On day two I said I was still trying to process some things I'd heard on day one. Here it is day four, and I'm still trying to process some of the stuff I heard on day one.
When I heard this...no, rather read that in a release...and then heard comments here and there it's been a "what?" A few of the things I've heard this week have turned my brain into an early version of Internet Explorer: it just freezes up.
Here's a pretty good score card through yesterday midday:
Harris: Supersized Biden
Democrats rolled out
Joe Biden late on the first night of their Chicago convention, eager to get his obligatory moment over before disappearing him until November. Yet it seems fitting Biden led the week, since everything but his face remains on the ballot. The
Kamala Harris policy agenda has turned out to be nothing more than supersized Biden 2.0.
A month into her coronation, the Democratic nominee is finally fleshing out an agenda and has settled the big question of whether she’d revert to her 2020 progressive platform or chart any different path from Biden. Answer: a resounding no. She’s instead doubling down on the failing status quo. So much so that the Harris team didn’t even bother to put its stamp on the party platform, which was released in July under the expectation of a Biden renomination.
The campaign and press will continue to repackage her as “fresh,” but the policy substance is pure Biden redux–only wilder, spendier and more damaging.
Her turbocharging:
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CTC:
Adopts Biden’s call for a re-expanded $3,600 child tax credit, though also promises a $6,000 bonus for newborns.
Cost: $1.2 trillion over 10 years.
•
EITC: Mimics
Biden’s policy to triple the earned income tax credit for childless adults to $1,500. Cost: $150 billion over 10 years.
•
Housing: Escalates Biden’s call for a $10,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers to $25,000 while throwing in more tax incentives and subsidies for homebuilding. Cost: $200 billion over 10 years.
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ObamaCare: Proposes another Biden-like extension of the ObamaCare premium tax-credit sweeteners that lure subscribers to otherwise unpopular offerings. Cost: $400 billion over 10 years.
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Medical debt: Vaults from a Biden rule to exclude medical debt from credit reports to a full-fledged pledge to cancel medical debt altogether. Cost: Unknown, though current medical debt in the U.S.
exceeds $200 billion.
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Taxes: Continues Biden’s promise to reverse the Trump tax cuts and raise taxes on tens of millions of Americans, including his wage-pilfering
proposal to raise the corporate tax rate to 28%. She also adopts Biden’s supposed carveout for those making less than $400,000.
•
Climate: Continues Biden policies to regulate fossil fuels out of existence and eliminate consumers’ ability to purchase gasoline-powered vehicles or appliances.
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Price controls: Vows to accelerate Biden’s extortion of drug companies in Medicare price negotiations and expand caps on out-of-pocket drug costs. Further
adds a new threat to impose Nixonian price controls on food and groceries.
•
Border: Mirrors Biden’s recent border pivot, promising more security and border resources.
•
Israel: Sticks with Biden’s support of Israel, even as tens of thousands of protesters swarm Chicago demanding an “arms embargo.”
Charitable commentators claim Harris is putting a “unique” twist on the Biden agenda, but that’s gloss. In her rush to distance herself from her more radical 2020 progressive positions, Harris has come full circle to the very agenda that has encumbered Biden with a 40% approval rating. Amusingly, her only true “new” idea was stolen from
Donald Trump: eliminating the federal tax on tips.
Dept. of Convention Wisdom:
The press is swallowing Harris’s claim she’ll produce an “opportunity economy,” failing to explain how more of the policies that brought the nation inflation, border chaos and crime—and soured the public— will produce different results. The Harris fallback to a Biden agenda is potentially a powerful theme for Republicans, if anyone is wise enough to pick it up. Most Americans understand it is Biden’s big-spending, big-regulation agenda that caused this mess, and will remain very wary of a repeat. But only if Trump can marshal the discipline to make the case. That’s a big if.