Yes but she'll be nice, not toxic.

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Can You Handle Four More Years?

If Harris wins, get ready for higher taxes, price controls and heavier regulation.

By Andy Kessler, WSJ

Oct. 27, 2024 3:48 pm ET

Former President Barack Obama attends a campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris in Atlanta, Oct. 24. Photo: kevin lamarque/Reuters

Vice President Kamala Harris said in 2021: “If the goal is truly about equality, it has to be about a goal of saying everybody should end up in the same place. And since we didn’t start in the same place, some folks might need more—equitable distribution.” There it is, progressivism in a nutshell.

Actions speak loudly. Ms. Harris co-sponsored Bernie Sanders’s 2017 Medicare for All Act, co-sponsored the Green New Deal and was the tie-breaking vote for the Inflation Reduction Act to spend gobs on green gravy. I almost feel sorry for my center-left friends who’ve been mugged by a progressive agenda. My question: Can the economy handle four more years of progressive power?

• Price controls. Candidate Harris wants to end grocery “price gouging,” a classic misdirection to shift blame for the Biden-Harris spending-induced 9% inflation. The first sign of economic illiteracy is price controls, then tariffs, money multipliers and all things Keynes. Stripped of price signals, markets lose their compass. Soviet supermarkets had price controls and bare shelves. Wage and price controls don’t work.

• Never-ending spending. The progressive plank has pushed housing subsidies, child tax credits and startup loans that will never be paid back (90% of startups fail). How will this be paid for? It doesn’t matter, to spend is to tax. Ms. Harris proposes to extend Medicare’s $2,000 cap on drug spending to everyone—a gateway drug, pardon the pun, to Medicare for all and socialized medicine. Don’t fall for it.

• Taxes up. Progressives are gunning for your hard-earned money. Their proposed highest tax rate is 39.6% from 37%. Add roughly 13.3% in California and if you do well, you’re working for the man. Corporate tax rates are to rise to 28% from 21%. They should be 15%. Taxes on realized long-term capital-gains could rise to 28% plus another 5% tax on net investment income for ObamaCare, from 20% plus 3.8%. Remember, Silicon Valley blossomed with a 20% rate—more money for entrepreneurs than government. Progressives even want to tax unrealized gains for those making over $100 million. Doesn’t affect you? Just wait. In 1913 the top income-tax rate was 7% on incomes over $500,000 (about $11 million today).

• Innovation down. High capital-gains rates hurt capital formation. Innovation might still happen but much slower with less capital for growth. Artificial intelligence isn’t cheap. Stock markets don’t like inflation or the heavy hand of government. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 3.6% for the entire decade of the 1970s.

• Heavier regulation. The U.S. has 440 federal agencies that mangle favored industries like autos. More agencies may be coming as progressives are gung-ho on regulating AI. Red tape is classic progressive project poison. Tim Walz, whom former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty called “Bernie Sanders in hunting gear,” declared that Minnesota’s Line 3 oil pipeline needed a “social permit.” Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy called for warning labels on social media. This is the kind of progressive pointlessness that kills innovation. Want warning labels? Slap one on K-12 education.

• Federal housing control. Ms. Harris wants to add three million new homes. Does this mean blocky Soviet-style housing for everyone? There’s already a glut of homes, especially in the South. This is a progressive power grab to take away local zoning control. Ask Californians about mandatory Accessory Dwelling Units to expand housing—especially low-income housing—in neighborhoods and near train stations. The state decides, not local zoning laws.

• Unity with unions. Progressives are pro-union. Instead of “do more with less” it’s “do less with more workers at higher pay.” Then consumers pay more. The International Longshoremen’s Association fights automation and even fought bar codes in ports. Union bosses love progressives—though it’s interesting that the rank and file of the Teamsters are increasingly fed up with progressive policies.

To progressives, you’re just a vote. They’ll promise you anything—housing, healthcare—but deliver a collective. They take your money and run, which invites corruption—certainly incompetence. This is why progressivism always fails.

Progressives say they’re capitalists, but there’s always what I call the “Big But.” Joe Biden: “I’m a capitalist. But just pay your fair share.” Barack Obama: “I’m a capitalist.” But . . . an “area we need to look at is how much of our healthcare spending is going toward the record-breaking profits earned by the drug and healthcare industry.” Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh last month: “I’m a capitalist.” We got an “At the same time” instead of “but,” and then “I believe an active partnership between government and the private sector is one of the most effective ways to fully unlock economic opportunity.” No, it isn’t.

Can we handle four more years of progressive control? Maybe, but watch your wallet.