JD Vance’s Anti-Free-Market, Big-Government Views Defy Economic Wisdom of Milton Friedman

Vice President Vance has served admirably alongside President Trump and has been a true asset to the administration. Right now, he’s favored to be the next Republican nominee for president when 2028 rolls around. But there are many other viable contenders.That’s why his latest deep-dive interview on his views on the economy is highly disturbing.In Mr. Vance’s interview last week with the Daily Wire, he sounded much more like a big-government Republican-in-Name-Only, like Senator Mitt Romney, than a Trump or Ronald Reagan.Decide for yourself. Here are some of Mr. Vance’s misguided views on economics and the future of the GOP:“Milton Friedman’s ideas made more sense in the 1980s because they were being advocated in a country that still had a very rich and powerful institutional Christianity.”Economist Milton Friedman in 1976. Via Wikimedia CommonsAnd: “If you look at modern Britain and the result of Margaret Thatcher’s policies, you would say that her policies actually got Britain further away from that ideal and not closer to that ideal.”And: “I think that meritocracy can steal from us a sense of what really, really matters.”And: “When Donald Trump ran for president the first time, the idea of tariffs on imported goods was a heresy in the GOP. It is now the baseline position that virtually every Republican politician adopts.”And: “If you turn economic development (i.e., prosperity) into a sort of idol, then you end up sacrificing a lot of the things that matter most.”And: “American economic policy on the right is now much more Alexander Hamilton than it is Milton Friedman. I think that’s obviously a good thing.”This is anti-free-market, big government gobbledygook. Here’s just one “laissez-faire economic truism” that Mr. Vance should learn: Individuals can always spend their own money better than the government.Detail of John Trumbull’s portrait of America’s first treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton. Metropolitan Museum of Art via Wikimedia CommonsHamilton had his gifts, for sure, but Hamilton believed in a far more powerful federal government than Thomas Jefferson, who correctly wanted a small federal government, and the states to have most of the governing power.That’s why we have the Ninth and 10th Amendments — power resides with the states and the people. Do Republicans want a new era of even bigger and more intrusive government?Who disparages Friedman — Reagan’s favorite economist and perhaps the most ardent spokesman for free markets since Adam Smith? Friedman was the leading spokesman for school choice, limited government and personal freedom. One of his most famous books was called “Free to Choose.” Who criticizes Thatcher?We already have a big government party in the Democrats that is increasingly leaning toward socialism. The GOP must be the party of a lean and efficient and less burdensome federal government. If Mr. Vance doesn’t believe in those core principles of freedom and prosperity, maybe he’s in the wrong party.Creators.com

JD Vance’s Anti-Free-Market, Big-Government Views Defy Economic Wisdom of Milton Friedman

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