The Santa Claus Election

For libertarians, this is a very depressing election (a feeling we tend to have every four years, so a familiar experience).

What basically happens is that two politicians try to bribe us with our own money.

This year, we have Kamala Harris, who was even worse than Bernie Sanders in the big-spender contest.

And we have Donald Trump, who managed to increase spending faster than it grew under Barack Obama (and I’m not even counting the orgy of COVID spending in his last year!).

As we get closer to this year’s election, it’s interesting (in a depressing way) to see how Trump and Harris are trying to win votes.

Harris is hiding some of her radical views, pretending she’s no longer a fan of Medicare-for-all and the green new deal.

Trump, meanwhile, has proposed a new entitlement for IVF, but his man tactic is telling various groups of voters that they shouldn’t have to pay taxes.

I already wrote about his gimmicky scheme to exempt tips. As reported by NBC, he now wants to exempt overtime.

Former President Donald Trump said at a campaign rally Thursday that he would eliminate taxes on overtime pay if he wins a second term in November. …Trump said that when workers are past 40 hours a week, “your overtime hours will be tax free.” The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for details about the plan. …Trump in June called to end taxes on tips, with Harris following suit last month.

I’m not a fan of Trump’s approach. I very much want lower tax burdens, but I want tax cuts that are consistent with good tax policy (i.e., proposals that reduce tax rates and/or reduce double taxation of savings and investment).

Trump simply wants to create new loopholes.

That being said, I might nonetheless be sympathetic to that approach if Trump had a “starve the beast” strategy. But he has zero interest in restraining the growing burden of federal spending.

My big fear is that voters might get seduced into thinking the Trump-Harris approach is good. Get lots of goodies from government with almost nobody paying for them.

P.S. Harris thinks rich people are a never-ending money tree and Trump wants massive trade taxes on America consumers, but neither of those ideas will generate nearly as much money as they think.