biden Enlists Socialist, Environmental Extremist to Shape His Anti-Job Agenda

Biden gives blue collar workers the finger (again).

There’s nothing moderate about Joe Biden. He's openly touting the fact that he is working with and listening to America's two leading socialists, Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). The latter will co-chair his new climate policy task force.

AOC is the mastermind behind the so-called Green New Deal, a $93 trillion fantasy that one study found would cost families in key battleground states an average of $75,000 per year. AOC admits the Green New Deal requires massive government intervention in every aspect of Americans’ lives.

Incredibly, Joe Biden says he agrees with AOC and Sanders and supports their framework. He promised his climate plan would go even further, even if it meant sacrificing the jobs of blue collar workers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

Sanders agrees “there will be some job loss,” but to these ideological extremists, destroying the livelihoods of millions of Americans is necessary collateral damage. Their mindset was summed up perfectly by an NBC News article celebrating the coronavirus-induced economic lockdown because it “sent pollution plummeting.” Yes, “traffic-free roads, plane-free skies and widespread brick-and-mortar closings” will do that – but do Americans really want a permanent, pandemic-style economic shutdown?

The Green New Deal socialists do. AOC is arguing that Americans should “just say no, we’re not going back to” work after America reopens, and her original GND proposal included paying people who are “unwilling to work.”

“[T]he timeline that they put out there would do away with commercial air travel and a lot of other things in a particular time frame,” said former Democrat presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who now supports Biden. When AOC’s office unveiled the Green New Deal, it also released a companion FAQ that stated, “we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast,” and called for the U.S. to “build out high-speed rail at a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary, create affordable public transit available to all, with [the] goal to replace every combustion-engine vehicle.” Auto workers in Michigan and Ohio, take note.

“The interesting thing about the Green New Deal is it wasn’t originally a climate thing at all,” AOC’s chief of staff infamously admitted. “We really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.”

If you think Biden doesn’t think that way, you’re wrong. He explicitly says he wants to use the coronavirus as an excuse to enact his “climate justice” agenda. “We should be talking about things like I’ve been talking about for years, high-speed rail, taking millions of automobiles off the road,” he said in March. “No more drilling on federal lands, no more drilling, including offshore, no ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period, ends... No new fracking.”

During September’s CNN climate crisis town hall, Anderson Cooper asked Biden, “How much do you take into consideration jobs for folks in Ohio and Pennsylvania? And how much is thinking for seven generations out for the population of the world?”

“It's all about seven generations out,” Biden replied. Ohio and Pennsylvania jobs? Pssh – who cares!

President Trump refuses to condemn working class Americans to a life of less – less mobility, less opportunity, less money – just so Washington politicians can feel good fantasizing about future generations limited to taking public trains. As President Trump said, Democrats’ Green New Deal would “crush the dreams of the poorest Americans and disproportionately harm minority communities. I will not stand for it. We will defend the environment, but we will also defend American sovereignty, American prosperity, and we will defend American jobs.”