LARRY KUDLOW: Democrats would hold middle-class tax cuts hostage to a huge overall tax increase
Is "Bidenomics" digging America's economic grave? That's the subject of the riff. The average voter watching the upcoming CNN Presidential Debate probably won't recognize the term "Modern Monetary Theory," but if Mr. Trump refers to unlimited federal spending, borrowing, money printing, inflating, taxing, and regulating -- then the average viewer will have an aha! moment – "I recognize that! It's called Bidenomics."
Art Laffer and Steve Moore, who will be here in a moment, write about it in the Wall Street Journal, and the Journal editorial page talks about Tax Armageddon. Newt Gingrich refers to so-called Modern Monetary Theory as big government socialism. Spot on. Some common-sense principles contradicting Joe Biden is that you can't tax your way into prosperity, nor can you inflate into prosperity, nor can you devalue your currency into prosperity.
That's just a few thoughts that any middle-class voter can identify with. Mr. Biden may never admit it, but the Journal is right. Should the Democrats regain the White House and Congress, they'll hold middle-class tax cuts hostage to a huge overall tax increase.
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Left-wing luminaries such as Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden are in favor of imposing a wealth tax on anybody making $50 to $100 million.
They and many other Democrats would be perfectly happy with an unrealized capital gains tax. Unfortunately, last week's Supreme Court decision leaves the door open to that wealth-confiscating idea and, as we have noted, the latest Congressional Budget Office baseline scorecard shows $2 trillion deficits as far as the eye can see, leading to a $51 trillion federal debt by the end of the next decade.
A tidy borrowing sum that would amount to 122% of GDP. In peacetime, no less, without any emergency. Even at nearly full employment. John Maynard Keynes should be turning over in his grave. Milton Friedman has already spoken to me from his grave.
Even Shakespeare's "Alas, poor Yorick!" grave digger should have worried that more Bidenomics would dig an even larger grave for the entire American economy. Just saying.
This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the June 24, 2024, edition of "Kudlow."