If you like your suburb, you can keep your suburb.
For those of you who are political junkies, it’s a play on words from what President Obama had said 12 years ago, which was the infamous, “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” It was June 15th to be precise when Obama had said that, but now it looks like Sleepy Joe is about to do a bit of a play on words of his own, call it an anniversary callback.
If you are a bit lost, don’t fret. Let me explain.
As part of his bogus infrastructure plan, the Biden Administration is adamant that they want to end what they call the “exclusionary zoning” practices. They are planning on doing this by developing an infrastructure-centric American Jobs Plan, which is the second bill in a trilogy of massive spending plans that the Democrats have in the works. They are trying to pass this through the Senate and get the leaders of the budget reconciliation process to sign off on it.
The May 26th fact sheet on Biden’s American Jobs Plan reads like a college textbook, but it says the following: “For decades, these exclusionary zoning laws have inflated housing and locked families out of areas with more opportunities. Such things as minimum lot sizes, prohibitions on construction costs, and mandatory parking requirements are all included in this.”
This is one of the main reasons why President Biden continues to push this, because he thinks it will give minority families affordable housing. He is pushing a $5 billion incentive plan to try to make this possible. Again, no wonder there. Democrats like throwing money at things.
USA Today reported on this back in April, saying that the push could “significantly increase local budgets that were decimated during the COVID-19 economic recession. Thus, this is an attractive proposition for mayors that support affordable housing but need to cash to make it a reality.” However, USA Today had another surprising announcement that would be hard for pie-in-the-sky liberals everywhere to take: apparently, most “municipal governments have refused to eliminate these zoning restrictions going on several decades now, in part because there are many taxpayers and developers that have never wanted it.”
Well, surprise, surprise! There’s a good reason for this. If you want to be able to zone for low-density housing, then this measure will be unpopular anyway. Indeed, the VERY REASON that anyone moves to the suburbs is because they want low-density housing!
This administration has framed this as a way for minority families to create generational wealth, but the problem is that most communities have a severe disdain for having federal zoning laws shoved down their throat.
If that were the only issue it would be bad enough, but another problem with Biden’s new policy is that it would devalue existing homes and it would put a financial squeeze on local schools who are already struggling for funding as it is.
There are other issues involved as well. Not only do existing homes get devalued, but it also increases the demand for community resources such as schools without necessarily increasing the inflow of money by a commensurate amount.
And yet, with budget shortfalls due to the pandemic, this might seem attractive for communities without other options.
If local governments refused to go along with these exclusionary rezoning guidelines, the Biden Administration was going to withhold $16 billion in federal funding to them. It’s the power of the purse, but when it comes to liberals, another word for it is blackmail. .
Surprise, surprise, the Democrats are coming for the suburbs. However, do you remember the outrage when former President Trump would discuss this? He said that Democrats wanted to “abolish” and “destroy” the suburbs, and the liberals never let him hear the end of it.
The New York Times: “Trump Plays On Racist Fears About Low-Income Housing.” New York Magazine: “Trump’s Racist Urban Myth Hides His Suburban Failures.” Business Insider: “Trump leans into off-the-wall race-baiting in remarks about American suburbs as Biden’s electoral fortunes rise.” These were just a few of the headlines that were coming out regarding Trump’s comments. The man was solidly vilified in the media.
Not once did he mention race — but apparently, the very impulse is racist.
Of course, Joe Biden is probably not going to include the two million-dollar homes that he has in Delaware in this plan. President Biden can keep his suburb, but no one else will be able to under this devious plan.