Sep
27
2024

Waist Deep in the Big Middle

So Kamala's Kampaign released an economic policy manifesto! The title is "A New Way Forward for the Middle Class', and it's an 82 page PDF.

No, I didn't read the whole thing, but I used control-F to discover that it has

  • 22 occurrences of "middle class" and 19 where they insert a hyphen: "middle-class".
  • 77 (!) occurrences of "small business": nearly averaging one per page.
  • 39 occurrences of various forms of "entrepreneur".
  • 17 occurrences of "innovation", plus 11 of "innovative";
  • it wouldn't be a Democratic Party document without saying, without defining, "fair share": 8 occurrences, all referring to taxes on "corporations and the wealthiest Americans".
  • zero occurrences of "holistic", unfortunately.

All in all, a document designed by exhaustive focus group research.

The WSJ editorialists, of course, are not fans: Harris’s Economic Plan Is Bidenomics II.

Swing voters say they don’t know enough about Kamala Harris’s economic plans. Voila, her campaign on Wednesday released an 82-page “New Way Forward” document. Did her campaign ask ChatGPT to describe her progressive policies in moderate rhetoric using the verbiage of free-market economists?

“I’m a capitalist,” she declared on Wednesday as she promised to “seek practical solutions to problems.” Yet any inspection of the details shows she‘s offering the same policies as Mr. Biden, only more so. Here’s a cheat-sheet:

•Higher taxes to make “corporations and the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share.” Without defining “fair,” she endorses the $5 trillion in tax hikes in Mr. Biden’s budget, including a 25% tax on the unrealized capital gains on top earners. As far as we can tell, she differs from the President only in calling for a 33% top capital gains rate instead of 44.6%. She calls these “commonsense tax reforms,” though they’d be the biggest tax hike in history.

Also on the WSJ cheat sheet: "new and bigger entitlements"; "more transfer payments"; "more housing subsidies"; "more student loan forgiveness"; "more government control of health care"; "more industrial policy"; "price controls"; and "more green energy largesse".

On the other hand, Jeff Maurer writes from his Kamala-sympathetic perch: If Harris Is a Marxist, She Sucks at It. And he notes some things that I—yes, even I—agree sound pretty good:

Take permitting…PLEASE. I mean seriously, take it — it’s strangling growth in this country. Many liberals have come to realize that, and they definitely know that it’s keeping us from building things Democrats want built, like microchips and green technology. That’s why Harris now sometime sounds like a fellow at the CATO [sic—it ain't an acronym, Jeff] Institute, and her campaign vows to be “laser-focused on accelerating projects” — that’s the best kind of focused! Also — as reported on NoOneGivesAShit.com — Congress just passed exemptions to environmental regulations for the microchip industry, and the House did the same for geothermal energy. The geothermal bill was written by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, which is notable; an avowed socialist writing a law to reduce government intervention is like an avowed vegetarian winning Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. Clearly, a philosophical shift has occurred.

Harris has also thrown in with the free market crowd on occupational licensing. Personally, I had never heard of occupational licensing until all of my libertarian friends suddenly started talking about it on the same day; there must have been a group text that went around that said “FROM NOW ON, WE WILL TALK ABOUT THIS AND ONLY THIS!” But they have a point: Too often, unnecessary credentials keep people from pursuing a career, and that restricts supply and drives up costs. Licensing features prominently in Harris’ small business plan and her workforce development plan. I don’t think this is a game changer, but I think it’s a signal: Harris does not lie in bed at night touching her naughty bits while thinking of rules and regulations, which is something that some on the left have been known to do.

OK, fine. As always, you don't need my permission or encouragement, but here it is anyway: check out both sides, see what you think.

I think Jeff is way too trusting about Kamala.

Also of note:

  • I need a catchy term for "flip-flop". Charles C.W. Cooke notes another position that had an expiration date: Kamala Harris's Fair-Weather Filibuster.

    Sometimes, one is obliged to read between the lines. Literally construed, yesterday’s news alerts relayed some variation of “Kamala Harris supports ending the filibuster.” Properly fathomed, however, they conveyed something else: that Harris believes in nothing except her own power and hopes that the public is too nescient to comprehend the ruse.

    If there is a better example of Harris’s fundamental ghastliness than her evolving approach to the filibuster, I have yet to see it. Harris is dishonest, she is hypocritical, she is weak, and she is self-serving, and one can perceive all of these unlovely characteristics by tracking her attitude toward the Senate’s rules since she entered the body in 2017.

    CCWC notes the 2017 "bipartisan letter" signed by 61 Senators, advocating keeping the filibuster rule in place "to protect an important tradition of the Senate that recognizes the rights of the minority and makes bipartisan legislation more likely".

    In 2017, the GOP controlled the Senate.

    And for my fellow Granite Staters: the letter was also signed by our state's senators, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan. I am unsure how dedicated to preserving "an important tradition of the Senate" they will turn out to be.

  • Mister, we could use a man like Calvin Coolidge again. Jeff Jacoby tips his hat to a strange bedfellow: He's In the Calvin Coolidge fan club with Michael Dukakis.

    I HAVE long been an admirer of Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States. I esteem him for many reasons: his personal integrity and common sense, his thoughtfulness, his reverence for the Declaration of Independence, his appreciation of market economics, and his respect for the American taxpayer. As a libertarian-leaning fiscal conservative, I especially prize Coolidge's instinctive commitment to limiting government. "It is much more important," he insisted, "to kill bad bills than to pass good ones." On his watch, the national debt decreased — something no president has accomplished since — and the combined unemployment and inflation rates amounted to just 4.3 percent, the lowest "misery index" of any administration in living memory.

    So, glory be:

    But my high opinion of Coolidge, I recently learned to my delight, is shared by a former Massachusetts governor — one I would never have predicted: Michael S. Dukakis.

    As a loyal Democrat, a liberal, a first-generation son of Greek immigrants, and a tax-and-spend activist who was elected three times (in four tries) to the Commonwealth's highest office, Dukakis would appear to have little in common with the quiet, frugal, conservative Yankee who preceded him on Beacon Hill by more than half a century. That's what Dukakis used to think too, as I learned upon viewing a fine new documentary from the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation.

    I, too, welcome Mike to the fan club.