Kamala Harris Made A Big Announcement, And You Missed It

Don't worry, we were there.

Last Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to hold a rally at the McHale Athletic Center.

It was one of those rallies where I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, other than a hell of a lot of people. When Donald Trump came through in August, he spoke at the Mohegan Arena. By contrast, The McHale Athletic Center is a large college sports complex. They can both fit thousands of people, but crowd sizes aren’t important.

What was important was that it happened to coincide with “Food Stamp Day.”

For the uninitiated, Food Stamp Day is when your EBT card gets replenished. It’s grocery shopping day. And on the first Friday of the month in Wilkes-Barre, there must’ve been a hundred people waiting in line at Walmart trying to buy groceries at noon.

There were so many people that I couldn’t even get my customary salad and hot bar chicken tenders, the cheapest and most healthy road meal I’ve been able to find over the last five months on the campaign trail.

But why bring this up?

Because Wilkes-Barre, like many post-industrial towns in America, is desperate. I wasn’t the only person sleeping in their car or truck at the Walmart or Cracker Barrel that night. So when Harris announced that she wanted to reduce the barriers for federal jobs, I was intrigued.

My mom had a federal job. As a single-mother, it allowed her to own her home, support two kids and put food on the table. She had job security and decent benefits that covered things like braces, eyeglasses, and midnight trips to the doctor after bad Taco Bell. Alternate Work Scheduling let her pick up a second gig around the holidays so that we could go on vacation later that summer. Liberal leave policies allowed her to donate time-off to colleagues who needed to take some personal time to grieve, or care for a newborn.

Right now, people can be disqualified for federal jobs for a lot of things. If you’ve ever smoked pot, or been arrested for a petty crime (like smoking pot), you can’t get a federal job. If you’re stuck in a mountain of credit card debt, Uncle Sam is going to skip right over your broke ass.

It might not seem like much, but it’s the kind of thing that has a ripple effect.

I didn’t see the policy make much play, but I have seen a lot of people complaining that Kamala Harris doesn’t have any policies that support the middle class. So here’s one!

OK, now here’s some lovely photos.