The last three years and nine months have not been “Morning in America.” Hopefully after this Tuesday, our long national nightmare is over.
Saturday I was watching South Carolina upset Texas A&M (Aggies, this is a tackle football game, in case you forgot), thinking how many of my A&M alumni friends are likely drinking away their sorrows. Then I saw something uglier than the game. A Kamala Harris presidential ad.
The woman who’s never held a real job, who’s never signed the front of a payroll check, wouldn’t know what a McDonald’s fryer looked like except for watching Donal Trump work one, is going to help us all. How you ask? Well, she has five ideas.
1. CUT COST
Cost of “what?” I know the cost of many things surged in the last three years, nine months (Someone remind me, what happened in January 2021?). Since 2021, some highlights, if you will:
COMMODITY PERCENT INCREASE
Food:
Peanut Butter 40.7%
Eggs 40.3%
Bread 39.1%
Butter 34.4%
Chicken 25.8%
Energy:
Diesel 50.5%
Gasoline 40.9%
Electricity 29.3%
Natural Gas 27.1%
Propane 23.8%
Misc:
Vehicle Insurance 51.5%
Leased Vehicles 46.1%
Vehicle Repair 40.6%
Hotels 35.0%
Even if you “cut cost” on these items by an average of 20%, they will still be far above what they were at the beginning of the O’Biden administration. But wait, she knows how to fix this.
2.CRACK DOWN ON PRICE GOUGING
Specifically Ms. Harris has targeted “big grocery” for gouging the consumer. How are Americans being gouged for food? From the dictionary, gouging is “the action of charging someone too much money for something, in a way that is dishonest or unfair.” If I charge you ten bucks for a slice of bread, that’s a lot of money. But I don’t recall anyone paying that. The average profit margin for grocery stores is 1-3%. They make it up by volume (jewelry stores average profit margin is 50%, but you don’t buy three Rolex watches a week).
Cutting her some slack, the current occupant of the Oval Office, Dementia Joe O’Biden, famously called for cracking down on the high price of gasoline set by the oil companies. I’m not sure if he just lying, or he really doesn’t know that the price at the pump is set by the gas station owner, not the president of Shell Oil. But logic dictates when you increase the wholesale price of something, the retail (i.e. consumer) price will also increase.
3. MAKE HOUSING AFFORDABLE
Ms. Harris is going to “give” you (well, not you, but certain select people whose votes are needed) $25,000 to help with a home purchase. To be specific, she will not “give” the money to these people but take it from people who have worked to pay their bills to people who have not (see student loans). So that three-bedroom split level ranch for $300,000 is suddenly $325,000. Exaggeration? No, look at education and medical cost skyrocketing since the federal government got into industries in the 1950s.
4. LOWER TAXES FOR MIDDLE CLASS
Will we hear a President Kamala Harris (excuse me while I take a shot of bourbon on that one) say, “I have worked harder than I ever have in my life…” Let’s say I’m cynical on her words. Looking at the Harris for President website, her plan for taxes has three points: Increase the Expanded Child Tax Credit, expanding the Child Tax Credit to $6,000, and expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit.
While each of these efforts will change the way we collect federal taxes, they cannot be called a tax cut in any fashion. From an analysis of her proposal by the Tax Foundation (emphasis mine):
We estimate the tax changes in Harris’s tax proposals would reduce long-run GDP by 2.0 percent, the capital stock by 3.0 percent, wages by 1.2 percent, and employment by about 786,000 full-time equivalent jobs. Harris’s tax proposals would decrease American incomes (as measured by gross national product, or GNP) by 1.8 percent in the long run, reflecting offsetting effects of increased taxes and reduced deficits, as debt reduction reduces interest payments to foreign owners of the national debt.
I will add the Tax Foundation did not factor in the expiration of the Trump tax cuts from 2017. Unless extended, the rates will jump up to Obama administration levels beginning in January 2026 (less than 14 months from now). I recall a Facebook argument with a friend over the Trump tax cuts. He swore they only benefited the “rich.” I explained my tax rate in 2017 was 15.60%, and in 2018 it was 13.88%. I asked him his percentages, and he refused to answer. I think we know why.
No question, if she wins next week (another bourbon), taxes will skyrocket. I wonder if the Washington Post will announce, “women, children and minorities hardest hit” again?
5. PROTECT SOCIAL SECURITY
Anyone with a two-digit IQ knows Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, and it’s destined for bankruptcy unless changes are made. From the actuaries, it will be broke in 2035 (right after I hit 67…thanks ☹ ). By “broke,” the program will only be able to pay approximately 83% of promised benefits. Medicare will be broke in 2036, i.e., able to pay 89% of promised benefits (assuming we don’t dump millions of illegal aliens on the system).
So, how will a President Harris (this bottle may not make it till I finish this) “protect” Social Security. From her website:
Unlike Trump, Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare. They will shore up Social Security and Medicare so that these essential programs will stay solvent in the long run by making corporations and the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share in taxes
Forgive me, my migraine is getting worse (need to switch to scotch). Corporations do not pay payroll taxes. They do match the taxes paid by their employees, but ACME Industries itself does not. It doesn’t need medical care.
So how will “making corporations and the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share in taxes,” shore up these bankrupt programs? Another truism learned over the years. You give a politician a dollar for a specific purpose (e.g., “roads, bridges and schools”), they will spend three to five dollars on other items and then demand more money for “roads, bridges and schools.”
These programs need to be reformed, such as gradually raising the age for full retirement from 67 to 70 (say one month added on per year over thirty-six years), needs testing Medicare (does Joe Sixpack need to pay for the medicine of Bill Gates), and bringing in some actual reforms to the program (e.g. bringing in health insurance choices into the senior marketplace).
After Ms. Harris was selected (not nominated or voted on) as the Democratic candidate, her campaign website was put up. Originally it had almost nothing on it (a schedule, donation link, and how to meet the candidates). Actual proposals came weeks later. Looking at the “issues” on the site, I think it was given to some twenty something Harvard graduate with instructions, “F^&*inf fix this!” The campaign flunky did the best they could.
I would hope American does better come Tuesday.
Michael A. Thiac is a retired Army intelligence officer, with over 23 years experience, including serving in the Republic of Korea, Japan, and the Middle East. He is also a retired police patrol sergeant, with over 22 years’ service, and over ten year’s experience in field training of newly assigned officers. He has been published at The American Thinker, PoliceOne.com, and on his personal blog, A Cop’s Watch.
Opinions expressed are his alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of current or former employers.
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