A funny thing happened on Thursday: Donald Trump said Kamala Harris's economic plan Better than Kamala Harris.
Borrowing the left's favorite criticism of Trump, it was “weird.” Worse, it was a stark reminder of how much Americans have at stake in voting to choose their next president. They really should think hard before allowing someone like “Comrade Kamala,” to borrow Trump's favorite name for his opponent, anywhere near the center of power.
I came to this conclusion the other day while listening to Trump’s wide-ranging and detailed economic speech at a luncheon sponsored by the Economic Club of New York. I was astonished not only by Trump’s grasp on economic matters but also by how much of the task Harris left on her opponent to explain how she intends to run a $28 trillion economy.
This makes me think that either he doesn't have a plan or he isn't intelligent enough to understand the dreams of his advisors.
Most Americans, of course, are not as immersed in the nuances of the economic debate as those of us in the chattering class and those who attended this event. They understand how inflation has made life difficult, that when Harris claims that she and her largely deprived boss Sleepy Joe Biden fueled inflation, it rings hollow because the inflation rate has come down, but the prices of basic goods remain stubbornly high.
Americans may or may not fully understand how the Biden-Harris spending spree and higher regulation of the past four years are responsible for this. Yet they remember the strong growth and low inflation of the Trump years, driven by pro-growth policies of low taxes and regulation. For all his behavioral flaws and the stain of January 6, he is certainly better on the economy, polls show.
Perhaps if Trump can stick to this economic message long enough, and present it strongly during the upcoming debates, he will be able to win over enough voters and be elected president for a second time.
The people in that room on Thursday — the financiers, the money managers, the legal elite — they are not the average American voter. They have done well in the stock market for so long on easy money, both fiscal and monetary.
But they know that outside of Wall Street the country is hurting and there is a lot at stake because of the economic crisis. The latest economic data indicate that we have a slowing jobs market. Food and housing prices remain high.
Meanwhile, the Harris campaign is still refusing to provide details on how to fix things. She's running on “vibes” because Harris herself often says incoherent things, even in non-threatening situations. Her plan, which is one, comes from leaks of friendly media sources or social media posts by surrogates like Mark Cuban. They present Harris as an economic moderate, despite her left-wing ideas about regulating grocery prices, despite her refusal to vote down a crazy Biden proposed tax on unrealized capital gains (i.e. stock that hasn't been sold), which is not only socialism but would also hurt the stock market.
Cuban also said it was too much to expect a detailed economic plan from anyone willing to listen (including me), since he didn't even know it was getting approved until Biden withdrew from the June 27 debate. Oh, and it's Trump who is actually the more economically illiterate of the two.
Gaslighting on Steroids
I like Cuban because unlike most leftists, he is a self-made billionaire and willing to negotiate. But what he is saying is gaslighting on steroids. The American people deserve more than a vice president who either knew or should have known he would get the call because Sleepy Joe was about to leave.
Trump spent an hour on Thursday talking about how he would create jobs, lower the prices of basic goods for average people, and what was wrong with Harris' vague plans for the country.
As Trump said (and Mark, feel free to fact check), what has been leaked includes a promise to “repeal the Trump tax cuts, which in itself would be a massive tax increase, raising taxes by over $5 trillion… This would result in the largest small-business tax increase in history, raising taxes on 25 million small-business owners by a massive 43% increase in small-business tax rates.”
He then introduced his own proposals, retaining the tax package passed in his first term, which is set to expire next year, if Harris is to be believed. When he cut the corporate tax rate to 21%, jobs came back from overseas tax havens, wages rose, as did employment – all without inflation.
I've never been a big fan of the second part of MAGA economics, also known as economic nationalism. I suspect there weren't people in the audience either when he talked about all his tariffs to make American companies more competitive. Yeah, I'm skeptical, but I did notice a few people nodding in agreement when Trump mentioned he would lower the corporate tax rate to 15% for companies that make their goods in the US.
Trump has painted a dire vision for the country if Harris is elected – a wide open border, high crime, high taxes and global weakness. Did he blow things out of proportion? Of course, but that's the Donald. Is a trade war necessary, not just with aggressive enemies like China, but with allies too?
Of course not, but if you're concerned about the country's economic future, what he's offering sounds like a much better fit than Harris's idea.
