By Douglas V. Gibbs
“It’s the economy, stupid.” The often used phrase was coined by Democrat Jim Carville in 1992. Carville, Bill Clinton’s political advisor at the time, understood the reality of life in these United States. When it comes to voters deciding who to vote for in an election, aside from party-affiliation, the economy is going to be among the highest ranking issues for average Americans. The family budget is the conversation that is mostly spoken at the dinner table. Our whole lives revolve around the affordability of life.
Inflation, be it due to basic economics like supply and demand, or worldwide issues that influence trade and the supply of resources, influences everything in our lives. Therefore, inflation is constantly a top concern of the American people.
An NBC News Poll a year-and-a-half ago found that two-thirds of Americans surveyed believed that consumer prices were rising so fast that they were surpassing their wages. Three-quarters of those surveyed claimed that the United States economy was headed in the wrong direction. Yet, barely over a third of those people thought that the blame should be pointed at those in office while the economy went into a tail-spin; the Biden Administration.
The reality is, the Democrats have applied Keynesian-style strategies, pumping more money into the system, and inserting more government into the mix at every turn, and the bad ideas, combined with global issues on the rise due to America’s projection of weakness over the last three-and-a-half years has placed us on the precipice of another full-blown recession.
The inflation-reduction law did the opposite as promised, and American investors are avoiding short-term investments as a result; and when investors shift away from short-term returns and pump their funds into long-term returns it means that they are not confident regarding what is going to happen over the next few years. When investors begin to act this way a recession is on the horizon.
Consumers have known this all along. Consumer spending has been shaky. Surveys are reporting that consumer sentiment regarding the economy is at a nearly 11-year low. More Americans than at any time since the 1940s are saying they expect their financial health to get worse in the year ahead. Consumer confidence is tail-spinning.
Biden and the Democrats have pumped massive amounts of fiat money into the system, with deficit spending in Washington, D.C. rising to levels that have ballooned the deficit. Prices are rising, government influence is increasing, and it is frankly getting harder to pay one’s bills at the end of each month.
After admitting that during her reign as Vice President prices have skyrocketed, Kamala Harris says that a large part of her plan to fix the problem is to help small businesses. She plans to expand their tax deductions, pump federal money into their pockets with a “small business expansion fund,” allow federal regulatory requirements for small businesses to soften so that they may more easily comply with those regulations, simplify the tax filing process for small businesses, and use immigration policy to provide small businesses with a workforce that won’t drive up labor costs – immigrants, after all, are some of our most innovative entrepreneurs claims Democrats.
In other words, rather than reduce their taxes, she’ll make it easier for them to file. Then, she’ll provide federal monetary blessings in tax breaks (of which they have criticized Trump for using as a businessman) and an influx of federal money into the pockets of small businesses (because when the federal government gives you money, there are strings attached – nothing says recovery like the government telling you how to run your business). Rather than reduce regulations, she plans to make it easier for small businesses to comply with the unconstitutional federal regulations which are burying businesses, and limiting their ability to be more innovative. Then, she promises to give jobs to illegal aliens, claiming that they deserve the jobs more than true immigrants and American citizens.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has a record to fall back on, and what he did (and will do, if he returns to Washington) was cut taxes for everyone (because when you cut the taxes of the producers it is reflected in prices), reduce regulations for all levels of business (unleashing free market potential without the federal government interfering), and as J.D. Vance recently explained: bring manufacturing back to the United States through incentives. “Priming the pump,” as Keynesians explain when they pump money into the pockets of consumers, does nothing if there is no supply in the first place pumping out products in a manner that drives prices downward. As for tariffs, if done properly and if the United States is ramping up manufacturing its own goods, the import/export tax does not cause inflation despite the argument to the contrary. Tariffs simply level the playing field and give American producers a fighting chance, and incentive to return to the States for production. Tariffs, in short, force trading partners to reduce the prices of their goods sold to us, and encourages producers to move production to the United States so that their profit-margin won’t be affected. As for foreign producers, the American market is too important for them to allow the tariffs to make their goods unaffordable; hence, the reason they are encouraged to reduce their prices when it’s with reasonable tariffs. Meanwhile, American producers are better able to compete, and foreign competitors are more likely to build new factories in the United States to avoid the tariffs which also reduces prices, and provides more jobs for American workers. In that kind of environment, large businesses, and small businesses, find themselves in a more vibrant free market economy, and as production rises and prices drop, consumerism increases creating a greater demand for more products which, in the long-term, creates an economic boom that reduces inflation. While Kamala says she wants to encourage the growth of small businesses and punish large corporations for daring to make a profit by increasing government’s role in their lives, Trump believes that enabling a vibrant and productive free market for all businesses, largely by removing government’s footprint on their necks, is better for America’s economy.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary