By Shahrimi @Adobe Stock
Don’t Rip Off Voters
Jason L. Riley remembers when Walter Williams, a teacher of economics at George Mason University, told Mr. Riley, “I think it’s important for people to understand the ideas of scarcity and decision-making in everyday life so that they won’t be ripped off by politicians.” It’s rule #1.
More Scaremongering Candy
This year’s presidential election is a perfect example of voters’ concerns, continues Mr. Riley in the WSJ:
Donald Trump is offering tax breaks to select voters like you would Halloween candy—a Kit Kat for people who receive overtime pay, a Snickers for people who earn tips—with no regard for how these exemptions would distort labor markets and affect a federal Treasury that is already running a $1.8 trillion deficit. Mr. Trump is also promising more tariffs if re-elected, even though the tariffs imposed in his first term led to higher prices for consumers, just as economists predicted.
Kamala Harris can’t really critique these proposals, because she largely agrees with them—the Biden administration has kept most of Mr. Trump’s tariffs in place—and her own economic policies might be even worse. Ms. Harris wants to increase levies on corporations, income and capital gains, which historically has discouraged investment and retarded economic growth. She has also proposed increasing the minimum wage, notwithstanding that teenage unemployment and prices at fast-food restaurants shot up after her home state of California raised its wage floor in 2020.
Vote for Kamala Harris = Vote for Joe Biden
Whatever her proposals, Ms. Harris’s overriding problem is that she can’t run away from the Biden administration’s record. Her campaign’s closing message is that Mr. Trump is a fascist threat to the republic, which is something you come up with when you can’t defend what your administration has been doing for the past four years about inflation, the economy, border security and other issues that voters care most about.
Ms. Harris has spent a lot of time ducking serious interviews and deflecting tough questions so that she could focus on telling people what they already know about Donald Trump. Will it work? Not if Mr. Trump’s own closing message resonates.
Better off than Four Years Ago?
Unlike Trump’s opponent, Donald Trump can run on his economic record, which Mr. Riley notes, is fondly remembered by a growing number of Americans.
A poll released by NBC News earlier this month found that 48% of voters retrospectively approve of Mr. Trump’s performance as president. “That’s a higher job-approval rating than Trump ever held in the NBC News poll when he was president,” according to the network. “It also stands in contrast to Biden’s current 43% approval in the poll.”
Democrats have reason to worry. If working-class voters give in to their biggest fears and reflect on Mr. Trump’s question, then “Democrats are toast.”
The southern border remains a mess. Cities are still being overrun with illegal migrants who force officials to divert resources away from communities that were already struggling. And people are still paying more than they were during the Trump administration for life’s basics: food, energy, housing.
Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta show that the share of household income needed to cover housing costs fell during the Trump presidency. Under Mr. Biden, it’s up by nearly 50%.
Watch Your Wallet
No wonder, reminds Mr. Riley, Kamala Harris and Democrats would rather talk about threats to Democracy.
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