The Hill: Harris’s economic pitch could cost $1.7 trillion

wildchild · Aug 23, 2024

piezoe said:
In the traditional sense of the meaning of that word; not in the sense of anarco, laissez faire captitalism that you yourself represent and mistakenly describe as "Libertarian". Although I will give you this: the word "libertarian" has been successfully hijacked by americans who oddly describe themselves as "libertarians".
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"I'm puzzled. Were Colorado to allow Mr. Trump's name to appear on its ballots, Colorado would be violating Federal Law, which they are not permitted to do. Colorado has no choice other than to disqualify Mr. Trump from running for Federal Office. If Colorado does not disqualify Trump they will be just as much in violation of the Constitution as if another would-be candidate certified that they were 33 years old, but nevertheless Colorado allowed the 33-year-old's name to be on Colorado's Ballot for President of the United States."

Piezoe

You are puzzled? With this kind of logic, it is no wonder you are puzzled.

Tuxan · Aug 23, 2024

piezoe said:
In the traditional sense of the meaning of that word; not in the sense of anarco, laissez faire captitalism that you yourself represent and mistakenly describe as "Libertarian". Although I will give you this: the word "libertarian" has been successfully hijacked by americans who oddly describe themselves as "libertarians".
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It must be frustrating to draw from the true tradition, John Locke back to the Greeks etc. with the term hijacked by a bunch of sharp elbowed jerks as it is now.

El OchoCinco · Aug 23, 2024

Still cannot get over the stupidity that import tariffs on Chinese goods that tax American buyers were believed to be paid by China. Like trump.and the GOP base never learned what a tariff is and who pays the tariff.

As somone who imports some Chinese product for one of my businesses, I had to fill out the customs forms declaring it as Chinese and pay the import tariff. Like how did U.S. education fall so far and our voters get so stupid so fast.

Tuxan · Aug 23, 2024

El OchoCinco said:
Still cannot get over the stupidity that import tariffs on Chinese goods that tax American buyers were believed to be paid by China. Like trump.and the GOP base never learned what a tariff is and who pays the tariff.

As somone who imports some Chinese product for one of my businesses, I had to fill out the customs forms declaring it as Chinese and pay the import tariff. Like how did U.S. education fall so far and our voters get so stupid so fast.
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I have wanted to see since 2000, an ability to filter country of origin in the majors like Amazon for retail buyers to vote with their money. This to be a legal requirement. Nobody much seems to think it is a worthwhile idea but it exists on B2B sites.

piezoe · Aug 23, 2024

gwb-trading said:
Let's see what the Washington Post's Editorial Board thinks of Kamala's economic plan.

The times demand serious economic ideas. Harris supplies gimmicks.
‘Price gouging’ is not causing inflation. So why is the vice president promising to stamp it out?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/08/16/harris-economy-plan-gimmicks/?_pml=1

Vice President Kamala Harris’s speech Friday was an opportunity to get specific with voters about how a Harris presidency would manage an economy that many feel is not working well for them. Unfortunately, instead of delivering a substantial plan, she squandered the moment on populist gimmicks.

Americans are clearly still anxious and angry about the high cost of groceries, housing and even $5.29 Big Macs. While the inflation rate has cooled substantially since the 2022 peak, an ostensible Biden-Harris administration accomplishment, prices remain elevated relative to the Trump years. So it’s a real political issue for Ms. Harris. One way to handle it might be to level with voters, telling them that inflation spiked in 2021 mainly because the pandemic snarled supply chains, and that the Federal Reserve’s policies, which the Biden-Harris administration supported, are working to slow it. The vice president instead opted for a less forthright route: Blaming big business. She vowed to go after “price gouging” by grocery stores, landlords, pharmaceutical companies and other supposed corporate perpetrators by having the Federal Trade Commission enforce a vaguely defined “federal ban on price gouging.”

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Never mind that many stores are currently slashing prices in response to renewed consumer bargain hunting. Ms. Harris says she’ll target companies that make “excessive” profits, whatever that means. (It’s hard to see how groceries, a notoriously low-margin business, would qualify.) Thankfully, this gambit by Ms. Harris has been met with almost instant skepticism, with many critics citing President Richard M. Nixon’s failed price controls from the 1970s. Whether the Harris proposal wins over voters remains to be seen, but if sound economic analysis still matters, it won’t.

Ms. Harris’s housing plan is built on a slightly firmer foundation. In urging construction of 3 million new homes over the next four years,she puts her finger on the essence of the housing-affordability problem: insufficient supply. She offers clever tax incentives to help make it happen. But her proposed $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time home buyers stimulates the demand side, which risks putting upward pressure on prices. Such a measure might make sense if Ms. Harris paid for it by eliminating other demand-side housing subsidies, such as the mortgage interest deduction, a roughly $30 billion annual drain on federal revenue that benefits many wealthy Americans — but she does not.

Ms. Harris is on firmest ground when she advocates increasing the child tax credit from the current level of $2,000 per kid up to $3,600 per kid for middle-class and low-income families, and for making it easier for those lower on the income scale to access the benefit. These levels were in place in 2021 and resulted in many families being lifted above the poverty line. Assuming it’s designed with appropriate work incentives, the child tax credit can be highly effective anti-poverty policy. Ms. Harris also suggested expanding the earned income tax credit for childless low-income “front-line workers,” a smart idea that has enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress. She would extend beyond 2025 tax breaks to help Americans of modest means afford to buy health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces; those tax breaks are part of the reason more than 92 percent of Americans have health insurance now. She also wants to expand the government’s limited power to negotiate Medicare drug prices and permanently cap out-of-pocket drug spending at $2,000 per year for everyone.

Her ideas would cost money, yet she insisted in her speech that she would hold to President Joe Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on any household earning $400,000 or less annually. That excludes 80 percent of taxable income, and does not take into account the recent surge in families earning over $400,000. The Harris campaign says it plans to raise revenue to cover these costs but did not provide specific offsets in its economic plan rollout. Without them, Ms. Harris’s full plan would add $1.7 trillion to federal deficits over a decade, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan budget watchdog.

To be sure, every campaign makes expensive promises that will never come to pass, especially with a divided Congress. Remember Mr. Biden’s pledge to make community college free? Even adjusted for the pandering standards of campaign economics, however, Ms. Harris’s speech Friday ranks as a disappointment.
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The Post has reasonable criticisms of Harris's proposals; yet I admire Harris's ability to connect with "joe the plumber". In this respect she is like Trump, but that's where the similarity ends. "Price gouging" is political speak for taking advantage of a generalized inflation to increase prices by more than your costs increased to improve your margin. Some wiggle room has to be allowed because of the inaccuracies associated with determining cost increases. No politician in their right mind, however, unless they are speaking exclusively to the highly educated, would be advised to go any deeper than "price gouging".

Those of us with a deeper understanding are happy to make allowances because we are "yearning to breathe free" from the disaster that has befallen the nation we love in the form of one Donald John Trump. One of these is way too many.

ipatent · Aug 24, 2024

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The Hill: Harris’s economic pitch could cost $1.7 trillion

wildchild

Tuxan

El OchoCinco

Tuxan

piezoe

ipatent