Funny thing happened on Thursday: Donald Trump articulated the Kamala Harris economic plan better than Kamala Harris.
To borrow the left’s favorite criticism of all things Trump, it was “weird.” Worse, it was a stark reminder of how much is on the line as Americans go to polls to pick their next president. They really need to think hard before allowing someone like “Comrade Kamala,” to borrow Trump’s favorite name for his opponent, near the center of power.
I came to that conclusion while listening to Trump’s wide-ranging and detailed economic speech that day at a luncheon sponsored by The Economic Club of New York. I was struck not just by Trump’s command of economic matters, but also by how much Harris has been leaving it up to her opponent to explain how she wants to run a $28 trillion economy.
It makes me think, she either doesn’t have a plan or isn’t smart enough to explain what her advisers are dreaming up.
Most Americans, of course, aren’t immersed in the nuances of the economic debate like those of us in the chattering class, and those who attended the event. They do understand how inflation has made life difficult, that when Harris touts that she and her largely defenestrated boss Sleepy Joe Biden whipped inflation, that the line rings hollow because the inflation rate is down but prices for basics remain stubbornly high.
Americans may or may not fully appreciate how the Biden-Harris spending spree over the past four years coupled by higher regulations is to blame. Yet they remember the strong growth and low inflation of the Trump years spurred by pro-growth policies of lower taxes and regulations. For all his behavioral warts and the stain of January 6, he’s hands down better on the economy, polls show.
Maybe if Trump can stay on this same economic message long enough, nail it during the upcoming debate, he can win over enough voters and get elected president for a second time.
The people in that room Thursday — financiers, money managers, the legal elite — aren’t those average American voters. They have done well with a stock market juiced by easy money both fiscal and monetary for so long.
But they know the country is hurting outside of Wall Street and too much is on the line to hand the keys over to an economic cipher. The latest economic data are showing signs we have a slowing jobs market. Prices remain elevated for food and housing.
Meanwhile, the Harris campaign still refuses to provide details on how to fix things. She’s running on “vibes” because Harris herself often speaks incoherently, even in non-threatening settings. Her plan, such that there is one, comes from leaks to friendly media sources or social media posts by surrogates like Mark Cuban. They spin Harris as an economic moderate, despite her leftist musings about regulating grocery prices, her refusal to disavow a loopy Biden proposed tax on unrealized capital gains (aka stock that hasn’t been sold), which isn’t just rank socialism, but would tank the stock market.
Cuban has also been spinning to anyone who will listen (including me) that a detailed economic plan is too much to expect from a nominee who didn’t know she was getting the nod until Biden blew up at that June 27 debate. Oh, and it’s Trump who’s really the economic illiterate of the two.
Gaslighting on steroids
I like Cuban because unlike most lefties, he’s a self-made billionaire and willing to engage. But what he’s saying is gaslighting on steroids. The American people deserve more out of a VP who either knew or should have known she would get the call because Sleepy Joe was on his way out.
Trump literally riffed for an hour Thursday on how he will create jobs, bring down prices of basics for average people, and what’s wrong with Harris’s obtuse plans for the country.
As Trump put it (and Mark, feel free to fact-check), what’s been leaked “includes the promise to end the Trump tax cuts, which again by itself would be a massive tax increase, would increase taxes over $5 trillion . . . It would result in the largest small-business tax hike in history, massively raising taxes on 25 million small-business people and raising small-business tax rates 43% higher.”
Then he got into his own proposals, keeping in place the tax package he passed in his first term that is set to expire next year if Harris has her way. When he lowered the corporate tax rate to 21%, jobs returned from overseas tax havens, wages spiked, as did employment — all without inflation.
I’ve never been a big fan of the other part of MAGA economics, aka economic nationalism. I suspect people in the audience weren’t, either, when he explained his across-the-board tariffs to make American companies more competitive. Yes, I have my doubts, but I did notice some nodding in agreement as Trump explained how he will lower the corporate tax rate to 15% for those companies that make their goods in the US.
Trump painted a dystopian vision for the country if Harris is elected — a larger open border, higher crime, massive taxes and weakness around the globe. Did he stretch things? Of course, but that’s The Donald. Is a trade war, not just with belligerent enemies like China but with allies, necessary?
Of course not, but if you’re worried about the country’s economic future, what he’s offering seems so much more preferable to Harris’s vibe.
