Democrat candidates for President lie about the economy

David Harsanyi:
Actually, contends every 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful, the economy is in really bad shape. It is only working for the wealthiest among us while leaving behind the poor, the working class and the shrinking middle class.

Now, I suppose one could forgive the socialist contingent of the party for offering knee-jerk class-based bromides -- their entire worldview, after all, is centered on class struggle -- but even alleged moderates such as Joe Biden are falling back on economic arguments that are wholly disconnected from anything resembling reality.

Democrats could simply say: "Yes, it's true that the economy has been doing rather well for most Americans since Barack Obama saved it from the nefarious clutches of the Republican Party, but it's important that we never forget the men and women -- and especially minorities -- who've yet to benefit from this recent economic uptick. We can do better!"

That, of course, would mean implicitly admitting that easing regulatory oversight, cutting taxes and leaving the economy largely alone can be a successful formula for growth, which won't do. So, instead, the left continues to be consumed by the zero-sum fallacies of "inequality" to such an extent that it often sounds like it's more interested in punishing the wealthy than lifting the poor.

As far as I can tell, not a single moderator or reporter has ever asked Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren to explain exactly how instituting a punitive tax on the rich will create higher wages for low earners. Can either point to any time in history when tax hikes triggered organic wage growth or an increase in self-sufficiency among Americans?

Wages for the lowest-end earners, in fact, have grown faster than they have for higher-wage earners in recent years. Some of it is due to new minimum wage laws -- which, though they benefit very few, are a luxury we might be able to afford with a humming economy -- and a tight job market that's putting upward pressure on salaries. There are more open jobs than there are people trying to find a job.

In the last debate, Tom Steyer claimed, "90 percent of Americans have not had a raise for 40 years." Politicians have been peddling the "wage stagnation" myth for a decade now. The notion that Americans make no more than their grandparents conveniently ignores a big expansion of employment-based benefits, increased efficiency and technological advances that have, by any genuine real-world measure, vastly improved the economic life of the average American.
...
I do not believe it is a goal of Democrats to increase the wages of the lower-income Americans.  What they want to do with the money they confiscate from the rich is to reinforce their dependency agenda.  They want to use the money from the rich to buy votes.  Has any of the candidates talked about decreasing dependency?  I don't think I have seen that reported.  The Democrat position on immigration is also part of keeping a dependent lower class in the country who they can scare into voting for Democrats.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains