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Great list of Questions for Ms. Harris

29 Aug 2024

Is over on National Review, you should check it out. I predict that no more than three of these questions (or the issues they represent) will be asked, and will not be pressed hard when the prevaricating begins. But the best one is this: Were any of Trump’s tariffs mistaken? Follow-up: Then why hasn’t your administration moved to repeal any of them?

If Kamala is going to continue to attack Mr. Trump tariff’s as inflationary (they are not, but they will make us poorer*) then she has to defend her continuance of Mr. Trump’s prior tariffs. And while I hate Mr. Trump’s tariff policy, this gives him a counter attack in the debate, when she attempts to muddy the waters on her administration’s inflationary spending (and resulting Fed monetization), which occurred because Ms. Harris cast two deciding votes in a split senate. I can hear Mr. Trump now: “Kamala, if you think tariffs cause inflation, why did you keep all the tariffs I put in place in my administration? And since you’ve been stealing all my other policies, when are you going to adopt this position too? Should I begin calling you Tariff Woman now? Actually you can steal this idea too. I welcome you as a committed MAGA warrior!”

* A tariff does increase prices in one area, but without concomitant increase in the money supply, spending would have to be reduced somewhere else resulting in pressures to lower prices in alternative areas. At most it would be a one-time price level adjustment, but would not directly lead to an inflationary spiral like we saw in 2021-2023.