By Ronald Sampson
Arizona is once again the center of the political universe. As any high school civics student understands, the President is elected by way of the electoral college, and the number of states that can materially swing that vote has narrowed significantly over the years. There are about 5-8 states are can legitimately vote either direction, and Arizona is now one of those. As a result, you are blessed with non-stop Harris and Trump advertisements, lucky us!
One of the more interesting elements of this dynamic is that Presidential candidates actually show up here, and wouldn’t you know, Vice President and Presidential candidate Kamala Harris recently came to Scottsdale! Former President Trump also graced the state with his presence, albeit in friendlier territory.
Admittedly, Harris said all of the right things, speaking to a group of Republicans and independents saying that she would have a Republican in her cabinet and promising bipartisanship (saying the words is easy enough however, and politicians have been known to not follow through on promises). But what else would have been good to know?
I wish she would talk about the economy, but not in the way that politicians always do, with massive oversimplication about what they can and will do. What about the Federal Reserve? Trump has spoken about influencing the Federal Reserve, an institution that thrives on its independence. Would Harris let Reserve Chair Jerome Powell do his work unabated? So far they’ve done an admirable job at bringing down inflation largely caused by fiscal policy.
Speaking of fiscal policy, how would she pay for all the promises she makes? Talking about bringing down the federal deficit is not en vogue, but we can’t talk about inflation without acknowledging that out-of-control spending from the last two administrations caused it. Why doesn’t she talk about the source of that inflation?
We would wish she would talk about housing; how would she open up development and lower costs without bringing about more economic issues? The Clinton administration’s desire to put everyone in a house unwittingly helped bring about the Great Recession. Can she do anything here that will avoid unintended consequences? Should she even try?
Alas, a sober and high-level conversation about the reasons behind the problems, what can be done and what should be done is a conversation for economists, not politicians. So instead, we’ll get non-stop campaign ads for the next few weeks. Great.