Harris pick befits Biden’s foreign policy
Speaking Security Newsletter | Advisory Note for Organizers and Candidates, n°35 | 13 August 2020
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Situation
A summary of Biden’s foreign policy:

*You can find a full evaluation of Biden’s foreign policy, here.
More of the same
Biden has indicated that he’s interested in boosting the defense budget. Harris has voiced the opposite, but her votes are inconsistent with that opinion. She supported Trump’s first defense budget (FY2018 NDAA), rejected the second, and didn’t vote on last year’s iteration.
But Harris made it clear that she’s to the right of those pushing for even a modest shift in federal spending priorities. Here’s her statement on voting against Bernie Sanders’ amendment that would have redirected 10 percent of DOD funding to social programs:
What’s not strategic about defense conversion? And by voting against the amendment, Harris effectively opposed creating 547,600 additional jobs (given the disparity in employment output between public investments in defense vs. non-defense programs).
Conclusion
Harris does have a positive rating on foreign policy according to some groups. However I think those scores are inflated. Voting progressive on certain piecemeal amendments does not carry the same value as voting progressive (or the opposite) on a core issue like defense spending.
Thanks for your time,
Stephen (@stephensemler; stephen@securityreform.org)
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