Polls show that in every election the economy is consistently at or near the top of the list of the most important issues to voters.
This time around, the stock market is making record highs, with the Dow Jones now over 42,000. That might be good for your 401k, but the gains of Wall Street come as Main Street is suffering. Forbes reported, “The U.S. economy is currently exhibiting a ‘K-shaped’ dynamic, which means that the wealthy are benefiting from asset appreciation, while middle and lower income groups are confronting higher costs and financial strains.” In other words, the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer.
Forbes also reported last month that “The U.S. added 818,000 fewer jobs than previously estimated from March 2023 to March 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.” and in another article by Forbes, “Borrowers are falling behind on car loan payments at the highest rate in 27 years.”
Democrats will tout that inflation is “down” but really it’s just that costs are rising slower than before. An article by Yahoo Finance gives us a better look at the overall climb: “Prices as measured by the seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index are now up over 19.4% in the three-plus years since Biden took office.”
Steven Rattner, an economic advisor for President Obama, wrote that, “The original sin [of inflation] was the $1.9 trillion dollar American Rescue Plan,” and the bill “has contributed materially to today’s inflation levels.”
Vice President Harris was in the unique position of setting a record for the most tie-breaking votes in the U.S. Senate. In doing so, PBS reported that “Harris has helped advance the American Rescue Plan, which was a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief measure, and the Inflation Reduction Act.” Biden and Harris claim these packages saved the economy after COVID-19, created millions of jobs, and reduced inflation. But the economy was already well on its way to a natural recovery under Trump without additional legislation.
Just a few weeks ago Biden touted that the Inflation Reduction Act was actually “The most significant climate change law ever.” and that “We should have named it what it was.” So the Biden-Harris administration repackaged the Green New Deal and sold it to the American people under the guise of bringing them relief from rising costs?
Then both Biden and Harris have made the case that price gouging is partly to blame for inflation. But recently Harris has taken it a step further, proposing a plan to regulate increases in prices. The headline of an opinion featured in the Washington Post later read, “When your opponent calls you ‘communist,’ maybe don’t propose price controls?” Perhaps worse than that, Harris has floated the idea of taxing “unrealized gains” — in other words, taxing the increase in value of your stocks and assets that you haven’t even sold — which would be disastrous and disincentivize Americans from investing.
Interest rates have put an additional burden on lower and middle-class Americans. But the Fed’s recent 50 basis-point drop indicates concern on the horizon. The last time we saw cuts that big were during the pandemic, and before the 2008 financial crisis.
Harris’s proposals of more taxes and regulation do not bode well for an economy under her leadership. Americans were more stable and prosperous financially under Trump. Today, Americans are still struggling, and the next president may very well oversee another economic downturn similar to 2008, if not worse.
Facing these issues, between Trump and Harris — I think I’ll take the businessman.
Thomas Sanco is a Cherokee County resident, who deals in vintage cars and parts.