Commentary

NOTE: Jared Bernstein, President Biden’s chair of the Council on Economic Advisors graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Music from the Manhattan School of Music, a Master of Social Work from Hunter College, and a Doctor of Social Work from Columbia’s school of social work.

And sixty percent of the Biden-Harris administration have no business experience. Enough said?

On Thursday, speaking to a lunchtime crowd of New York finance and business leaders at the Executive Club of New York, former President Trump took the opportunity to outline his view of what is considered the number one issue in the election, the economy.

Trump holds an eight-point advantage over Vice President Harris when voters are asked who would best handle the economy and a five-point lead on handling inflation, according to the latest Wall Street Journal poll.

In his speech, Trump proposed a reduction in the corporate tax rate to 15 percent for those companies making their product in America.

With his 2017 tax cut facing some lapses after 2025, he would like to further reduce the corporate tax rate to a level below the current 21 percent for some companies. Harris would raise the corporate tax to 28 percent.  All changes to the 2017 tax cut would require Congressional approval.

Learning of Trump’s threat to rescind unspent funds from the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden-Harris administration is racing to spend money under the clean-energy program for a wide-range of climate activities.

Trump noted that there was more than $50 billion in unspent IRA funds at the Internal Revenue Service alone as March 31.  Like changes in the 2017 tax cut, however, pulling back these funds would need Congressional approval.

Proposing a sovereign wealth fund, a pool of money that would allow the U.S. to “invest in great national endeavors for the benefit of all Americans,” such as airports, highways, healthcare and food production, Trump noted the success of such funds in Saudi Arabia, Norway and Singapore.

A plan that resulted in applause from Club members was his introduction of a government efficiency commission to be headed by Elon Musk.  He said the commission would conduct “a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government” and make “recommendations for drastic reform.” The goal would be to identify ways to eliminate fraud and improper payments.

You may recall that Musk, after acquiring Twitter for $44 billion, not only brought in journalists Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss to audit the files, but laid-off about half of its 7,000 employees in an efficiency move.

The commission will be used to reduce the bureaucracy in Washington, where unelected individuals regulate we taxpayers.  While the commission would be an excellent way to address inflation, the Deep State will not welcome the scrutiny.

In Trump’s first term, he promised to eliminate two regulations for every new one, but on Thursday he called for cutting 10 regulations for every new one.

In addition to opening up federal land for large-scale housing construction, he is proposing the extension of regulation cuts to lower housing costs.

He proposed a ban on people in the country illegally from obtaining a mortgage.

The Debate

The Trump-Harris debate will take place on September 10, 2024 under similar rules at the Trump-Biden debate.  ABC’s moderators will be David Muir and Linsey Davis.

All the pressure is again placed on Trump, facing the first black female presidential candidate.  Elitist Peggy Noonan says, “he needs to demonstrate that he’s sane, stable and knowledgeable.”  Harris needs to “demonstrate that she is strong, prepared, and smart with sufficient gravitas.”

Trump’s Odds

I find it difficult to believe polls, because people are not responding honestly, but Nate Silver views Trump’s chance of winning at 60.1 per cent versus Harris’s 39.7 percent.  He shows Trump handily winning six of the eight swing states, with Michigan and Wisconsin in a tie.

AN ASIDE:  The left leaning Arizona Republic devoted more than half of the front page of its Wednesday edition to feature a large photo of the late Sen. John McCain’s son, Jim, and article telling readers he will vote for Harris.  Who cares?

Surprisingly, the next day the Republic gave equal space with a photo of J.D. Vance, campaigning in Phoenix, saying, “McCain and Trump had their differences, but he doubted McCain would go as far as endorsing the Democrats.”

                 May God continue to bless the United States of America.