President Joe Biden Has Been Bad, but a President Kamala Harris Would Be Worse, Part II

By Dan Mitchell on July 22, 2024

Four years ago, I explained that Kamala Harris supported a very radical agenda of equality of outcomes rather than equality of opportunity.

I don't want to engage in hyperbole, but that's unadulterated Marxism ("From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs").

And it's definitely a recipe for endless tax increases to finance an ever-expanding burden of government spending.

And that's exactly what she proposed as a candidate in 2020, calling for more than $4 trillion of new spending compared to Biden's $297 billion wish list.

But it's not just me pointing out that Kamala Harris is even worse than Biden.

In a piece for the New York Times, Alan Rappeport explains that she is to the left of him on economic policy.

That doesn't seem possible given Biden's support for class warfare, redistribution, protectionism, and red tape (his agenda after getting elected was a lot more expensive than what he mentioned in the campaign), but Rappeport makes a compelling argument. Here are some excerpts.

As Ms. Harris prepares to potentially replace President Biden atop the Democratic ticket, she now faces the challenge of articulating her own vision for steering a U.S. economy...as an attorney general and a senator, she was at times more progressive than the president, pushing for universal health care while calling for more generous tax benefits for working-class Americans and paying for them with bigger tax increases on companies. ...the LIFT the Middle Class Act, was unveiled in 2018 and aimed to address the rising cost of living by providing middle-class and working families with money to help pay for everyday expenses. ...Ms. Harris proposed increasing estate taxes on the wealthy to pay for a $300 billion plan to raise teacher salaries. ...Ms. Harris wanted to raise the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 35 percent, which is higher than the 28 percent that Mr. Biden had proposed. ...She proposed the Rent Relief Act, which would have provided refundable tax credits allowing renters who earn less than $100,000 to recoup housing costs...

I've written about many of the bad ideas that she has endorsed (rent subsidies, child handouts, energy taxes, and "Medicare for All").

The bottom line is that she is a knee-jerk statist.

But I don't want to be completely pessimistic.

It's possible she will be better than Trump and Biden on trade.

Ms. Harris said she would be focused on bolstering American exports and declared, "I am not a protectionist Democrat." ...Ms. Harris echoed her earlier criticism of Mr. Trump when discussing his plan to impose 10 percent tariffs on all imports into the United States. She said such a policy would inflate the cost of gas, groceries and clothing.

She's right that Trump's trade policy is bad, so my fingers are crossed that the pro-trade sentiments mentioned above are sincere.

P.S. She's also a hypocrite on school choice.