By Renee Scheidt

Advertisers lure customers to their stores by making offers too good to be true. Upon purchasing the item, the buyer discovers hidden fees and exclusions that increase the price. The buyer failed to read the fine print, always written in script too small to decipher.

Welcome to Kamala’s word games. Divulging few details, she spouts of making “a new way forward” for Americans. But before getting hooked on her talking points, try reading the fine print, if you can find it. Rarely answering a direct question, Kamala gives nebulous statements without details, leaving us wondering what she meant.

Since enquiring minds want to know, Kamala, please answer the following questions:

1. What does your “new way forward” entail?  When asked on The View if you’d have done something differently than President Biden, you said, “Nothing comes to mind.” Even Time Magazine says, “Allies and critics agree there is little evident policy daylight between the Democratic nominee and the president she replaced.” So is “a new way forward” a slogan that means we’ll receive more of the same, except on steroids?
2. You propose giving $20,000 to one million Black men who are small business owners. Isn’t this another form of Affirmative Action that the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional? Aren’t there Hispanics, Asians, Caucasians and women small business owners who also need help? Why are you discriminating against these groups in favor of Black men? 
3. Is legalizing marijuana part of your “Opportunity Economy” Plan? How does this “break down unjust barriers that hold Black men and other Americans back?”  You said you want to be sure “Black Americans have opportunities to succeed as the marketplace takes shape.” Why then did you oversee 1,900 marijuana convictions as San Francisco DA? Knowing the harmful effects of this gateway drug, is it wise to make it readily available? What “marketplace” opportunities will Black men receive by legalizing it? Isn’t singling out Black men racist?
4. Will the $25,000 you want to give new homeowners come from taxpayers who worked and saved to buy a home without federal aid? What else is included in your plan to “holistically make home ownership more affordable?
5. What do your “comprehensive immigration reform” plans entail? What requirements will be given for illegal aliens to have a “pathway to citizenship?” Are you in favor of amnesty? Since you had the power to close the border at any time these past four years, why didn’t you?
6. What percentage of “paying their fair share” do you want corporations to pay? Since 60 percent of households pay income tax, and 40 percent pay none, wouldn’t it be fair for everyone to contribute? Shouldn’t everyone have some skin in the game like the flat tax and fair tax proposals suggest?
7. What effect will your plan to legalize prostitution have on young people and the family unit?  What kind of example is this for our children? Doesn’t this encourage some young women to earn a living by being a “sex worker?”
8. In your 2019 presidential bid, you introduced the Lift the Middle Class Act (LIFT) which sends monthly payments to working married couples earning between $6,000 and  $100,000 yearly. Will you reintroduce it? Do you still view LIFT as a form of reparations? Why did you say this bill was specially designed to “directly benefit the largest number of “Black children, Black families, Black homeowners?” What about other qualified working couples that aren’t Black?
9. Biology shows males are physically stronger than females. Why then do you support boys playing in girls’ sports? Aren’t women’s safety and fairness of utmost importance? 
10. Why should law-abiding taxpayers pay for illegal aliens’ and convicts’ sex change surgeries?
11. Why do you support permanent sex change operations for minors and removing them from their home if the parents oppose it?
12. Are you not embarrassed to offer $750 per household to those in western N.C. who lost everything while sending millions to Lebanon and Ukraine?

Space doesn’t permit me to ask the many other questions I have. If you win, will we have to wait until after the election to read the fine print? Probably.

Renee C. Scheidt lives in Salisbury.