The Basic Economic Mistake Both Candidates Make

Originally published in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Poll after poll reveals what’s on voters’ minds: It’s the economy, stupid, as it was in 1992 when Bill Clin­ton’s cam­paign ad­vi­sor James Car­ville in­vented the phrase. Vot­ers con­sis­tently cite in­fla­tion as the most im­por­tant is­sue af­fect­ing our coun­try.

Eco­nomic fear­mon­ger­ing drives the di­sas­trous pol­i­cies both candidates propose in response to voter concerns. And each can­di­date is guilty of blam­ing a boo­gey­man. For Kamala Har­ris, greedy cor­po­ra­tions are goug­ing cus­tom­ers and rak­ing in prof­its. For Don­ald Trump, for­eign gov­ern­ments — pri­mar­ily China — con­trol the flow and pric­ing of con­sumer goods into our coun­try.

Under Pres­i­dent Joe Biden, con­sumer prices have in­creased 19.43%. The rate of in­creases may be slow­ing (fol­low­ing the high­est in­fla­tion in 40 years), but prices are still ris­ing.

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