Earlier this week, the Kamala Harris campaign released an 82-page economic plan that’s more Bidenomics 2.0 than a new way forward; “Did her campaign ask ChatGPT to describe her progressive policies in moderate rhetoric using the verbiage of free-market economists?” The Wall Street Journal editorial board asked.
WSJ says Kamala’s plan amounts to more spending, more taxes, more regulation, and more government.
From The Wall Street Journal:
•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.
•New and bigger entitlements. She’ll need all those taxes to finance all of her new spending. She wants to revive the Build Back Better plan that failed in the Democratic Senate to support entitlements for child care, preschool, long-term care and paid leave. No costs attached, but figure it in the trillions.
•More transfer payments, including a restoration of the March 2021 Covid bill’s $3,600 child tax credit, a new $6,000 credit for families with newborns, and tripling the earned income tax credit for childless adults. She calls all these “tax cuts,” but they are income redistribution through the tax code and welfare since they go to people who don’t pay taxes.
•More housing subsidies, including an “historic expansion” of the low-income housing tax credit, a “first-ever tax incentive for building affordable homes for first-time homebuyers” and a $40 billion “local innovation fund for housing expansion.”
…
•More student loan forgiveness. Her euphemism for this is to “end the unreasonable burden of student loan debt.”
•More government control of healthcare. She’d expand and make permanent the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) sweetened ObamaCare subsidies, which are set to expire in 2025. Millions enrolled in ObamaCare plans pay no premiums owing to the subsidies, which average about $6,000.
Read the editorial board’s full takedown of Kamala’s plan over at The WSJ:
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Harris’s Economic Plan Is Bidenomics II
“The Vice President lays out 82 pages of more spending, more taxes, more regulation, more government.” https://t.co/GNcY4CyXpY
— Karoline Leavitt (@kleavittnh) September 27, 2024
