OPINION:
If President Biden’s single term in office can be defined by excessive spending, rampant inflation, massive regulatory overreach and expensive giveaways to liberal interest groups, what might a Harris-Walz administration hold? While Mr. Biden and his inner circle were reluctant to fully embrace progressive Democrats’ ultra-liberal ideology, it is likely that Generation Z ideologues would seek to complete their takeover under a Kamala Harris presidency supported by a Vice President Tim Walz.
With difficulty, the Biden administration has straddled the gulf between the far-left university activists serving in the appointee ranks and the Clinton-era tendencies of a longtime senator representing Delaware. Given Vice President Harris’ background and voting record as a California senator raised in liberal San Francisco, taxpayers should fear the “Kamala-fornia” effect of bringing disastrous policies from the Left Coast to Main Street. Further scrutiny should also be placed on just how aggressively Mr. Walz has pushed California-style policies in deep blue Minnesota.
There have certainly been many valid critiques of Ms. Harris’ record as vice president, especially casting the deciding vote for the disastrous Inflation Reduction Act, which included a trillion-dollar tax giveaway to alternative energy suppliers, manufacturers and posh customers (over 80% of electric vehicle tax credits have gone to the top income quintile).
Less focus has been placed on her Senate career, which clearly demonstrates a track record as one of the most liberal lawmakers.
As bad for health policy as the Inflation Reduction Act was, its grandaddy, “Medicare for All,” aka single-payer health care, had Ms. Harris as an original Senate co-sponsor in September 2017 and again in April 2019. For reference, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ran on enacting single-payer health care in 2018.
This legislation eliminating private health care was led by Sen. Bernie Sanders and would have essentially bankrupted taxpayers. The costs of this socialist pipe dream are astounding; without other cuts or tax increases, it would have nearly doubled the federal debt by 2060 and shrunk the economy by 24%. If taxes are factored in, this plan would have increased taxes to 36.5% for most workers and 73% of Americans would pay more in taxes than they would save on their (worse) health care.
Another instance in which Ms.. Harris was ahead of the proverbial bad policy times was when she introduced the Livable Incomes for Families Today Act in 2018, which would have repealed most of the successful Trump-era Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in favor of a monthly refundable tax credit. If that sounds familiar, that’s because a similar program face-planted as the pandemic took hold.
As for Mr. Walz, he often comes up in conversations as a “moderate” compared with progressives such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. His record as Minnesota governor should greatly worry taxpayers. In 2023, Mr. Walz approved a state tax deal that raised the gas tax and some areas’ sales tax.
Beyond that, even with a $17 billion budget surplus, Mr. Walz approved a $1 billion tax increase to fund Minnesota’s largest budget ever. In a further echo of California-style mandates, Mr. Walz also pushed and secured a mini-Inflation Reduction Act that included an EV tax credit ($2,500 per vehicle) and a mandate to fully shift Minnesota to alternative energy. If this track record is applied to the national level, it will certainly harm Americans struggling with inflation as their top concern.
Every presidential and vice presidential candidate’s fiscal policy record will reflect both opportunities and challenges for taxpayers. Based on recent polling, one such opportunity for the next president is a historic mandate to cut taxes, spending and regulations to unleash the economy for all taxpayers. Inflation pressures will ease if the federal government stops throwing tax dollars at pet projects at historic rates. To put a down payment on helping Americans, the first order of business should be addressing the expiration of important tax provisions in 2025.
The next president should cut regressive and expensive tax credits and use the savings to pay for a permanent extension of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — which will supercharge the economy. That’s a winning agenda for the whole country.
• Nicholas Johns is senior policy and government affairs manager for the National Taxpayers Union (www.NTU.org).
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