The Patriot Post® · Comparing Economic Records — It's Not Even Close

ABC News’s David Muir asked the leadoff question to open the debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, which dealt with the most important issue for voters: the economy. And arguably, it was the best question the moderators asked all night. As Muir put it:

I want to begin tonight with the issue voters repeatedly say is their number one issue, and that is the economy and the cost of living in this country. Vice President Harris, you and President Biden were elected four years ago, and your opponent on the stage here tonight often asks his supporters, are you better off than you were four years ago? When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?

This question has become a feature of presidential debates ever since Ronald Reagan raised and popularized it against incumbent Jimmy Carter in the only debate of the 1980 campaign. Knowing that Americans have suffered under a bad economy over the past three and a half years of the Biden/Harris administration, Harris dodged the question.

She instead noted what she called her plan to build “an opportunity economy,” which, as she described it, was nothing other than a list of more government handouts — raising the child tax credit to $6,000 and raising the small business start-up tax deduction to $50,000. She avoided any mention of the Soviet-style price controls she rolled out last month. That’s because it was widely and deservedly panned by economists on both sides of the aisle. In short, Harris’s answer is the same policies that ignited high inflation beginning in April 2021 — a repeat of the last three and a half years.

Meanwhile, Trump responded to the same question by pointing out just how high inflation is. “We have inflation like very few people have ever seen before,” he said with typical drama. “Probably the worst in our nation’s history. We were at 21%. But that’s being generous because many things are 50, 60, 70, and 80% higher than they were just a few years ago. This has been a disaster for people, for the middle class, but for every class.”

Trump is right, though he typically depends on friendly audiences understanding what he’s getting at so he doesn’t have to explain. The Harris campaign and Leftmedia insist that the current rate of inflationary growth has fallen to just 2.5%.

This, however, obfuscates rather than illuminates. Trump actually nailed the truth of the Biden/Harris years. Overall, since early 2021, the average cost of living for Americans has risen by more than 20% — and on many goods and services, like Trump said, more like 50% to 80%. That has everything to do with high inflation ignited by the Biden/Harris American Rescue Plan.

Harris avoids the fact that she is part of the Biden/Harris administration, whose massive spending policies spurred our 40-year-high inflation. Harris would rather pretend like she doesn’t know Joe Biden.

Furthermore, it took years for Americans’ inflation-adjusted median household income to match 2019 numbers. During most of the Biden/Harris administration, Americans have suffered through higher cost of living with insufficient wage gains.

The opposite was the case under Trump, when the median household income increased rapidly up until the COVID pandemic hit. Trump should have spent more time during the debate repeatedly hitting Harris on this. Rather than vague references to greatest or worst, he should have hammered home the fact that life under the Biden/Harris administration has been costly for the working class. Instead of taking the bait on questions about rallies or J6, he should have reminded Americans of the prosperity they enjoyed during his administration versus the lack thereof ever since.

Under Biden/Harris, Americans have suffered under crushing price increases. What limited economic policy positions Harris has trotted out would likely only give us more of the same, juiced once again by runaway spending.

Deregulating, keeping taxes low or even reducing them further, and cutting government spending are practical economic measures that would help Americans across the board. These policies would allow workers and families to keep more of their hard-earned dollars and help lower the cost of living by lowering inflation.

To answer Muir’s question, Americans are not better off today than they were four years ago. But a return to Trump’s economic policies would benefit all working Americans.