Donald Trump is ready to talk growth and that's the subject of the riff. Last week at the New York Economics Club, Donald Trump gave a ‘tour de force' speech, centered on the optimistic theme of economic growth and how it enables everyone, no matter race, color, or creed to climb the ladder of success and achieve the American dream. His speech was a masterpiece.
Not only the big picture themes, but the level of detail in all likelihood never before seen in a presidential speech. There will be much more than the economy in tonight's presidential debate with Kamala Harris, but I do believe Mr. Trump's New York Economics Club speech will be an important bridge to a strong performance in tonight's debate.
Now, he will hold Kamala Harris' feet to the fire on her ultra-liberal progressive policies such as decriminalizing illegal immigrants, the Green New Deal, EV mandates, the misnamed "Inflation Reduction Act," where she had cast the deciding vote, her ban on fracking, her consistent objection to building a Trumpian wall on the southern border, her support for Medicare for all, ending private health insurance, and, of course, her massive taxing, spending and regulating.
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Of course, she was Joe Biden's co-pilot for three and a half years, encompassing the administration's numerous failures. Even to the point where her so-called policy website contained the source code that shows it was a copy-paste plagiarism of Joe Biden’s campaign.
As Kamala has said, her values haven't changed. So, her many flip-flops are without meaning, but Mr. Trump will also defend his record on the economy, inflation, jobs, immigration, and foreign policy. His pro-growth economic plan will show viewers and voters the way out of the Biden-Harris affordability crisis where, over the length of their term, prices have outstripped wages on a cumulative basis.
In fact, here's a stat: after inflation, income growth between 2021 and 2023 under Biden-Harris was only $1,350, but real income growth between 2017 and 2019 under Mr. Trump was $6,400, almost five times as much. Mr. Trump has a detailed plan of pro-growth policies to cut taxes, cut regulations, cut energy costs, cut unfair trading practices, and a Musk commission to cut spending. Also, an unbreakable commitment to keep the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency. Some on Wall Street think his plan is inflationary.
This cannot possibly be. In the case of tariffs aimed at curbing unfair trade, American consumers will always boycott higher prices. Just as was the case with China tariffs – and no resulting inflation – the burden of the tariff is born by the Chinese company who must cut their prices in order to sell in the U.S.
What's more, Mr. Trump has proposed a corporate tax cut to 15% for domestically produced goods. Pro-growth, counter-inflationary and supply-side incentives like these will produce more goods on the market by lowering prices, not raising them.
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It's Kamala Harris' massive tax hikes on large and small businesses that will remove incentives and block goods production, thereby raising prices and causing higher inflation. Her economic speech in Atlanta not only included totally discredited price controls, but also a $2 trillion price tag for additional spending and a $25,000 free money plan that will jack up home prices and make them even more unaffordable and out of reach for young families.
Finally, if Kamala ever did get an unrealized capital gains tax, it would absolutely crush the U.S. stock market and the some odd 130 million Americans with their IRA/401K savings and retirement accounts would be decimated. She has yet to flip-flop on that promise. Harris Democrats never talk growth. Biden Democrats never talk growth. Tonight, Donald Trump is ready to talk growth. It's a winning message. That's the riff.
This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the Sept. 10, 2024, edition of "Kudlow."
