LARRY KUDLOW: Kamala Harris is a spender, a taxer and a regulator

Kamala Harris is a big government California socialist -- plain and simple and that's the subject of "The Riff."  

Kamala Harris was ranked the most left-wing senator in 2019, even more left-wing than Bernie Sanders, according to GovTrack, which is an independent government-tracking website. And today’s Wall Street Journal had a beauty of an editorial today, entitled, "What Kamala Harris Believes." 

Looks like big government socialism to me – California progressive style, which is even scarier. Let me quote from the Journal: "So, mark her down as endorsing the spending blowouts that caused inflation, the Green New Deal, entitlement expansions and student loan forgiveness. Until she says otherwise, we should also assume she’s in favor of Mr. Biden’s $5 trillion tax increase in 2025." 

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As Joe Biden’s loyal vice president, Ms. Harris will be accountable for the 20% cumulative rise in the cost of living, as well as the more than 4% drop in average weekly wages – both factoids a big blow to hard working middle-class folks who find themselves trapped in the Biden-Harris affordability crisis that has a long tail over the course of their term.

But there’s more. Much more. 

Ms. Harris is a strong opponent of fracking. Indeed, in 2019 she endorsed a nationwide ban on oil and gas fracking. She’s totally hostile to fossil fuels. During her Senate years and, since then, she talks about something called "environmental justice." 

Guess what that means? The Green New Deal war on fossil fuels will continue if she ever wins the White House. Of course, she’s a big supporter of electric vehicles and would end gasoline-powered cars, sending millions of jobs to China. But I would say, under those policies, gasoline and electricity -- which have already skyrocketed during the Biden-Harris years -- would blow completely sky-high under the vice president’s California-style policies.   

There’s even more here. Back to her environmental justice model, she links this to racial justice, economic justice, housing justice, and education justice.  Phew. That’s a mouthful. Sounds woke to me. Cancel traditional culture and history. DEI on a grand scale. That is, "diversity, equity and inclusion." 

During the summer riots of 2020, she advocated defunding the police. Although she was regarded as the so-called "border czar," at one point she supported eliminating Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  Also, as "border czar," she never once spoke to the Border Patrol chiefs, Jason Owens or Raul Ortiz.  

As a senator, she teamed up with Bernie Sanders in favor of his "Medicare for All" legislation that was estimated to cost $35 trillion. That’s $35 trillion to nationalize our health care system. By the way, she’d pay for it with higher income taxes. It would probably require a 95% marginal tax rate, but I’m just guessing on that.  

Another beauty is her support for confiscating all firearms through some kind of buyback plan. On top of all this, as a senator, she supported universal basic income, or a guaranteed income, as well as rent and utility payment controls.   

So, it's fair to say, judging by her record in the Senate and as Joe Biden’s loyal vice president, that Kamala Harris is a spender, a taxer, and a regulator. 

That’s why I refer to it as big government socialism. She’s a redistributionist. Take from Peter and give to Paul. Think of it as the California model of everything, which we are learning is a failed model.

Mr. Trump, on the other hand, is a growth guy: Make the economic pile larger by cutting taxes, minimize regulations, limit spending, and drill, baby, drill. 

Think of that as the Florida or Texas model of everything. Who do you trust? Blue state socialism? Or red state capitalism? I’m putting my chips on red.  

This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the July 23, 2024, edition of "Kudlow."