Kamala Harris and America’s Pocketbook

The tidings that more Americans trust Vice President Harris than President Trump to handle America’s economy is surely being celebrated by the Democrats, who have gorged on good news of late. The survey was conducted by the University of Michigan Ross School of Business for the Financial Times. It is the first time since the pollsters began asking the question that Ms. Harris has come ahead — by one point — of the 45th president.Ms. Harris improved on Mr. Biden’s standing on the question, sussed out last month, by a remarkable seven points. Forty-two percent of Americans trust her more than Trump with respect to fiscal matters, despite only 19 percent believing that they are better off than when Mr. Biden took office. Inflation is still voters’ top concern. All of this is to say that all is not lost for Trump, but that it could be if he fails to plant his flag on economic turf. We’re a week out from the Democrats’ convention, and the prospective nominee has yet to disclose her economic policy platform. She promises that it will debut in the coming days, and that it’ll focus on strengthening the “economy” and what we need to do to bring down costs.” It appears to us that Trump has a far more convincing story — and record to tell, one of deregulation, conquering inflation, curtailing illegal immigration, and tax cuts. Will he tell it, though? Another poll, released on Friday and undertaken by CNBC/ Generation Lab, found that “younger Americans do not appear to hold Vice President Harris responsible for what many of them believe is a worsening United States economy.” Voters appear prepared to allow Ms. Harris to escape the blame for the administration which she still serves. That could yet be shorthand for the entirety of her pitch.The problem she faces is that the way to confront the problems America faces are supply-side progrowth measures to which the GOP has laid claim for years, including the Trump years — which saw full employment without inflation. This involves tax cuts, deregulation, and monetary policies tailored to stable money. We like the way Larry Kudlow puts it, as he did in his Sun column the other day, “Cut taxes not interest rates.”The Times reports that Ms. Harris “did not play a major role” in devising economic policy for the administration, though today the White House Press Secretary, Katherine Jean-Pierre, reckoned that the two were “in sync.” That is a point Trump could hammer home. That Ross School of Business Poll detected that for all of the movement in Ms. Harris’s direction, voters still narrowly forecast Trump as more likely to do a better job when it comes to the fisc. It’s hard to see how Ms. Harris gets out of the jam the administration engineered over the past four years. So far she’s rejected any of the GOP formulae. A Harris presidency will undoubtedly feature higher taxes and more regulations. Under her watch, the administrative state would likely search for ways to work around the Supreme Court’s toppling of Chevron deference, with baleful effects.Our Maggie Hroncich relays Gallup’s finding that the economy is the top issue for voters. Some 38 percent of respondents to the Ross poll want Ms. Harris to “take a completely different approach from Joe Biden’s economic policies.” Market Watch compares the moment to the 1920s. That was Coolidge’s spectacular economy. The “Great Refrainer” followed economic principles almost exactly opposite of what can be expected from Ms. Harris.

Kamala Harris and America’s Pocketbook

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