Issues & Insights
pexels-photo-3483098.jpeg
Photo by John Guccione www.advergroup.com on Pexels.com

Say, Looks Like That Supply-Side Stuff Works After All

Bidenomonics has been, and will continue to be, a disaster. This is what happens when lawmakers manipulate economies. No one should ever expect a different outcome when politicians enact ideas that they believe are so brilliant that they will overcome the laws of economics. The way out of this mess is to make a policy U-turn to both unleash the economy and expand precious liberty.

President Joe Biden last week bragged that his economic policies — straight from the Democrats blueprint that says “borrow, tax, spend, regulate, then do it all again” — are working. But as we’ve noted, Bidenomics has been a wreck, a flop that is taking us into a recession.

Not only did Biden openly boast as our sclerosis grows worse, he also, as Democrats always do, took a jab at “trickle-down economics,” claiming it has “failed the middle class … failed America … blew up the deficit” and “increased inequity.”

He probably would have blamed the Canadian wildfires on “trickle-down economics” had he thought about it. But there’s not much thinking going on in his head — and in fact there never has been, with his ungovernable mouth leading the way throughout his career as an elected grifter.

We don’t see Biden or any other Democrat ever coming around to supply-side economic policies, the correct terminology for what they sneeringly call “trickle-down economics,” which asserts that lower taxes and less regulatory meddling fuel economic growth. Yet they are exactly what our economy — any economy – needs, now and forever.

In our post-lockdown world, the states that have the strongest economic recoveries are the red ones on the map. And what do they have in common? Low taxes and light regulation.

We can see this vividly in the rankings of states that have had the greatest increases in hiring over the last year. Of the top 10, only two are blue, or Democratic, states.

(The Washington Post marks Georgia, fourth on the list, as one of three blue states because Biden took its 16 electoral votes, but that is misleading [intentionally, we’re sure] because it is a red state with large Republican majorities in both chambers of the legislature and a popular [53% of the vote in 2022] GOP governor. Nevada, next at fifth, is also considered blue even though it too has a GOP governor.)

The next seven states, according to the Post, are also red or Trump states and they tend to “​​have unusually low tax rates and lean on extractive industries such as mining or petroleum. We’ve seen firsthand the economic boom that gas and pipelines can bring to struggling regions.”

But then even after making that statement, the Post goes on to try to discredit the red states. Maybe next time the reporter should instead interview our friends at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, whose lineup includes economist Art Laffer, modern father of supply-side theory. They would have told him that “the supply-side economics revolution” of the 1980s broke inflation and activated the moribund economy, as “the U.S. embarked on what became a quarter-century boom.” And they could have provided the data that backs up their observations.

Another way to measure the success of supply-side policies is tax revenues. Simply put, states with stronger economies will have more robust tax receipts, and this continues to play out in reality. The Washington Free Beacon reported last week that as Democratic states watch their revenues “plummet,” Republican states are seeing theirs “soar.”

“Heavily taxed blue states such as New York and California,” the Free Beacon continues, “last year had some of the country’s most drastic drops in tax revenue. At the same time, Republican states are enjoying the highest revenue increases even as they keep income taxes low.”

Democrats are stubborn animals who will continue to take two-by-fours upside their heads and swear that the blows don’t hurt and there’s no damage done. So we can’t under any circumstances foresee them ever abandoning their policy preferences, from busted Obamanomics to neo-Marxist Sandynomics to baffled-by-his-own-BS Bidenomics, that cause so much harm. Which is why we need a real red wave in 2024 rather than another ebbing tide like the one we had last year.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board

We Could Use Your Help

Issues & Insights was founded by seasoned journalists of the IBD Editorials page. Our mission is to provide timely, fact-based reporting and deeply informed analysis on the news of the day -- without fear or favor.

We’re doing this on a voluntary basis because we believe in a free press, and because we aren't afraid to tell the truth, even if it means being targeted by the left. Revenue from ads on the site help, but your support will truly make a difference in keeping our mission going. If you like what you see, feel free to visit our Donations Page by clicking here. And be sure to tell your friends!

You can also subscribe to I&I: It's free!

Just enter your email address below to get started.

Share

I & I Editorial Board

The Issues and Insights Editorial Board has decades of experience in journalism, commentary and public policy.

2 comments

  • Georgia is “blue” because Kemp is a rino and the freaking 2020 election was stolen I live here. Trust me

  • Joe Biden focussing on “trickle-down economics” is yet more evidence of his dementia. He has forgotten the near term history and can only recall a garbled version of the distant past.

About Issues & Insights

Issues & Insights is run by the seasoned journalists behind the legendary IBD Editorials page. Our goal is to bring our decades of combined journalism experience to help readers understand the top issues of the day. We’re doing this on a voluntary basis, because we believe the nation needs the kind of cogent, rational, data-driven, fact-based commentary that we can provide. 

We Could Use Your Help

Help us fight for honesty in journalism and against the tyranny of the left. Issues & Insights is published by the editors of what once was Investor's Business Daily's award-winning opinion pages. If you like what you see, leave a donation by clicking on donate button above. You can also set up regular donations if you like. Ad revenue helps, but your support will truly make a difference. (Please note that we are not set up as a charitable organization, so donations aren't tax deductible.) Thank you!
Share
%d bloggers like this: