By Grace Vuoto
Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is being celebrated this week at her party’s convention, elevated as a friend of the working class. Yet, Biden-Harris policies have profoundly harmed the economy. Harris has no clue how to improve the financial prospects of each citizen, mostly because she does not understand how free markets operate.
The Biden-Harris economic record is abysmal, as summarized in an August 16 Wall Street Journal editorial. They spent $1.9 trillion dollars in 2021, claiming to provide pandemic relief, but really dispensing useless handouts. The extraordinary funds caused inflation and a staggering $5.8 trillion dollar deficit. The dramatic spike in inflation required a surge in interest rates, resulting in record high housing costs.
In other words, every time Democrats try to “fix” the economy, they make matters worse. As the adage goes: “When the big man gets an idea, the little man gets the headache.”
Most of the new jobs that emerged since the pandemic are in the public sector—the most stagnant part of the economy. And for every job created, the government borrowed $400,000.00. This is not sound fiscal policy but a transparent shell game: our taxpayer money is being reshuffled, while we all get deeper into debt. Auto and credit card delinquencies are at their highest levels since the 2008 recession.
The American economy is currently tied up in knots. It is being strangled by policies crafted in the minds of bureaucrats, not entrepreneurs. President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris have both primarily had public sector jobs: Biden since 1973 and Harris since1990. Combined, they have approximately 84 years of public-sector-job experience since they graduated from college. How many years did they work in the private sector in their adult lives, combined? Zero.
Harris now claims to have more “solutions” for us. She is calling for $25,000.00 down-payment assistance for first-time homebuyers. Again, she will borrow from Peter to pay Paul and pat herself on the back. Wasn’t it easier simply to have allowed the record-low interest rates to remain in place prior to the inflation era they provoked? That was the sharpest, most effective and natural way to stimulate the economy—and lower housing costs for all.
Her other major proposal is to enact a federal ban on firms that price gouge. She wants to crack down on “excessive profits.” But it is obvious she has not considered that when one meddles in setting prices, prices stay high. The best cost-cutting and price-dropping approach is competition—which means keeping the government out of the private sector. Democrats do not understand this basic concept.
At the heart of Harris’ approach is an attempt to exert control over millions of participants in the economy. If you ever tried to control one other person—a spouse, a child, for example—you soon realize it is a fool’s errand. How can she control millions all at once into the desired behavior imagined in her mind?
The great irony is that her campaign currently presents itself as a champion of freedom and yet, simultaneously, proposes dogmatic, stifling economic policies that choke individuals and businesses. This is oppression not liberty.
Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations (1776) brilliantly encapsulated the principles of classical liberalism that became the cornerstone of Western capitalism, unleashing the greatest engine of prosperity ever known to mankind. It can be summarized in the simple concept of “laissez-faire” or “leave it alone.”
If Biden-Harris had simply smiled and waved to the camera upon assuming office—in other words, no economic interventionism—there would have been no inflation, no interest rate hikes, no housing cost raises—and the pre-pandemic Trump prosperity would have continued. We can consider the last few years as a lab experiment of sorts, regarding which method is most effective. Two models were tried: the Republican philosophy rooted in economic freedom (enacted prior to the pandemic) and the Democratic strategy of meddlesomeness. One succeeded, one failed miserably. The data tells the whole story.
It is time to close on the book on this discussion. We know definitively, in recent years, Democrats are poor stewards of the economy. Harris will only double down on more foolhardy poking into a system she does not understand and cannot control.
In the eloquent words of her own running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, as he said in a speech in Philadelphia Aug. 6, there is indeed a golden rule. This does not apply to reproductive rights, as was the context of his words, but applies to the economy. Perhaps it all works best when you “mind your own damn business.”
-Grace Vuoto, Ph.D. is a political commentator and columnist. She can be heard Wednesday mornings at 9:00 am on The Kuhner Report WRKO-AM 680.
-Photo courtesy of Getty Images