Pollak: An Economic Message for Trump — ‘Finish What We Started’

Former Vice President Joe Biden will deliver a speech Thursday in which he will lay out his economic proposals — what is being billed as a “New New Deal.”

We already know most of the elements (and it is no accident that the New York Times offered its own left-wing economic manifesto just days before).

Biden has said that he sees the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to “fundamentally transform” America, through “revolutionary institutional changes.”

The Biden plan — “new” after 50 years in Washington — offers a more centrally planned economy. He will raise taxes on his first day in office, he says — not to raise revenue (which it won’t), but because of fairness. He will end the fossil fuel industry, revoking the Keystone XL pipeline, slapping new regulations on coal and fracking; and providing new subsidies to “green” solar and wind companies (an idea that led to spectacular failures like Solyndra last time he tried).

Biden will expand Obamacare and move toward “Medicare for All” — an “option” that will soon crowd out all other choices. Following the advice of left-wing economists, he will make the temporary coronavirus stimulus checks into a permanent income grant.

He will stop the border wall and reverse Trump’s immigration policies, ostensibly to provide the labor missing from a struggling economy. He will stop the trade war with China, surrendering America’s gains.

In the spirit of Black Lives Matter, Biden may even adopt proposals by the Times to have banks pay reparations to black Americans, or to have the Fed target black unemployment instead of unemployment in general.

The “New New Deal” will be a vision of a socialized, racialized economy, in which the private sector will carry the burdens of higher taxes, more bureaucracy, and chronic unemployment.

These are “solutions” that have never worked, anywhere in the world.

Yet they will become the new American economic reality unless President Donald Trump presents a clear alternative.

Trump has pointed to his record thus far, up to the coronavirus pandemic. His focus on economic growth, lower taxes, and deregulation created the strongest economy in the nation’s history, built on a vibrant “blue-collar boom.”

African Americans benefited particularly from Trump’s free-market approach, combined with tough immigration enforcement and bold trade policies that encouraged U.S. industry to come back home, particularly in the manufacturing sector.

But the pandemic has reset expectations.

Polls show that Americans trust the president more than his opponent on the economy, but Trump cannot allow Biden to seize the initiative. He needs to present his own economic proposals to take America into the next four years.

I would like to propose a simple theme: “Finish What We Started.” For example:

• Complete the wall. Secure the border so that Americans can finally have a sane debate about immigration policies.
• Decouple from China. Bring home our pharmaceutical, defense, and high-tech industries to reduce our dependence.
• Return to full employment. Create jobs through economic growth — which will not come with taxes and regulations.
• Win the trade war. Negotiate a free trade agreement with a post-Brexit Britain, and reach a new agreement with China.
• Fix our welfare system. The poor face a 70 percent marginal tax rate. Help people move from welfare back to work.
• Expand Opportunity Zones. Trump’s successful inner-city investment plan is more urgently needed than ever before.
• Protect energy independence. Help America’s fossil fuel industry recover, and innovate to lower carbon emissions.

These are real, concrete proposals based on Trump’s track record of success. “Finish What We Started” and win in 2020.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.