York: When Kamala Harris's promises come to nothing

The fundamental problem with Kamala Harris' campaign promises is that she has served as vice president of the United States for nearly four years. All those things she is out on the campaign trail pledging to do — well, what has she been doing since Jan. 20, 2021? "She just started by saying she's going to do this, she's going to do that, she's going to do all these wonderful things," former President Donald Trump said at the debate with Harris last month. "Why hasn't she done it? She's been there for 3 1/2 years."

That's one part of the Harris problem: She's trying to run as a newcomer when, in fact, she has been in power for years and has a record to answer for. But there's another part of the Harris problem, and that is the things she claims to have accomplished aren't what she says they are. Look at two examples: her $42.45 billion promise to make high-speed internet available nationwide and her $7.5 billion promise to build electric vehicle charging stations around the country.

Harris likes to say that "President Biden and I made the largest investment in affordable, high-speed internet in history." (She often makes it sound like it was her money rather than that of taxpayers.) On June 26, 2023, she took part in a White House ceremony celebrating the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program, known as BEAD, which was intended to bring internet service to "unserved and underserved" rural areas. "In the 21st century, in America, high-speed internet is not a luxury, it is a necessity," Harris said. "Every person in our nation, no matter where they live, should be able to access and afford high-speed internet."

The money for the program came from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed by Congress on Nov. 6, 2021. The bill was part of a wave of massive spending measures that Joe Biden counts as his greatest accomplishment as president — and that also fed the inflation that reduced the standard of living for millions of Americans. Harris is very proud of the measure, in part because Biden gave her responsibility for turning legislation into real action.

"I am asking the vice president to lead this effort, if she would, because I know it will get done," Biden said in an address to Congress in April 2021. "Of course," Harris answered.

But here's the problem. The Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program hasn't accomplished anything. Nothing. "In 2021, you were specifically tasked by President Biden to lead the administration's efforts to expand broadband services to unserved Americans," nine Republican senators wrote to Harris last month. "And at the time, you stated, 'we can bring broadband to rural American today.' Despite your assurances over three years ago, rural and unserved communities continue to wait for the connectivity they were promised. Under your leadership, not a single person has been connected to the internet using the $42.45 billion allocated for the BEAD program."

That's correct. "Three years later, ground hasn't been broken on a single project," the Wall Street Journal editorial page noted last week. "The administration recently said construction won't start until next year at the earliest, meaning many projects won't be up and running until the end of the decade."

The massively expensive Harris-Biden project has broken down in the usual ways associated with the Democratic Party. The administration has imposed too many regulations on projects. It has insisted on the most expensive type of construction. It has insisted on climate change provisions. It has slowed the permitting process. It has decreed that union labor take precedence. And, from the Journal, "The administration has also stipulated hiring preference for 'underrepresented' groups, including 'aging individuals,' prisoners, racial, religious, and ethnic minorities, 'Indigenous and Native American persons,' 'LGBTQI+ persons,' and 'persons adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.'"

All in all, it is the worst sort of advertisement for Kamala Harris' campaign for president. She talks about getting things done? She doesn't get things done.

Another terrible example is the administration's work on expanding the number of charging stations for electric vehicles. It is a super-high priority for Harris, given that in 2019 she co-sponsored a bill in the Senate to eliminate the manufacture of all gas-powered autos by 2040, and in her presidential race shortened the deadline to 2035. They are to be replaced by electric cars and trucks, which will, of course, need to be charged. A provision of the 2021 infrastructure bill, the same bill discussed above, allocated $7.5 billion for the construction of around 5,000 electric vehicle charging stations, which would include about 20,000 individual chargers.

In March of this year, the Washington Post reported that the administration has completed only seven — seven — new charging stations in the entire United States. The problems are again the usual thing, with the project bogging down under bureaucracy imposed by the Biden-Harris administration. "This funding comes with dozens of rules and requirements," an expert who supports the program told the Post.

In February, three Republican chairmen sent a letter to the administration inquiring about the delays. "The problems with these programs continue to grow," they wrote, "delays in the delivery of chargers, concerns from states about labor contracting requirements and minimum operating standards for chargers, the fact that 22 states (44%) have not issued solicitations for [federal] funding, and the limited and questionable delivery of awards from the [federal Charging and Fueling Infrastructure] Discretionary Grant Program." Added to all that, of course, are the broad diversity, equity and inclusion requirements the Biden-Harris administration imposes on everything the government does.

So – another multibillion-dollar Harris program gets bogged down in bureaucracy. Billions of taxpayer dollars spent for ... nothing. This is exactly the sort of thing Harris promises she will do more of, at even greater cost, should she be elected president.

byork@washingtonexaminer.com