Friday, August 16, 2024

Harris' Price Control Proposal

Centrists and moderates of either stripe who are alarmed by Harris' pandering talk of price controls (if you're going to ape Nixon, I'd much rather you break into hotels than mess with the economy) should read Josh Barro's superb centrist analysis (and teeth-gritted approval). I'll surmise:

It's bad...

...but it's smartly mitigated,

...and she needs this in her platform because Biden killed himself by failing to address cost of living

...and she's standing up to the hard Left in other significant ways

...so we should give her this so she defeats the Tasmanian devil.


It's a five minute read that can transform your view of what's actually going on with this stuff.

Posted by at
Labels:

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are such an insufferable, un-self-aware boor. I love how you moved to a "hard left" country that gives you all the benefits of such policies, where you can pontificate about the supposed horrors of such policies on the American public.

Gosh, how horrible it would be to have what are considered centrist policies in most industrialized nations: a higher minimum wage, universal healthcare, higher taxes on the wealthy, universal pre-k and child care, free college... the list goes on.

I guess it's ok for you that 3/4 of a million people in the US are homeless, half a million people file for bankruptcy every year because of medical debt, that we have 20% of the world's incarcerated people, that we are participating in the worst genocide in modern history, that 26K people die every year due to not having healthcare, that we are ranked 178th in infant mortality.

The list goes on.

August 16, 2024 at 5:26 AM
James Leff said...

How to assure that the person neither reads or considers your argument:
lead with “You are such an insufferable, un-self-aware boor.”

That’s extremism. Unwillingness to tolerate disagreement without reducing the other party into a monster worth nary an iota of respect nor human consideration. America is 50% proto-fascist, and 50% choleric spoiled children needing those with divergent views, thoughts, or even *words* to CRAWL UP AND DIE...in the interest of Tolerance.

Greetings from sunny Portugal!

August 16, 2024 at 7:36 AM
Anonymous said...

Hi Jim. It's always interesting to hear what Josh Barro has to say.

I'm curious, do you think it's risky to open up the Harris campaign to the inevitable 'communist party doing communist things', at a moment when she appears to be making gains with moderates and undecided voters? This strikes me as one of the few lines off attack thus far that could have some effect.

August 16, 2024 at 1:19 PM
Jim Leff said...

Risky, absolutely (and I recognize that you're lampooning that contingent's glib "Communist" labeling). When I first saw the news, I slapped my head pretty good. But Barro contextualizes it interestingly, which cheers me up a bit.

I still think this was a bad choice (also bad policy, but that's a whole other matter) prior to an election that will be decided by 50,000 people who are largely economically conservative, and jittery about interventionist economic policy (to give it a more polite name than they will).

The Dems tend to triangulate themselves out of the game. This feels like that. But maybe Barro's right. Hope so.

August 16, 2024 at 2:07 PM
Anonymous said...

I hope so too! And do you have to remind us that our election hinges on a mere 50,000 people who will put more thought into what they're having for dinner than the election. Gaaahh!

August 27, 2024 at 12:59 PM
James Leff said...

“A republic if you can keep it”

August 27, 2024 at 1:19 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Blog Archive