Biden vs. Trump: A Choice, Not an Echo, on Economic Policy - Blinder, WSJ oped
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Start with climate change, a worldwide problem that is becoming less abstract every day. The essential question for U.S. politics is whether the U.S. will be part of the problem or part of the solution. Mr. Biden skillfully pushed the Inflation Reduction Act through Congress. It contains the largest carbon-reduction measures in U.S. history. Donald Trump, by contrast, has called global warming a Chinese hoax. That’s quite a difference on an existential economic issue.
Another huge difference between the candidates relates to tax policy. Many provisions of the Trump tax cuts of 2017 are scheduled to expire in 2025. Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans, naturally, want to extend the tax cuts. Mr. Biden and the Democrats don’t. Instead, they want to pay for domestic priorities and reduce the budget deficit with higher taxes on the rich and corporations. This is no trivial matter. The Congressional Research Service estimates the 10-year cost of continuing the 2017 tax cuts to be about $3.5 trillion.
The differences between Messrs. Biden and Trump aren’t as stark on trade policy—but there are differences. Relative to the postwar U.S. norm, Mr. Biden’s trade policy is mildly protectionist while Mr. Trump’s is grotesquely protectionist. A 100% tariff on imported cars from China and Mexico? That Trumpian aspiration will never happen because of its significant influence on overall car prices to consumers. And does Mr. Trump really think such extreme protectionism won’t provoke retaliatory actions by other nations? The world tried a serious trade war in the 1930s, and it didn’t work out too well.
Then there are the four big entitlement programs: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and ObamaCare. In 2017 then-President Trump tried to repeal and replace ObamaCare. He failed. Last November, with his typical MAGA eloquence, he posted on Truth Social: “Obamacare Sucks!!!” Again he promised to replace it, with “MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE,” although he failed to say what that would be. Mr. Biden, by contrast, supports ObamaCare—as do most Americans, according to a February poll from Kaiser.
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More generally, Mr. Biden embraces the traditional American position of welcoming (legal) immigrants. Think Statue of Liberty. In stark contrast, Mr. Trump frets that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of our country. Hmmm. Doesn’t Mr. Trump carry the immigrant blood of his grandparents? In any case, America needs immigrant laborers to fill millions of jobs, and most immigrants want to work. Without this influx of labor, the supply side of our economy would still be restricting growth and boosting inflation.
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-choice-not-an-echo-on-economic-policy-2024-presidential-election-89fe2920?st=ueqvt8g6jyxyvmk&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Mr. Blinder is a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton. He served as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, 1994-96.
