What are the economic policies being proposed by Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee? We don’t actually know what “Kamalanomics” looks like because the veep has been more focused on offering platitudes with attitude. Will Kamalanonics be similar to Bidenomics? Or is it just Bidenomics on steroids?
So far, her campaign website has zero policy proposals, so that’s no help. But you can buy a Harris-Walz camo hat the media have been effusing over. Wait until someone tells the candidates that “camo” is short for camouflage, which is something typically worn by hunters and soldiers who carry…guns.
Probably the best we can do at this point is drill down on her platitudes.
Harris recently said at a campaign rally, “We fight for a future with affordable housing, affordable health care, affordable child care, paid leave.” So let’s start with those.
Housing: Housing costs have risen significantly under the Biden-Harris administration. There are several factors behind those increases, including house prices, rising interest rates and insurance costs, property taxes, etc. Fortunately, a recent paper from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies looked at monthly payments for a median-priced home, including taxes and insurance. It estimates the current monthly payment at $3,096. That’s down from about $3,300 in mid-2023, but significantly higher than $2,100 at the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration.
In short, all-in monthly housing costs have increased about 50 percent under Biden-Harris. No wonder the president and now Harris have started talking about addressing high housing costs. They realize it’s an election-year liability.
The way to lower housing costs is to reduce regulations, allow builders to charge a fair price that covers costs and makes a profit, and reduce interest rates (which the Federal Reserve Bank will likely do soon). But Harris would almost certainly do the opposite, increasing regulations and attempting to impose price controls, which would lead to fewer houses and higher prices.
Health care: Virtually all progressives want a government-run, single-payer health care system. That includes Harris.
She was quick to support Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) “Medicare for All” bill when she was in the Senate, though that title is misleading. The bill does not put everyone in the federal Medicare program. Rather, the government takes over the health care system, raising taxes to pay for it. You would not be able to keep your employer-provided health insurance nor opt out of the government system. “Kamalacare” would likely be very similar.
Now would be a good time to recall humorist P.J. O’Rourke’s famous observation, “If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.”
Before you decide on whether Kamalacare is a good idea, look at the challenges in the two countries most often pointed to as models for U.S. reform: England and Canada.
Childcare: Progressives don’t want to reduce the cost of childcare. Rather, they want the private sector or government to pay for it. Indeed, the Biden-Harris CHIPS and Science Act requires companies taking government subsidies to “include child care plans that meet the Department of Commerce’s standards for affordable, accessible, reliable, high-quality care that is responsive to employees’ needs.”
The way Harris would make childcare “affordable” is by having the government hand out even more money directly to families, or by attaching strings to corporate subsidies so that companies pay for it.
Paid leave: What is it with progressives’ obsession with paying people not to work? According to the Department of Labor, “Thirteen states and the District of Columbia have laws that create paid family and medical leave programs for eligible workers.” In addition, many employers provide paid leave. But Harris wants to create a new federal entitlement program.
The Green New Deal: Harris fully embraces the Green New Deal, a massive social justice program disguised as a way to save the planet from greenhouse gases. As the New York Times explains, “Supporters of the Green New Deal also believe that change can’t just be a technological feat, and say it must also tackle poverty, income inequality and racial discrimination.”
But Biden-Harris, like Obama-Biden before them, have poured trillions of taxpayer dollars into their green dreams, and yet consumers are increasingly shunning electric vehicles and numerous subsidized green energy companies have either gone belly up or soon will.
Fiscal Policy: Here’s one facet of Kamalanomics you can be sure of. She will increase federal spending at an even faster rate than Biden and try to pay for it with higher taxes. If you liked Biden’s $8 trillion total in annual deficits and $35 trillion federal debt, you’ll love Harris.
There are obviously many as-yet unannounced policy positions, and you can be sure they all will give the government much more control over our choices and our lives. But Harris will likely stick to unoffensive platitudes as long as voters, and especially the media, don’t demand specifics.
Merrill Matthews is a public policy and political analyst and the co-author of “On the Edge: America Faces the Entitlements Cliff.”