Kamala Harris believes she knows the choice before the public in November.
It is between going “forwards” and going “backwards.”
Since the Democratic nominee is wise about the nature of time, she insists that this November, America should choose to go forward.
In fact, it would be good if this country could go back.
To the economy we had before Kamala Harris and Joe Biden entered office
Because the most consequential choice there is in this election is between left-wing economics and right-wing economics.
Between the economics of Biden-Harris and the economics of Donald Trump.
In some areas of life, the left-right divide is blurry.
But in economics, the difference is clear.
It is between those who would grow the size of the economy and those who would grow the size of the state.
When it comes to election season, some people will say anything they like just to be elected.
People promise things.
But they can’t be tested on them.
At least not until they have taken office.
That is one of the things that makes this election season so much better than most.
Because the American public have two choices in front of them — each of whom has a very clear track record.
For once, we can judge the candidates not on their words but on their deeds.
Unfortunately, this is not good news for Kamala Harris.
Today the vice president is trying to add some meat onto the bones (such as they are) of her economic plans.
These are reported to include efforts to make housing more affordable, lower the costs of living for families, boost small businesses and take on “corporate excess.”
The last of these is simply a left-wing pandering point.
Anyone hoping to stir up the left-wing base can always paint big, bad capitalists and their excessive salaries as the problem.
As though anything you did to tinker with top Wall Street salaries would do a thing for working-class Americans.
But on her other proposals, we don’t need to judge how well Harris and Trump could do.
We can judge them on what they already did do.
During Trump’s four years in office, rank-and-file American workers had their highest wage growth in over 10 years.
Indeed, the pace of their wage growth outpaced that of their supervisors.
The Democrats like to pretend that Trump’s tax cuts only benefited the rich.
But again, that is not just playing the politics of pointless envy.
It is simply untrue.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (2017) didn’t just massively spur economic growth, it also saw the average taxpayer receive an on-average tax cut of around $1,500.
Hourly and weekly earnings increased by 1.1% between November 2018 and November 2019 alone.
Again — these benefits helped everyone.
Kamala Harris may enjoy talking about minority communities and how much the state needs to help them.
But when Trump was in the White House, he helped African Americans and others to help themselves.
During the first three years of Trump’s presidency, median household incomes rose by 15.4% for black Americans and 11.5% for white Americans.
Barack Obama may have talked a great game, but just compare even his results with Trump’s.
Between 2009 and 2015, Obama oversaw an economy in which in six years, median household incomes increased only 2.3% for black Americans and 4.4% for white Americans.
And what about Biden-Harris?
Well, between June 2021 and June 2022 alone, real average hourly earnings fell by a whopping 3.6%.
That’s the Biden-Harris economy for you.
While the Democrats talk of equity and racial justice, Trump actually oversaw an economy in which 400,000 new black Americans workers entered the US economy every year.
That is compared to an average of just 250,000 in each year of the Obama presidency.
The most important issue that the Republicans can now push is not just how well the economy did under Trump, but how poorly it did under Biden-Harris.
Just last November, Moody’s downgraded its ratings outlook on the US government from stable to negative.
Last August, Fitch downgraded the US long-term foreign currency issuer default from its triple A rating.
In fact, the ratings agencies have pummeled Biden-Harris more than that big Algerian pummeled his female boxing opponents at the Paris Olympics.
As for home affordability: Under Biden-Harris, home affordability in the US is at its worst level since 1984.
With mortgage and inflation rates at sky-high levels under Biden-Harris, would-be homeowners are being hit from every side.
Trump has already laid out how he proposes to tackle the curse of inflation.
But what would President Harris do?
Again we already have her record to judge her on.
When Trump left office, he left an economy with mere 1.4% inflation.
During the Biden-Harris years, the inflation rate has topped out at 9.1% (in June 2022).
And although some politicians like to pretend inflation is just something like a major weather event (“Ukraine,” they often say, as if that excuses everything), in fact inflation is something you can deal with.
You can make the economic weather.
And Biden-Harris either chose to make it infinitely worse or were just fantastically inept.
It was their smart idea to try to tackle inflation by going on a $1.9 trillion spending spree (the American Rescue Plan) followed by the $433 billion Inflation Reduction Act.
All despite Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen saying that inflation was “transitory.”
This is why prices have increased almost 20% since Biden and Harris took charge.
And it is the American public that is feeling it.
In February 2020, 57% of Americans said they felt the US economy was excellent or good.
In May this year, a mere 23% of Americans were able to say the same thing.
Here is the challenge for Harris: She has to present herself as having answers to this country’s economic problems.
Yet she was just part of an administration that made things demonstrably worse.
Trump, on the other hand, has a positive message to sell.
Put personalities aside — the answer for his campaign is clear.
Trump should run on his record and invite Harris to run on hers.
I for one cannot wait to see her try.