Here we go again

| 10:14 pm EDT September 26, 2024
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Vice President Kamala Harris received kudos from her ending statement during her first solo interview on MSNBC. Stephanie Ruhle asked: “Can we trust you?” Harris responded: “Yes. Yes. I’m not perfect, but I will tell you I’m always going to put the needs of the people first.” She really means that, for any “doubting Thomases” out there. She comes across as extremely sincere. During the interview, Harris discussed her plans to help the middle class and her take on Trump’s comments about abortion. One thing Harris gave us is a big “duh:” economists think her plans will grow the economy while Trump’s will shrink it. They are right, of course. When people are doing well, they spend money. Spending money helps the economy. It’s just that simple. Trump’s plan, on the other hand, will stymie the gains we’ve already made.

CNN reported on the Peterson Institute for International Economics’ (“PIIE”) special project, which centers around the 2024 election and assesses each candidate’s plan. Their focus was on immigration policy, trade, and erosion of the Federal Reserve Board’s independence from the president. Trump’s loudest idea about immigration is to conduct mass deportations, but what impact might that have on the economy? A very negative one. Economic scholars are convinced that these mass deportations would harm both the country’s GDP and would reduce employment through 2040. One of his other ridiculous plans—increasing tariffs—will not only cost the middle class between $2,600 to $4,000 per year, but PIIE believes it could start a global tariff war. In fact, PIIE said that all of Trump’s proposals taken together will cause declines in production and employment—especially in manufacturing and agriculture—while also increasing inflation. In sum, PIIE believes Trump’s policies will be “highly disruptive” to the U.S. economy as well as the world economy. Our economy has just begun a comeback; these policies will wipe that out. These are terrible plans for the country.

Harris’s plans for the border issue rest with the bipartisan bill that conservative Republican Senator John Lankford authored. That bill was the best thing we had going, but Trump decided to kill it because it hurt his campaign. That alone tells us how much Trump cares about the people in this country. Experts said that the bill would have made a big difference. Harris is making her first visit to the border Friday. Harris hopes to show that she is best prepared to deal with the border, and she’s not afraid of going there to make that happen. Harris has been pumping immigration in many of her recent speeches, and she plans to speak about border security in greater detail at her stop in Arizona. She was a border state prosecutor in California, and she’s no stranger to the crime that leaks into the U.S. from the border. She will continue to tout the bipartisan border bill that would have been in place had Trump not asked his comrades to quash it. Regardless of what any of Trump’s people think, Kamala Harris is best for the border, the economy, and women’s/gay rights.