Kamala Harris revealed more economic policy plans Friday, August 16 – and, yet again, she copies a recent announcement by Team Trump. First, the vice president snagged Trump’s border security and tax-free tips ideas; now she’s promising increased child tax credits . . . just as JD Vance did days before her. What’s next, tariffs?
This time, however, she isn’t only lifting from the Trump-Vance campaign. Harris also announced plans to freeze prices and rent – ideas tried and later abandoned as failures by multiple former presidents in the previous century. As it turns out, it doesn’t matter if an idea is good or bad; she’ll take it either way. Is Kamala Harris the quintessential copycat?
Copycat Kamala Harris
Days ago, Senator Vance (R-OH) proposed increasing the child tax credit from a maximum of $2,000 per kid to as much as $5,000. Not to be outdone, Kamala announced her own child tax credit proposal on Friday: Raise it to $6,000.
Vance admitted that it might be a tough sell to a Congress presently struggling with deficit spending. While the House did pass a measure that would have expanded the tax credit, Senate Republicans blocked it. Vance’s proposal came just a couple of weeks later. Without some agreement, however, the $2,000 credit will drop to $1,000 when Trump’s 2017 tax cuts expire after 2025.
After first copying Trump’s policies on border security and taxes on tips, this has earned her the nickname “Copycat Kamala,” courtesy of her opponent. Newsweek even ran an article titled “Five Other Trump Economic Policies That Kamala Harris Could Copy,” and while most seem unlikely, others wouldn’t exactly be shocking. Several other media outlets ran headlines declaring her agenda “populist.”
Some Presidents Shouldn’t Be Emulated
Despite the one-upmanship of her child tax credit plan, Kamala Harris isn’t going all in on following Trump. She is also, as Liberty Nation News economics guru Andrew Moran put it, “ripping a page from history – without ever reading the book.” Franklin Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, and Jimmy Carter all tried implementing price controls in hopes of giving consumers a break, but disaster followed. As Moran explained, “It did not take long for inflationary pressures – and basic economics – to come roaring back.”
Price controls have been tried numerous times. They just don’t work. Whether it’s a maximum amount a grocer is allowed to charge for bread or a cap on rent, the end result is shortages. Then, as Moran – and Ludwig von Mises – explained, as price controls begin to fail, politicians push them out to other goods and services, hoping for a stabilizing effect. Instead, it just drives more waste and shortages.
Former President Trump is expected to talk in the near future about tariffs, and one must wonder whether Kamala Harris will, just days or hours later, magically become a fan of the idea. It’s actually one of the five ideas on which Newsweek asks if she’ll follow Trump. She has said in the past that she isn’t a protectionist kind of Democrat, but it’s important to note that the Biden campaign – of which Harris is a major player – did keep most of Trump's tariffs in place and even added a few more.
One thing is for sure, though: Kamala Harris isn’t embarrassed. Copying Trump brought ridicule, but the vice president didn’t let that stop her. In fact, one could say she persisted.
