George Will is understandably dismayed that “this election is Democratic progressivism vs. GOP progressivism-lite.” Three slices:
Today, beneath the frothy partisanship, Republican progressivism echoes the Democrats’. Both parties favor significant expansions of government’s control of economic activity and the distribution of wealth. Both promise to leave unchanged the transfer-payment programs (Social Security, Medicare) that are plunging toward insolvency, and driving unsustainable national indebtedness.
And both parties favor tax increases: the Democrats on corporations, consumers and the 3 percent of individuals earning more than $400,000 annually; Republicans on consumers.
Substantial portions of the Democrats’ corporate taxes would be paid by employees in foregone compensation, or would be passed on to consumers (including the 97 percent earning less than $400,000) in the prices of products. Donald Trump’s promised 10 percent across-the-board tariff on all imports would be taxes (more than $300 billion annually, according to the Tax Foundation) paid by consumers.
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Progressivism aims to build a society-saturating government, and especially an encompassing executive branch wielded by a president exercising vast discretion that is only vaguely, if at all, authorized and negligibly monitored by Congress. In the Biden administration, much the most progressive in U.S. history, the emblematic figure is Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan.
Her aspiration is to untether antitrust enforcement from the “consumer welfare” standard. This would sever the FTC from restraining law, enormously enlarging government’s powers for economic “planning.” There would follow promiscuous interventions to strengthen the public sector’s dominance of what would become only a semiprivate sector. Vance thinks (as do the most progressive senators, independent Bernie Sanders and Democrat Elizabeth Warren) that Khan “is doing a pretty good job.”
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Today’s Republicans disparage this traditional conservatism as “zombie Reaganism.” Actually, their repudiation encompasses John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, Adam Smith, David Ricardo and James Madison. A lot.
Ms. Khan also isn’t doing any favors for U.S. workers. Amazon and iRobot, the Roomba vacuum manufacturer, blamed regulatory obstacles in calling off a merger in January. Afterwards iRobot announced it was cutting nearly a third of its workforce and research and development spending by “offshoring of non-core engineering functions to lower-cost regions.”
Sen. J.D. Vance (R–Ohio), Trump’s newly picked running mate, is supposed to be the intellectual policy wonk on the ticket. But he didn’t use his speech on Wednesday night to call for shrinking the government. Quite the opposite, in fact. Vance is one of the leading voices for what might be called progressive conservatism, and he sees a need for government to do more, not less. He’s called for Republicans to seize the power of the administrative state, rather than trying to curtail it.
Steven Greenhut is correct: “Biden and Trump are pushing the same failed trade Policies.” Here’s his conclusion:
I’m for free trade because it promotes freedom, reduces government control, promotes innovation, reduces prices, relieves international tensions, lessens overseas poverty, reduces pressure for immigration, and boosts worldwide living conditions. Sadly, whichever of these candidates wins the 2024 election, we’re stuck with a new round of terrible trade policies.
The Wall Street Journal‘s Editorial Board reports on “California’s minimum wage backfire.” Two slices:
An Associated Press dispatch last week reported that California fast-food franchises have been cutting worker hours after the wage mandate took effect in April, a 25% increase from the statewide $16 an hour minimum. A Wendy’s franchise owner said he used to schedule nearly a dozen workers for an afternoon shift. Now only seven. He also raised prices 8%.
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Need more evidence? Research shop Beacon Economics recently found that California’s minimum wage—up from $11 to $12 an hour in 2019—does particular harm to teenagers. In the past two years, unemployment among 16- to 19-year-olds nearly doubled to 19.2% from 10.8% in California, versus 11.9% from 10.5% nationwide.
Higher minimum wages often price teens out of the job market because they have the least skills and experience. Teens then miss out on valuable training and don’t learn important life lessons, such as showing up on time and being courteous to customers. Instead of flipping burgers, more California teens will be flipping through TikTok videos.
Here’s Emma Camp on the the U.S. 8th Circuit Court blocking Biden’s unlawful, banana-republicish scheme to ‘forgive’ student loans. Here’s her conclusion:
Following the ruling, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said that the department would place all borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan in an “interest-free forbearance while our Administration continues to vigorously defend the SAVE Plan in court.”
For now, the future of the SAVE plan looks bleak—and for good reason. One analysis predicted that the plan would cost taxpayers almost $500 billion over the next decade.
