Trump wants to throw more money at the super rich, while Harris is proposing spending on public programs to benefit the working class. While her plans don’t go nearly far enough, they’re superior to the alternative.
Modern U.S. presidential campaigns seem to have less and less to do with substance, a development spearheaded most recently by former President Donald Trump. As climate writer David Roberts has pointed out, trying to analyze Trump’s statements as policy commitments is a “category error.” Trump presses upon his followers the delusion that he can command the federal bureaucracy, corporations and foreign countries to do whatever he wants, even before taking office as president. His policies are simply Himself. These days he is tossing out proposals for tax cuts to miscellaneous constituencies, like somebody throwing beads from a parade float at Mardi Gras.
That voters care about any fine-grained details of a candidate’s policy platform may be doubted. Nevertheless, we should care, since the details point to potential changes under a future administration. Others talk about the politics of such proposals in pure horserace terms. When it comes to the emerging agenda from Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, I’m interested in the potential for socialist politics under her platform. Where might it lead?
Harris recently announced new proposals suggesting what her domestic policy agenda would look like, adding to a burgeoning economic plan I have previously reviewed.
Harris does have a lingering political problem from the inflation spike of 2022, since some voters have come to think a president either causes or can eliminate inflation. Another bit of common economic ignorance that Trump exploits is voters’ misimpression that foreign countries, rather than U.S. citizens, pay for tariffs. Without a doubt, new tariffs would raise the level of prices, as would the deportation of many workers, which Trump has promised.
It’s easy for a president to deliberately increase inflation with tariffs. (And by other means: I like to remind people when Trump wanted higher gas prices.) Reducing inflation, when it has arisen from other sources, is something else entirely. There are things a Democratic president, with the help of a cooperative Congress, could do to tame inflation, which has fallen dramatically in recent months. The three big areas are healthcare, higher education and housing.
Harris Is No Socialist—But Her Economic Plans Are Far Better Than Trump’s – In These Times